Archive for the ‘ New York City ’ Category
(also via Metafilter) Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, long nicknamed the “Lavender Lake” for its copious oil slicks, has gained a new title : Superfund Site. New Yorkers respond with really cool photography. While some developers bow out in light of the recent news, other area developers, hoping for a speedy cleanup of the industrial waste and, [ READ MORE ]
Positive feedback from tourists and merchants have convinced Bloomberg to make the temporary closings in Midtown permanent, despite worsening traffic flow. [ READ MORE ]
[Straight from Metafilter] Tishman Speyer Properties is defaulting on its $5.4 billion, high profile acquisition of the enormous Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan, resulting in million in losses for investors and possibly “signaling the beginning of what is expected to be a wave of commercial-property failures”. The failure is the result of an aggressive [ READ MORE ]
Straight from WNYC: City Council Rejects Kingsbridge Armory Plan by Matthew Schuerman NEW YORK, NY December 14, 2009 —The City Council has rejected the Bloomberg administration’s proposal to convert a former national guard armory in the Bronx into a shopping mall. It was the first time, city council members said, that an economic development initiative spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg [ READ MORE ]
A New York appeals court voted 3-2 against the use of eminent domain for Columbia’s expansion into West Harlem. The finding seems to list the usual culprits, like a flimsy blight finding, and (probably rightly) suggests that the decision to use eminent domain and the subsequent necessity of finding a public purpose were made in [ READ MORE ]
[via metafilter] An animation with clickable annotation of the architectural history of the Eldridge block between Rivington and Stanton. [ READ MORE ]
From the press release: NYCEDC’s Economic Research and Analysis Department has launched NYC Economics on NYCEDC.com. With this initiative, our readers and clients will get more out of our products and NYCEDC’s economic research will become more accessible. The content is organized around four modules: Data Resources, Economic Impact Analyses, Publications, and Frequently Asked Questions. Data Resources With [ READ MORE ]
The city has made a deal with Thor Equities to purchase 6.9 acres in the heart of Coney Island for $95.6m. Fortunately, this will put the redevelopment of Coney Island a little closer to public input, or at least it would if Bloomberg were not the mayor. [ READ MORE ]
Well, I wasn’t going to blog this ugly event (to which JS brought my attention), but seeing as the NYPost has picked it up in addition to the NYTimes and as it’s on the front page of reddit.com, I guess I can mention it briefly. I consider Mac, the professor in the dispute, to be [ READ MORE ]
The NYTimes offers this one minute animation of the “history” of Midtown. Great soundtrack. Great animation. [ READ MORE ]
Herrick, Feinstein LLP, a law firm I consulted and worked for some years ago and now home to a couple of Columbia UP graduates, has created a blog (Herrick ZONE) with information on NYC land use and environment plans and news. [ READ MORE ]
Don’t know if I linked to this before, but here is a site with quality photos of street corners in Manhattan. That is all. [ READ MORE ]
The NYTimes has an article on the boutique-y chain stores opening up in limited geographical areas (i.e., neighborhoods) in Brooklyn. The idea is more like the development of an open-air brandname mall than franchise replication. Rather than sell the same good or service elsewhere, the store owner diversifies into related niches in the same area, [ READ MORE ]
It won’t come as any surprise to urban planners, but this new book, Green Metropolis, argues that per capita New York City is a “blue ribbon winner” in sustainability. Might serve as a useful introductory book for a class in urban sustainability. [ READ MORE ]
Conflux is back. It is New York’s psychogeography event of the year. The urban disorientation game is the bomb. [ READ MORE ]