Soho

A proposal from SoHo Broadway Initiative aims to prioritize pedestrian and bike infrastructure and discourage car traffic to make the neighborhood safer and more comfortable for the people who live and work there.

November 26, 2021 - City Limits

YIMBY, pro-development, politics are gaining support and attention in New York City at an opportune moment in the city's planning history.

January 14, 2021 - The Real Deal

One of the big questions of planning is up for debate with a proposed rezoning in the SoHo and NoHo neighborhoods of New York City: Can upzoning be an effective tool for affordability?

September 21, 2020 - CityLimits

The New York City Department of City Planning is expected, very soon, to release a rezoning proposal for the neighborhoods of SoHo and NoHo in New York City.

June 13, 2019 - Medium

Two SoHo residents argue that outdated zoning holds the Manhattan neighborhoods back, requiring special permits or variances for many current residential and commercial uses.

June 2, 2019 - Crain's Business New York

The New York City Department of Planning kicked off a rezoning process for the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo earlier this month. Planning and development challenges abound.

February 18, 2019 - Crain's New York Business

Zoning changes in SoHo and NoHo are expected to allow more kinds of uses by-right in parts of the neighborhood previously restricted to manufacturing uses.

September 12, 2018 - Crain's New York Business

New York has promised to create 1,500 affordable live/work spaces for artists. Architect Emma Fuller believes that careful consideration of building typologies could make it easier to reach this target.

December 27, 2016 - Soft City

SoHo, a Manhattan neighborhood full of luxury apartments and a median income of $111,000/year, must accept a new facility that includes a garage for sanitation trucks. Why, and how will it test the city's commitment to infrastructure design?

January 14, 2016 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

Cities like London are losing their creative edge because the small music venues that foster it are being pushed out.

September 17, 2015 - The Guardian

Jim Rendon has some inventive suggestions for those priced out of the most beloved and exclusive neighborhoods in New York.

January 31, 2012 - The New York Times

Is it justified to believe that a proposed SoHo business improvement district, widely embraced elsewhere in the city, would only attract more hordes of visitors and non-residents? Proponents say that residents are fear-mongering.

January 30, 2012 - The New York Times

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett examins the viability of arts driven urban revitalization and finds that the strongest predictor of success is the nature of the art being produced and exhibited in the neighborhood.

November 7, 2011 - The New York Times

In his critique of "Urban Code: 100 Lessons for Understanding the City," San Francisco Chronicle Columnist John King says how the book's formula for a city doesn't do justice to its authenticity.

September 28, 2011 - San Francisco Chronicle

WCPN reporter interviews a commuter who is annoyed by a plan to make her commute longer - but it becomes clear that the suburbanite's faster commute is at the expense of an urban neighborhood.

March 23, 2011 - NPR

Shared streets, the contemporary vernacular used to describe streets that have been intentionally redesigned to remove exclusive boundaries for pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, etc., work well within a special set of conditions.  It is, in reality, just a new way of describing the original use of streets (see this previous post for more on that).  The most promising candidates for shared streets are those where traffic volumes are not too heavy, the route is not a critical corridor for vehicular through-traffic, activities and attractions along the street are plentiful, short distance connectivity is viable, and a critical mass of pedestrians (perhaps enough to pack sidewalks at certain times) exists.  A shared street may also be suitable in places where there is a desire to induce such conditions; however, care must be taken to understand the larger network effects of shifting or slowing down vehicular traffic.  But in some instances, seemingly unrelated changes to traffic patterns or the effects of a coincidental collection of the above conditions sometimes go unnoticed until a street that may have been all about cars gradually shifts into something I refer to as a “de facto shared street”.

May 14, 2009 - Ian Sacs

City planners are rezoning an area of the Bronx known for auto shops and storage units to try to create a new bustling neighborhood like SoHo.

February 9, 2009 - The Daily News