In the next 20 years, New York City is set to add more people than live in the city of Boston. Our transit system is plagued by an unending fiscal crisis. The Bloomberg administration has completed an unprecedented number of rezonings and redevelopment projects, but many of these have sparked bruising battles with neighborhood residents. PlaNYC set ambitious and noble goals, and has had real impact, but from congestion pricing to bike lanes, its biggest ambitions have run into popular resistance.
The problem, some say, is that New York City has stopped planning. More to the point, New York has never planned--eschewing the comprehensive plans that other cities took for a system of zoning that relied on private market impetus to change the physical city.
With New York growing, environmental concerns rising and competition threatening from other global cities, some New Yorkers are calling for a different approach. It's the focus of the new issue of City Limits magazine.
Here, bikes outside the L train station hint at the changes that have swept Williamsburg, Brooklyn, since a controversial 2005 rezoning.
Photo by Adi Talwar
