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August 14, 2009
Michelle & James Nevius, Authors, Inside the Apple
Gothamist
Jen Carlson interviews the author/tour guide couple, who know a misguided development project when they see one.
Given the opportunity, how would you change New York? New York has got to learn better how to balance preservation and development. Too often now, it plays out as this Hegelian dialectic between the Big Bad Builders on one side (that’s you, Bruce Ratner) and the Preserve-It-At-All-Costs crowd on the other. New York has always been a city of development—Philip Hone complained in the 1839 that “[t]he whole of New York is rebuilt about once in ten years,” so thinking that all new buildings are terrible is counterproductive. However, has Jane Jacobs taught us nothing? The city and its developers need to think hard about what it is that makes New York great and work with residents and preservationists to make certain that new projects don’t obliterate the city’s unique character.
Posted by eric at August 14, 2009 10:04 AM