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December 13, 2006
A city plan with room to grow
The Daily News
By columnist Michael Goodwin
Bloomberg starts from the premise that growth is good, and there is no denying the benefits. Growth is why the city has an unemployment rate of 4.1%, the lowest on record. The fact that a job is the best social policy helps explain why the crime rate has stayed low even as the population grows. New York has added more than a million people in 30 years, yet has lower crime than it did in the 1970s.
Yet unchecked growth ruins the quality of life for everyone, and Bloomberg's team rarely says no to any new project. His support for a West Side football stadium never made sense in terms of the streets and the neighborhood that would be swamped. And he has blithely ignored concerns about the size of the huge Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, essentially arguing that bigger is always better. Better for whom?
Posted by lumi at December 13, 2006 8:19 AM