New York

Places Journal talks with New York Design Commissioner David Burney about the politics of urban design and planning.

May 29, 2013 - Places Journal

With park finances increasingly determined by private fundraising efforts, New York's park system is beginning to reflect the city's growing inequality. Could a Neighborhood Parks Alliance help rebalance the city's park dichotomy?

May 29, 2013 - The New York Times

Hurricane Sandy made New York's increasing vulnerability to extreme storms apparent, and the need elevate buildings in flood-prone areas imperative. This task is made particularly challenging due to the prevalence of multistory buildings.

May 28, 2013 - Crain's New York Business

Memorial Day has been honored in America for 150 years, but you might excuse New Yorkers for celebrating an entirely different holiday yesterday - the long-waited launch of the country's largest bike-share program.

May 28, 2013 - The New York Times

Paris, London, Copenhagen: all over the world, opponents have tried to put the brakes on bike-share programs. Then they fall in love. Is New York City next? The author of "Traffic" thinks so.

May 24, 2013 - OnEarth

While traditional enclosed malls, big box stores, and strip malls are struggling in an uncertain retail marketplace, sales at America's outlet malls are growing at a healthy pace. One mall near New York City is showing the pains of popularity.

May 24, 2013 - The New York Times

The impending launch of bike-share is sure to escalate the simmering tensions between New York's growing legion of cyclists and its hordes of pedestrians. L.V. Anderson and Aisha Harris propose a 10-point treaty for pedestrian-cyclist armistice.

May 23, 2013 - Slate

With New York City's embrace, the dream of revamping the iconic blue-and-white handicapped symbol is becoming a reality. As NYC adopts "a more active representation of people with physical limitations," activists hope the change has a broader effect.

May 22, 2013 - The Chronicle of Higher Education

To demolish, or not to demolish? As Syracuse considers what to do with its aged elevated highway, special interests are mobilizing to prevent tearing down the crumbling I-81 viaduct and replacing it with an urban boulevard, says David M. Rubin.

May 20, 2013 - The Post-Standard

Just seven months ago Hurricane Sandy damaged 94 percent of New Jersey's beaches and eroded dozens of miles of coastline in New York. As waterfront communities rush to rebuild before summer, some fear disastrous long-term consequences.

May 20, 2013 - The New York Times

Stephen Jacob Smith examines how high emotions, grand designs, poor negotiating, and "extreme politicization" drove the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to build the world's most expensive train station in Lower Manhattan.

May 18, 2013 - The New York Observer

New York City's DOT recently launched a pilot program to make city streets safer for those texting while walking. Well not really. But for some trusting New Yorkers, “Seeing Eye People” is a service worth utilizing.

May 17, 2013 - PSFK

The winners of a competition to rethink the streetscape along 5 blocks of Syracuse's Near Westside hope to "get people out on their feet" and improve public health in the historically low-income neighborhood.

May 17, 2013 - The Architect's Newspaper

After the World Trade Center attacks, planners, neighbors, and Mayor Bloomberg supported reweaving the site into the city's street grid, in the process undoing "a painful planning error of the 1960s." Security concerns seem to have won out, however.

May 17, 2013 - The New York Times

BuzzFeed clearly knows its way around a New York City bike lane. A recent listicle of 44 insights into the pleasures and pains of biking in New York is sure to resonate with the city's growing cycling community.

May 16, 2013 - BuzzFeed

In the U.S., investment in private development has long been limited to wealthy individuals; making the type of crowdfunding that raised $239 million from 3,100 people for a skyscraper in Bogota difficult. New securities laws should change that.

May 15, 2013 - The New York Times

What's the deal with the Belvedere "brand" of similar looking condominium buildings that have sprouted over the last decade in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn? Elizabeth A. Harris investigates.

May 14, 2013 - The New York Times

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, NYC's rail system was up and running again fairly quickly, with only 19 of its rail cars damaged by the storm. By comparison, hundreds of New Jersey Transit's rail cars were damaged and months of delays ensued.

May 13, 2013 - WNYC: Transportation Nation

Robin Finn looks at New York's "Stratospherians", vertical lifestyle fans with deep pockets that are driving the city's residential tower construction, and prices, to new heights.

May 13, 2013 - The New York Times

Fracking opponents scored two major court victories In New York State on May 2 when an Appellate Division court panel ruled unanimously that two towns can use zoning to ban fracking. Paradoxically, it could also be good for energy companies.

May 12, 2013 - The Oneonta Daily Star