« Nacirema na eb ot duorp! | Main | "Listening to the City" and Atlantic Yards »
September 14, 2007
Minor cognitive dissonance: Considering democracy, development and the legacy of Moses
Thomas Bender's article, "Power Broken: To build great cities, we need more citizen input - not another Robert Moses," in Democracy, a Journal of Ideas, contains some interesting minor cognitive dissonance in the author's understanding of two massive state-sponsored development projects. We can surmise that the difference is due to the fact that Bender participated in one process, while he remained an objective observer in the other:
Bender on Atlantic Yards and public input:
Even a casual survey of development projects since the 1980s, whatever their merits, rebuts the supposition of urban paralysis... Today, the recently approved Atlantic Yards project, a huge mixed-use development in central Brooklyn including an arena for professional basketball, proceeds, after a great deal of public discussion and review (albeit a controversial one) by government bureaucracies.
Toward the end of the article, Bender describes the results of public participation in a design and planning charette for Lower Manhattan; predictably, the results were amazingly similar to those of Atlantic Yards, even down to the archetypes:
The results were fairly general, but they pointed toward a plausible urban aspiration for an area of the city that had evolved into something both more and less than a financial center. A memorial was the highest priority, with some disagreement as to whether it should be figurative or abstract. Mixed use for the area was strongly favored–offices, street retail, residence, and cultural. Anything suggesting a new "freedom tower" was rejected.
This was in many ways a model for public participation. The problem was that nobody with power was listening; a non-accountable, appointed authority made all of the decisions. The result–an abstract memorial, a "freedom tower," maximization of office space–was Moses all over again. A state-level public authority, accepting no public participation (not even by the elected officials of New York City), with power but no civic legitimacy and freed of city building and development regulations, produced neither an appropriate plan nor a well-managed rebuilding project. Rather than Moses, here the maestros were Larry Silverstein, a dogged developer whose grasp of city life is limited to square footage and rent; George Pataki, a governor with power but without vision, save for a fantasy of national office on the horizon; and David Childs, an architect apparently without principle and surely without professional skills adequate to the challenge. Operating in the manner of Moses, these lesser men have put together an embarrassing urban intervention all too reminiscent of the failures of Moses in his later, more authoritarian phase.
Ignoring the public’s wishes not only risks unappealing projects, it also undermines the sense of commonweal that makes democracy function and gives legitimacy to government. The built environment is more important for securing a just city than we realize.
article (registration required)
NoLandGrab: Did someone say, "A state-level public authority, accepting no public participation (not even by the elected officials of New York City), with power but no civic legitimacy and freed of city building and development regulations, produced neither an appropriate plan nor a well-managed... project. Rather than Moses, here the maestros were Bruce Ratner, a dogged developer whose grasp of city life is limited to square footage and rent; George Pataki, a governor with power but without vision, save for a fantasy of national office on the horizon; and Frank Gehry, an architect apparently without principle.... Operating in the manner of Moses, these lesser men have put together an embarrassing urban intervention all too reminiscent of the failures of Moses in his later, more authoritarian phase?"
Posted by lumi at September 14, 2007 7:38 PM