A Big City Mayor Makes a Splash!

Big city mayors (and even some smaller city leaders) are making a big splash! LA’s Antonio Villaraigosa is dealing with crime; Chicago’s Richard Daley is turning that dusty city green; Philadelphia’s John Street has agreed to an important re-thinking of seven miles of highly developable waterfront; Miami’s Manny Diaz is working closely with Donna Shalala, President, University of Miami, to harness anchor-institution strength to downtown development. And Michael Bloomberg became a winner when he took on New York City’s school system. But of equal note is his soon-to-be announced PlaNYC, a strategic vision for 2030.

3 minute read

March 14, 2007, 12:55 PM PDT

By Eugenie Birch


Big city mayors (and even some smaller city leaders) are making a big splash! LA's Antonio Villaraigosa is dealing with crime; Chicago's Richard Daley is turning that dusty city green; Philadelphia's John Street has agreed to an important re-thinking of seven miles of highly developable waterfront; Miami's Manny Diaz is working closely with Donna Shalala, President, University of Miami, to harness anchor-institution strength to downtown development. And Michael Bloomberg became a winner when he took on New York City's school system. But of equal note is his soon-to-be announced PlaNYC, a strategic vision for 2030.

The 1989 charter revision mandated every mayor to produce a strategic plan. Since that time, two other mayors have come and gone, leaving behind no strategic plan, but that is another story. Bloomberg is doing it right--- although his timing is questionable since he has about 1,000+ days left in his administration. Nonetheless, the effort is commendable and, if handled with wisdom and savvy can leave an important legacy.

Bloomberg is previewing the plan via his impressive Office of Strategic Planning Staff, Rit Aggarwala, head, Rachel Weinberger, borrowed from Penn to work on transportation and others. At first view, the plan is extraordinarily exciting. For the first time in thirty years, mayoral leadership is producing a city-wide vision whose appropriately-chosen themes are entirely on target, message is clear and solutions broad, leaving ample room for local impact once the strategic direction is set, as will happen with this document.

Crafted with input from 20 city agencies and a blue ribbon Advisory Board on Sustainability, PlaNYC focuses on three key issues: accommodating population growth (OpeNYC), fixing aging infrastructure (MaintaiNYC), and addressing environmental issues (GreeNYC. The message is simple, supported by few (take note planners) but potent data and expressed in clear, albeit not very beautiful but dramatic graphics (see www.nyc.gov/planyc2030).

So what is the message? Here it is: The city's population may grow by another million and its jobs rise by 3/4 of a million. Housing is too expensive. (Even today about a 1/3 of renters [65% of all households] pay more than 50% of their income in rent). Movement of people and goods is inefficient, costly and deteriorated (congestion costs $5 billion in lost time, 60% of the subway stations are not in good repair, 3,000 lane-miles of roads need repaving). Sewerage and energy systems are stressed and polluting. (A tenth of an inch of hard rain releases untreated sewage into the waterways to the tune of an annual two billion gallon overflow The city's old 25 power plans use 50% more fossil fuels than new ones-soot levels are 27% higher than national requirements and asthma hospitalizations twice the national average). Residents' access to open space is limited (of the city's 188 neighborhoods, 100 have inadequate playgrounds-more than a ten minute walk).

After all this bad news, PlaNYC offers hope in articulating few goals, attaching numerical targets for some key elements. For example, like London's revised London Plan, it calls for a 30% reduction in global warming emissions, it also envisions 265,000 new housing units, putting the transit and road systems in a state of good repair, cleaning up 1,700 acres of brownfields, adding enough parks to ensure every resident's access with a ten-minute walk and so on.

The key question is what next? With only a couple of years left as mayor, Bloomberg will need to do a few things. He will have to begin to institutionalize the goals in city business-hold his agencies accountable in a myriad of ways to the targets, direct budget expenditures to their implementation. And as planning ad development decisions make their way through the city's highly participatory public processes, he will have to find a way to achieve conformity with the goals. These few demands will require building support based on consensus. Only in this fashion, will this plan have the longevity it needs. And only in this way will this big city mayor's splash have lasting impact.


Eugenie Birch

Eugenie L. Birch is chair and professor of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania.

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

June 25, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Map of Western U.S. indicating public lands that would be for sale under a Senate plan in yellow and green.

Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands

For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”

June 19, 2025 - Outdoor Life

Person wearing mask walking through temporary outdoor dining setup lined with bistro lights at dusk in New York City.

Restaurant Patios Were a Pandemic Win — Why Were They so Hard to Keep?

Social distancing requirements and changes in travel patterns prompted cities to pilot new uses for street and sidewalk space. Then it got complicated.

June 19, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Close-up of full beer glass with purple train-themed design sitting on bar between two frosty tall cans.

Platform Pilsner: Vancouver Transit Agency Releases... a Beer?

TransLink will receive a portion of every sale of the four-pack.

3 hours ago - Cities Today

Vintage red Toronto streetcar passing in front of Rogers Arena in Toronto, Canada.

Toronto Weighs Cheaper Transit, Parking Hikes for Major Events

Special event rates would take effect during large festivals, sports games and concerts to ‘discourage driving, manage congestion and free up space for transit.”

4 hours ago - blogTO

Map of Berlin with ring roads in green and red.

Berlin to Consider Car-Free Zone Larger Than Manhattan

The area bound by the 22-mile Ringbahn would still allow 12 uses of a private automobile per year per person, and several other exemptions.

5 hours ago - Streetsblog USA

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Write for Planetizen