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September 8, 2006
Improving Brooklyn?
The NY Sun, Op-Ed
By Edward Glaeser, "the Glimp professor of economics at Harvard, director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute."
Glaeser does not fear the return of the bad-old days of Robert Moses because:
I think that the orderly decision-making associated with representative government is more likely to look after interests of the entire city, but I understand the appeal of recreating an Athenian polis on Flatbush Avenue.
His support for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan is summed up in his conclusion:
Perhaps more money can be squeezed out of Mr. Ratner, especially in exchange for allowing higher densities. Perhaps the city can do more to compensate the current residents. But I can't see the case for lopping floors off of Mr. Gehry's skyscraper. Any serious project will impose costs on current residents by radically building up Brooklyn. Restricting heights will just destroy the project's benefits without significantly reducing those costs.
NoLandGrab: The question of "higher density" has not been given the attention it deserves, even by students "of land use warfare." Let's be clear, the Atlantic Yards project proposes historical levels of density. Our decision makers ought to be having this coversation in public, not behind closed doors.
Posted by lumi at September 8, 2006 6:58 AM