RPA Center for Urban Innovation

Hell-icopters

2012-04-22T15:40:56Z

Whichever side you take in New York City's long-standing helicopter wars, one thing is true: The views from one flying over the city, in all its five-borough glory, are magnificent. Rising from the Downtown Heliport, banking in a long slow turn towards the Statue of Liberty, circling the Lady at a respectful 1,500 feet, the helicopter I took then skirted the Financial District before heading up what our pilot kept calling the muddy Hudson, angling away from the George Washington Bridge (whose stanchions are a huge, hittable 650 feet) and eventually crossing the Upper West Side diagonally to reach The Bronx and Yankee Stadium.

]]> We were flying the legal route -- over water -- rather than up West End Avenue, and staying high, at 2,000 feet, said our pilot.

In many ways this is a vast improvement -- from a New Yorker's point of view -- over the old, pre-2010 days of completely unregulated small-plane and helo flights that flew pretty much at will.

Until recently, the universe of helicopters and small planes went basically unregulated under the Federal Aviation Administration's "freedom to fly" principle that treated the skies of America -- including skies over densely populated cities -- as highways. Standard procedure was for small aircraft to fly under visual flight rules (VFR), using "see and avoid," and keeping below 1,500 feet to stay clear of big planes.

"The sky is open hunting. Their freedom to fly is our freedom to suffer," says East Sider Joy Held, founder of the Helicopter Noise Coalition, which, along with other activists, has successfully pushed very hard for route changes and restrictions over the years.

At their core, the helicopter wars are pretty simple -- pitting the economic interests of the tourism industry (a record 50.5 million visitors spent some $32 billion in New York last year) against the neighborhoods in the flight paths.

In some ways, the neighborhoods are winning, having secured substantial concessions over the last few years. Because of a complex set of reasons, however, they often don't feel like victors.

For one thing, the sheer volume remains daunting. In 2010 (the latest year for which data are available), well over 200,000 passengers took some 62,000 helicopter flights (down from a peak of 70,000) departing and landing at the city's three heliports. Another large -- but uncounted and unregulated -- number of flights enter New York air space from New Jersey, Westchester and Long Island. And some 20,000 flights -- also uncounted and unregulated -- are made by emergency services, the Police Department, film and media crews and the military.

Standing on a rooftop garden on Riverside Drive in the 80s on a Saturday morning in April, I timed helicopters coming from multiple directions every three minutes -- the skies were never quiet.

Imagine how it was before the collision of a small plane and a tourist helicopter in August 2009 that left nine dead, after which tougher regulations were drawn up by the city's Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the Eastern Region Helicopter Council (ERHC) and five helicopter tour operators.

The plan eliminated tours over both Central Park and the Empire State Building, banned all sightseeing flights over Brooklyn, abolished all short tours of four to eight minutes, and curtailed the tour routes.

NYCEDC also redirected all tours to the city-owned Downtown Heliport, banning them at the West Side's 30th Street Heliport (which is to be closed by Dec. 31 of this year -- though its operators may reopen elsewhere) and the East Side's 34th Street Heliport.

All sightseeing helicopters now approach and depart the Downtown Heliport from the south, maximizing their distance from Brooklyn Bridge Park. All tours are supposed to avoid flying over land by following the center of the Hudson River north to either 79th Street or Yankee Stadium, before returning south by flying down the west side of the Hudson. All flights are to be at 1,500 feet or above.

These are impressive reforms. The lucrative short hops (for $130 per person!) to the middle of Central Park -- then hovering over Sheep Meadow -- have been halted. There's no more buzzing of the Empire State Building. The EDC's recommended altitude of 1,500 feet is about three times as high as helos were routinely flying in the old days. Former pilot Robert Grotell, special advisor to ERHC, is surely correct when he says, "There's no better noise mitigation than altitude. The higher the better."

Why then does Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who represents the West Side, continue to get angry complaints about helicopters? "My biggest constituent issue on nice days," she says.

One reason is that the many helicopter pilots are apparently not complying. On Easter weekend, dozens of flights were made up and down West End Avenue, for example. Even when no helicopter was in sight, the air filled with a low, constant rumble. Says Grotter, "A helicopter can be over the water where it belongs, but its noise footprint will extend inland beyond the river."

And it remains dangerous. Former Marine Corps helicopter pilot Justin Green, now a lawyer who has represented helicopter pilots, says of the Hudson River corridor, "That's a really narrow slice of air space below 1,100. If I'm smart, I have my map out, I've turned my radio to the right frequency, I start self-announcing and I keep my head on a swivel. There will be fixed-wing coming in from Teterboro. You may have a wandering blimp. There'll be helos taking off from different parts of the city -- including 30th Street -- and climbing up into the air space.

"That's a lot of noise and a lot of activity," he says. "If you blow it, it's really important that your mistakes are made over the river, and you don't end up with carnage in the streets."

A second reason for uptown unhappiness is the unregulated crosstown air traffic, which is largely corporate and government, using what the FAA rather tactlessly calls the "Central Park route." Helicopters can fly the breadth of Manhattan, from 59th to 110th streets, legally. These are not sightseeing tours, but corporate, private, government and airport transit planes. The helos are often huge Sikorskys, flying very low diagonal routes as they thunder past overhead.

Green argues that the corporate problem should be easy to fix because they get no special benefit from flying low and should be willing to move high with FAA and City of New York encouragement under a noise-abatement plan -- if they were pushed. Yet the Central Park route has been left out of the negotiations so far because corporate helos operate under freedom-to-fly.

Still, Central Park advocates should probably count themselves lucky, since their old nemesis -- the sightseeing tours -- have been moved entirely downtown.

And there lies the rub for New York state Sen. Daniel Squadron, who represents parts of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. "With all the sightseeing helicopters taking off from just the one heliport, you now have way too many flights in way too small an area. The problem has just been shifted downtown, into the harbor. This situation is not tenable."

And, indeed, lower Manhattan's gauntlet has been thrown down. Community Board 1's district manager, Noah Pfefferblit, says, "We oppose all tours downtown. EDC has pretty much done what they could -- it's not that they're not trying -- but this isn't working."

How serious is lower Manhattan's density of flights? Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for ERHC, dividing up the 62,000 annual flights, e-mailed, "That's 57 flight per day for each of the three heliports. Assuming all three heliports are open 12 hours a day (West 30th Street is 24/7, but the number of flights coming in and out during the overnight hours are negligible), that breaks down to between four and five 'ops' (takeoffs or landings) per hour at each of the heliports."

He argues: Not exactly the "flight of the valkyries" described by opponents.

But as I stood facing south on the East River's Pier 6 on a cloudless morning, it was precisely that image that came involuntarily to mind -- 12 helicopters landed in about 30 minutes. I asked an employee if that was a lot. "Not for a nice spring day," he said. "Yesterday we were landing 50 an hour."

Scenes like this have critics wondering if the rules are being followed, and if their concerns are being heard. Will it take another tragedy for regulators to take on the swarm?

Pilot Justin Green recalls that when he was undergoing his initial training as an aviation safety officer, his Marine commander said, "All safety regulations are written in blood. Because it takes someone dying to get a change made."

Until then, one thing's clear: The helicopters are not going anywhere -- for both economic and political reasons.

New York has three heliports and a thriving helo sightseeing industry generating $50 million annually and employing over 300 people. City Hall is determined to keep helicopters in New York, arguing that city-owned heliports are the only way to control behavior.

NYCEDC president Seth Pinsky warns that if the tour operators are pushed out of New York and start flying from New Jersey, "That's the last time they'll take our phone call."

Julia Vitullo-Martin is a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association.

Hell-icopters

New Nets Arena Attracts Stores, Eateries (Newsday)

2012-04-15T18:42:08Z

In Kathleen Lucadamo's Newsday piece on Atlantic Yards, CUI Director Julia Vitullo-Martin comments on the likelihood of commuters venturing beyond the new basketball arena: "The walk will make a difference. When you get off the train, what will your experience be?"

Coney Island's Operator Hopes 3rd Season is the Charm (WNYC)

2012-04-01T18:41:57Z

For Kathleen Horan's look at the upcoming season on Coney Island, CUI Director Julia Vitullo-Martin comments on the implications of the city's 2009 rezoning for the amusement area's future: "The city's plan initially looked like quite a success when it first started, and last year some of that success seemed to die down. I think the major question for Coney Island is what's going to happen this year."

Coney Island's Operator Hopes 3rd Season is the Charm

Obama's Urban Policy (CUNY-TV)

2012-02-29T17:06:25Z

CUI Director Julia Vitullo-Martin discusses President Obama's urban policy with Matt Chaban, author of a New York Observer piece on the subject, and host Brian Lehrer.

Obama's Urban Policy

Obama to Cities: Drop Dead--the Life and Death of a Great American Urban Policy (NYObserver)

2012-02-15T17:01:35Z

CUI Director Julia Vitullo-Martin comments on President Obama's approach to urban issues in Matt Chaban's broadranging New York Observer piece: "I'm hoping what we're going to find out at the beginning of his next term is he's already done all these transformative things at the agencies that will let him just take off on all these project," Ms. Vitullo-Martin said, echoing the sentiment of her many city-centric colleagues. "In the meantime, we don't have too much to look at."

Obama to Cities: Drop Dead--the Life and Death of a Great American Urban Policy

Zoning Laws Grow Up

2012-01-19T15:03:42Z

Julie Iovine writes for the Wall Street Journal about "activist" zoning in the Bloomberg administration: "It not only shapes the blocks and writes the skyline, but also aims to curb obesity by offering incentives for fresh-food markets in low-income neighborhoods; buck up the mom-and-pop store; and promote an astonishing range of other quality-of-life benefits."

Regional Plan Association senior fellow and Center for Urban Innovation director Julia Vitullo-Martin observes that, "Zoning has always concerned itself, for better or worse, with social matters, such as banishing noxious uses. What's different now is that the planning commission is moving from zoning that's negative on social issues to being positive, like mandating green markets and bike rooms."

Crain's Reports that Business is Looking Down for Construction Companies

2012-01-01T16:15:28Z

Geoffrey Decker reports for Crain's that the unionized construction industry faces continued uncertainty as nonunion contractors erode its position--the subject of RPA-CUI's Construction Labor Costs in New York City: A Moment of Opportunity.

The concerns continue even after settlement of 23 construction labor contracts in 2011. Some union deals in the last round of talks yielded significant concessions, Decker reports, but "new contracts with the carpenters' union and concrete workers increased wages and offered concessions only on buildings that were no higher than 20 stories." Industry experts, including RPA-CUI's Hope Cohen, think "the most significant development may be the decision of the Building Trades Employers' Association, a large general contracting group and chief negotiator, to opt out of a plan that required its contractors work exclusively with unions."

City & State Looks at New York's Sky-High Construction Costs

2011-12-19T16:36:23Z

Jon Lentz reports for City & State on what the $1.5 billion pricetag for Dubai's Burj Khalifa would--or wouldn't--build in New York. Could New York City's construction costs, which are among the highest in the nation, discourage investment and push developers to build elsewhere? "That's the big fear: Have we reached the threshold, or when will we reach the threshold, that people will chose not to build here and build somewhere else instead?" said Hope Cohen, the associate director of the Regional Plan Association's Center for Urban Innovation. "And that goes directly to a question of New York's competitiveness, within the nation and also globally."

Happy Birthday, NYC Zoning Resolution! You've Made It 50 Years. Now Change. (RPA Spotlight)

2011-12-06T14:16:52Z

Since New York invented zoning in 1916, it has overhauled its code exactly once, in 1961. Perhaps it's time to do so again.

Last month, City Planning Director Amanda Burden opened the discussion by sponsoring a 50th birthday conference for the 1961 revision that regulates building bulk, density, land use and parking, and forms the basis for the current 3,500-page zoning code. Called Zoning the City, the gathering looked at how to update the code to position New York as a more competitive, sustainable, equitable and beautiful city on the world stage.

]]> Several speakers urged opening up the city to much greater densities near transit nodes -- including dramatic steps such as tripling allowable densities in midtown or developing a land bridge that would connect Battery Park with Governors Island.

Citizens Housing & Planning Council offered more immediately feasible ideas, based on the council's own Making Room project that commissioned five teams to design new housing types, unbound from a wide array of city and state regulations -- including all four kinds of zoning rules. CHPC argues that the existing rules drive costs up and severely limit housing options in a socially varied world.

How to produce more parks and open space was a major theme at Zoning the City. Speakers pointed repeatedly to the success of the High Line as both a magnificent park and a generator of development and economic activity. Urban planner Alex Garvin argued that zoning should be recast to focus on the public realm -- on a park, street or plaza, rather than on the building lots surrounding it. Advocate for the homeless Rosanne Haggerty stressed the importance of looking at neighborhoods holistically, so as to spend public resources on "the right things" rather than on prisons, hospitals and shelters.

Perhaps most strikingly, Harvard professor Jerold Kayden, developer Jonathan Rose, architect Robert Stern, and Real Estate Board of New York chairperson Mary Ann Tighe, among others, advocated overhauling New York's prescriptive approach to regulating use, which essentially dictates what is allowed rather than what is forbidden.

 And what of parking, the third rail of the zoning code? City Planning continues to hone a set of much-anticipated changes to the code's parking rules. Possible revisions include easing minimum parking requirements outside Manhattan. The agency stayed largely mum at Zoning the City, but it seemed possible that the city may soon release a new set of parking proposals.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel unveiled a new set of "green zoning" proposals that would eliminate regulations that now block green construction, energy-efficient retrofits and installation of solar panels and green roofs. To be released for public review shortly, these proposals will likely focus on the shape, size and placement of buildings -- for example, by allowing limited new structures on rooftops.

In sponsoring the conference, Burden recognized that New York can and should lead zoning innovation for a new century, as cities throughout the U.S. grapple with similar issues of complexity and limited flexibility. Harriet Tregoning, Washington, D.C.'s planning director who is working on overhauling the U.S. capital's permanent regulatory structures, observed at the conference: "Every 50 years or so, you should re-examine your zoning code. New York is right on schedule."

The Center Cannot Hold -- Enough People (City & State)

2011-12-05T18:11:50Z

Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have accepted the defeat of his proposed football stadium and convention center on the far West Side of Manhattan, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.

"Why don't we build an addition to the Javits Center?" he said in a recent interview. "That is what the convention business needs--a very big, flexible space. And, as a matter of fact, if we could get somebody who would pay for the whole thing in return for maybe using it 13 Sundays in the fall, wouldn't that be a great thing for New York City?"

]]> The mayor's tongue may have been firmly in his cheek, but there is no question many of the state's powerful business and political interests are fed up with the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the 675,000 square-foot boxy pyramid-shaped convention space adjacent to the Hudson Yards development site. Too small, too hard to get to, too expensive to renovate.

For an example of a convention center done right, Bloomberg says look no further than Chicago, with its 6 million-square-foot McCormick Place convention center.

"You could fit the Javits Center inside the McCormick center and they'd still have plenty of room for conventions," the mayor groused. "We are hopelessly behind."

The desire for a new convention center permeates the top levels of New York's city and state government. Robert Steel, Bloomberg's deputy mayor for economic development, is said to be interested in building a new space. So is Pat Foye, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent pick to head the Port Authority, which has taken charge of the Moynihan Station project to turn the post office near the Javits Center into a train station.

"It could be a good legacy project for Cuomo--a massive construction project like a convention center would create tens of thousands of short-term construction jobs," said one labor operative.

Javits was headed toward an overhaul before the Great Recession derailed that plan. In 2008 then Gov. David Paterson, citing the rising costs of construction, downgraded Javits' $1.7 billion expansion to a mere $465 million renovation project.

But business leaders, tourism experts and city officials have serious doubts the renovation will make Javits any more palatable to those large-scale marquee events that the city wants to attract, like the trade shows that fill convention centers in Chicago and Las Vegas.

At a recent meeting of New York City's regional economic development council, the Regional Plan Association made the case for selling and demolishing Javits and splitting the city's convention space between two locations. Hope Cohen, a director at RPA, said such a plan would generate about $4 billion to redevelop Moynihan Station as compact Manhattan convention space and build a much larger convention center elsewhere, like Willets Point in Queens.

"Recognize the different functionalities, and separate them," Cohen said. "This would capture not only high-end conferences that we might be already getting in New York but, more importantly, the conferences that we're not getting in New York because we have no such facility...like the three-day conventions for the [American Medical Association] or the Lung Association that have been going to other cities."

But without enough money to build, many believe the plan won't get much further than the drawing table.

"I think it's over and done with," Bloomberg said. "We've built a lot of the things around there. The space is now dedicated to office buildings. It's going to be built over the rail yards."

Still, the temptation remains.

"The McCormick center in Chicago is an enormous percentage of Chicago's business," Bloomberg mused, "and if we had that, a lot of that business would come here."

The Center Cannot Hold -- Enough People

Where's the Money? Infrastructure Finance Conference with Panelist Hope Cohen

2011-12-01T14:22:15Z

Forum to examine the current model for financing transportation projects in New York State and develop a new paradigm for funding these projects.

8am-1pm, Friday, December 2, 2011 @ McGraw-Hill Conference Center

Program description: http://www.navigatingopportunities.com/money/program.php

To build a 21st Century New York City, Bloomberg Must Totally Rethink the Way Zoning Works

2011-11-27T14:51:52Z

At a conference this month celebrating the 1961 Zoning Resolution, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel announced the city's 50th birthday gift to its 3,500-page zoning code: a set of "green zoning" proposals that would encourage energy-efficient construction, retrofits and installation of solar panels and green roofs.

Green is good. But the idea whose time has truly come after half a century is performance zoning rather than regulating on the basis of outdated categories.

]]> The city's current zoning code divides the city into residential, commercial and industrial areas -- and lists all the uses permissible in each type of district. The list of "retail or service establishments" allowed in commercial zones begins with antique stores and ends with "watch or clock stores or repair shops" -- mentioning millinery shops, photographic studios, record stores, telegraphic offices and typewriter stores along the way.

It's hopelessly outdated. In zoning world, computer stores -- let alone mobile phone stores -- don't exist. (The closest the code gets is to recognize "depositories for storage of office records, microfilm or computer tapes, or for data processing" among the types of large retail establishments.)

By prescribing exactly what uses are allowed, zoning essentially outlaws uses not yet named or thought of. Without intending to, this suppresses innovation and economic evolution.

At the very least, uses should be ruled out of a district rather than having to be ruled in. For example, permissible retail or service establishments could be defined as stores other than those selling and repairing firearms.

But we must think bigger, finally doing a gut rehab of the code that orients it around the kind of city we want rather than the types of buildings that go in it.

Mixing together a variety of uses -- residential, business, entertainment, education, worship, retail, light manufacturing and more -- is one of the delights of city life. Urbanist Jane Jacobs identified diversity of uses as crucial to a city's vitality and economy. Over the past decade, Chairwoman Amanda Burden and her City Planning staff have developed many zoning tools to advance the city's economy and environment, but surely Burden's greatest contribution as planning director has been to recognize the importance of mixed use and encourage it.

Performance zoning would eliminate use labels altogether, replacing them with the realization that an establishment's impact on its neighbors -- noise, pollution, traffic -- is what really matters.

One example: Right now, zoning regulations allow a Y to be built virtually anywhere "as of right" -- no special approvals needed. Whether Mens' or Womens', Christian or Hebrew, a Y is a nonprofit community center.

On the other hand, every Equinox Fitness Club must have a special permit from the city's Board of Standards & Appeals to open in commercial or industrial districts -- and must renew it every 10 years. The rules ban "adult physical culture establishments" such as Equinox from residential districts entirely. The distinction makes no sense. Similarly, university business schools are allowed in areas zoned for two- and three-family houses, but "business colleges" must get a permit.

There are thousands of other examples of how byzantine, arbitrary and maddening our code is.

It's also anti-competitive. Perhaps most important for the city is to build on its strengths as an intellectual and creative capital. Overhauling use zoning would allow entrepreneurs and dress designers -- along with accountants and artists -- to work at home. Today, work activities are absent from all residential use lists.

New York all but invented zoning with its original 1916 code. Fifty years ago, it mapped out the 20th century city. It's time to reinvent zoning again.

Cohen is New York director for the Regional Plan Association.

To build a 21st Century New York City, Bloomberg Must Totally Rethink the Way Zoning Works

RPA Presents Ideas for Development in Jamaica (Queens Chronicle)

2011-11-23T18:10:15Z

Expanding bus service between Jamaica and Flushing, extending the Air Train route to make traveling to the Resorts World Casino easier, adding hotels, office space and retail -- these are just some of the ideas the Regional Plan Association envisions as possibilities for the future of Jamaica.

]]> The RPA, an independent urban research and advocacy group, presented its ideas to the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., an organization dedicated to increasing commerce in the downtown area, at the group's semi-annual meeting on Nov. 10.

The GJDC is in the process of doing some strategizing regarding the area and hoped the RPA could let members know if they're on the right track -- what Jamaica's strengths are and the possible options for development and enhancement of the economic region, according to Andrew Manshel, executive vice president of the development group.

"They wanted a fresh perspective from an outsider, to spark conversations as they move forward," said Hope Cohen, the RPA's New York regional director, who made the presentation. "These are just ideas. Whether they will do anything with them remains to be seen."

The suggestions represent a broader perspective on how downtown Jamaica, one of three regional business districts in the borough, can make investments to ensure the area thrives while protecting the existing character of neighboring communities.

More than 700,000 residents live in Southeast Queens, according to the RPA, and Jamaica has many strengths and tremendous potential for expansion, especially if the area takes advantage of both impending and possible development projects.

Jamaica's downtown is a central hub providing access to the borough's two major airports and connecting commuters to multiple modes of transportation including buses, trains and the Long Island Rail Road. It is also less than four miles from the newly opened and highly successful Resorts World Casino in South Ozone Park, where hotels and a convention center are planned.

In order to capitalize on the JFK International Airport Terminal 10 (AirTrain terminal) project, the RPA supports developing a nearby hotel and meeting space, office space, residential buildings and retail including restaurants and other amenities, endorsing a plan the GJDC has been proposing for many years, Cohen said.

The group also suggests taking advantage of the various cultures that already exist in the area and nearby communities, including people from Latin America, the Caribbean, West Indies and South Asia, as well as the Chinese and Korean communities in Flushing, to attract international tourists with specialized visitor and business services.

"We need a language institute to prepare our kids to get these jobs," Edith Thomas, chairwoman of Community Board 12's Economic Development Committee, said at the group's Nov. 16 meeting as she reported on the RPA-GJDC forum. "Because if they can speak the language, there is no reason why they can't be hired."

The RPA sees several potentially related areas for growth including the hospitality industry, translation services, customized touring, pharmaceuticals, air freight and industrial uses and transportation uses.

The organization suggests expanding the Q25 or Q44 route into a direct, rapid bus service between Flushing and Jamaica to bring Chinese- and Korean-speaking employees to the downtown area. Another plan is to extend the AirTrain one-half mile from the Howard Beach terminal to access the Resorts World Casino directly from the main area of JFK and Terminal 10.

Another RPA idea is to take advantage of NextGen, an upgrading of air-traffic-control systems to satellite-based technology, planned for JFK and LaGuardia airports in 2018, by starting to train people now for work in that industry including software development, testing and manufacturing and simulator design and construction.

There will also be new opportunities for expansion, according to the RPA, after the East Side Access project, set to begin in 2018, is completed, connecting the LIRR to and from Grand Central terminal in Manhattan. It will increase LIRR service, trains and capacity, possibly drawing more commuters into the Jamaica transportation nexus.

"There is a wonderful synergy going on here, if you're able to take advantage of it," Thomas said, later adding, "While all these people are making their money, don't sit back here and think the only thing we can do is ask for a job, because we are going to be left out. We have to prepare."

Further, the RPA suggests making Jamaica a more centralized area by attracting a manufacturing incubator serving a business such as a food, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals manufacturer to the site of the former Wonder Bread bakery, which closed last year.

"We are seeking to energize people," Cohen said. "To give them a new way of looking at things."

RPA Presents Ideas for Development in Jamaica

"Ugly" Safety Measures Kill Public Spaces (NPR)

2011-10-24T19:34:59Z

In cities like New York and Washington, D.C., Julia Vitullo-Martin complains, law enforcement and city planners have installed jersey barriers, concrete planters and other "ugly measures that evoke fear rather than safety." In her op-ed for USA Today she calls it "militarized urbanism."

]]> NEAL CONAN, host: And now the opinion page. The architectural adaptation that distinguishes the American city post-9/11 is the proliferation of Jersey barriers, the unlovely concrete walls used to redirect traffic, block off streets and protect buildings, part of what Julia Vitullo-Martin described as militarized urbanism. In a recent op-ed in USA Today, she argued that while we want our cities to be safe, we don't want to sacrifice beauty, energy and street life in the process.

How has your city changed since 9/11? Give us a call: 800-989-8255. Email: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation at our website. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. You can find a link to her op-ed there too.

Julia Vitullo-Martin is director of Center for Urban Development at the Regional Planning Association. She joins us from our bureau in New York. Nice to have you today on TALK OF THE NATION.

JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN: Thank you for having me.

CONAN: And are we talking largely about a downtown phenomenon, where something might credibly present itself as a target?

VITULLO-MARTIN: We're frequently talking about downtown and central city phenomenon, in the sense that those are the locations that are most likely to have the kind of large, attractive, iconic buildings that are thought to be the most ready and available objects of terrorism. But we aren't exclusively talking about downtowns. This phenomenon of militarized urbanism, which really refers to the tendency of all sorts of property owners - not just the federal government, but all sorts of public and private property owners - to try to secure their space, and sometimes space they don't own, through these militaristic devices like Jersey barriers, and bollards, and closing streets and closing off formerly public areas.

CONAN: Bollards are those big concrete planters, basically, that are also used to protect buildings, presumably, from would-be car bombs.

VITULLO-MARTIN: That's right.

CONAN: And those big planters, too, and chain-link fences. Here in Washington, D.C., for example, part of Pennsylvania Avenue, the part in front of the White House has been closed off.

VITULLO-MARTIN: That's right.

CONAN: And some people would say, well, wait a minute, eliminating traffic from there, suddenly it's a pedestrian plaza.

VITULLO-MARTIN: Well, it is and isn't a pedestrian plaza. Pedestrians are frequently closed off, as well, from the White House. I mean, that's happened to me several times when I've been in Washington. And it's not just the White House and the Capitol that are subject to militarized urbanism - all sorts of neighborhoods in Washington and in other cities, almost any place that an important dignitary or, you know, would-be dignitary, goes to and secures some kind of police protection.

CONAN: So architects, obviously, and city planners do have to take into account security. You quote in your piece a well-known architect says, we can never forget 9/11. It's going to be part of everything we do from now on.

VITULLO-MARTIN: That's right. And even though my piece attacks militarized urbanism - and I think we all should be extremely wary of permitting further invasions of security into our cities - 9/11 did have the effect of getting architects and developers and owners to really think about how to secure their buildings when they're putting the buildings up in the first place. And how to make those buildings as safe as possible, so that ugly devices aren't needed afterwards.

CONAN: And give us an example. We've been talking about chain-link fences and Jersey barriers as examples of things that are not very - a good response to this. But give us an example of something that did work.

VITULLO-MARTIN: Well, for example, the - what used to be called the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero on downtown New York, One World Trade Center, which is now nearing completion. That building was redesigned to make it as safe as possible. And some of the things that were done, such as increasing the width of the emergency staircases and changing the air distribution systems so that it would be much less vulnerable to attack, improved the building and make it safer and are very unobtrusive.

Now, on the other hand, there is a problem at One World Trade that I don't think has been solved yet, and that is that the NYPD insisted upon a concrete barrier of 185 feet at the base of the building, and that was to be covered with a very attractive glass, and that glass proved very difficult to manufacture. So the architect has to go back to the drawing board on that one. But the point is, the architect and the owner are thinking about these things now and not later.

CONAN: We're talking with Julia Vitullo-Martin, the author of "Militarized Urbanism Chokes U.S. Cities" in USA Today. We'd like to hear how 9/11 changed your city, especially your downtown. Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. We should also point out, in your piece you argued that, in fact, a lot of the predictions after 9/11 did not come true.

VITULLO-MARTIN: That's right. After 9/11, many prominent commentators, maybe even most prominent commentators, urged people to leave cities and leave New York in particular, and also urged that we call a halt to the building of very large or iconic buildings because these would attract terrorism. And in fact, just the opposite has happened. Americans have poured into their cities, and we've seen increases in population in New York, in L.A., in Houston, in Chicago, and that's great. And of course, owners and developers have continued to build large buildings. One World Trade Center, when it's completed at 1,776 feet, will be the largest building in America.

CONAN: And it will be pretty much rented out too.

VITULLO-MARTIN: And it will be pretty much rented out. And by the way, it's a great comfort in all of this that, yes, it will be rented out, so the market is responding very well. And 30 percent of it is going to be rented to Conde Nast, and you know, the publisher of Vogue, et cetera. And Conde Nast was a very important force in rejuvenating Times Square, which is where it is right now. And more important to our subject, Conde Nast is going to be visited, as it always has been, by immensely important and probably rather touchy people who will expect to be very well treated. So that means that the owners and managers of One World Trade Center will have to be thinking right now about security that works and that is also unobtrusive and polite.

CONAN: Yet those are new buildings and, as you say, they can be designed with security in mind. There are things - if you own the World - the Empire State Building, obviously the other iconic skyscraper in Manhattan, you're going to have to do some things - can you retrofit your building?

VITULLO-MARTIN: Well, you know, that's really an interesting question, and interesting that you bring up the Empire State Building. I was just in there yesterday. It is such a wonderful building. It's actually just as open to the public as it's ever been. So you know, you have to go through security to go to the upper floors, but you can walk to that magnificent lobby. You can go from one entrance to the next. And you know, to the naked eye, it looks like 9/11 never happened.

CONAN: We're talking with Julia Vitullo-Martin about militarized urbanism and the design of our centers and the proliferation of Jersey barriers to protect buildings and redirect traffic. What's happened in your city? 800-989-8255. Let's go to Mike. Mike's on the line from Ypsilanti in Michigan.

MIKE: Hello.

CONAN: Go ahead, please.

MIKE: I'm wondering what you think about sue-veillance(ph) and surveillance, closed circuit, as architecture and how you consider that possibly as architecture.

VITULLO-MARTIN: Well, we have a whole lot less surveillance in this country than they have in European cities and in Asian and Middle Eastern cities. So that's point number one. Point number two, surveillance in London, for example, I think has been quite a good thing because it has enabled them to put up new buildings and still give - for example, on the waterfront, on the Thames, and still give tremendous public access because there - what we think of in America as very aggressive use of CCTV and all sorts of surveillance technology, unobtrusive for the most part, that has allowed them to permit public access onto private property without being worried about increases in crime.

CONAN: So you're talking about Canary Wharf, for example.

VITULLO-MARTIN: You know, I wasn't talking about Canary Wharf. I was really talking about South Bank, but Canary Wharf is a very nice example as well. You know, you can walk all over Canary Wharf. Yeah.

CONAN: Mike?

MIKE: Yes.

CONAN: Does surveillance bother you?

MIKE: No. There's actually the new movement of what's called sue-veillance which is open-source closed circuit. I'm picking my kids up. I apologize.

CONAN: That's all right. You don't have to apologize for picking your kids up. We're all in favor of that.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

CONAN: Thanks very much for the call. We'll let you deal with your immediate situation there. Julia Vitullo-Martin is our guest, and she is director of the Center for Urban Innovation at the Regional Plan Association. She joins us from our bureau in New York on the opinion page this week. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION coming to you from NPR News. And let's see if we can get Daniel on the line. Daniel with us from Savannah.

DANIEL: Hi there. I'm calling (unintelligible) Savannah, Georgia. I spent half my time in Toronto and Tel Aviv. And obviously the buildings in Tel Aviv are under tremendous scrutiny in regards to security because of the nature of where it's located. But what I was shocked to find is the influx of security in Toronto, in Canada where I live.

CONAN: And is there a way to repair it, do you think?

DANIEL: It's a really good question. In this post-9/11 world, I would have to say that it's going to take a long time. Time heals all wounds, I'd say, but the security phenomenon that has sort of taken over since 9/11, it'll be here for a while, I think.

VITULLO-MARTIN: Can I ask what you're talking about in particular? What is it that bothers you the most?

DANIEL: I really - it really bothers me, just shopping malls, going out, having to be around security guards all the time. That sort of thing is - can be aggravating, especially in Toronto. We're used to it more in Tel Aviv, as I'm sure you can appreciate.

CONAN: And this is concern for suicide vest explosions, that sort of thing?

DANIEL: Oh, in Tel Aviv, absolutely. The season of the suicide bomber happened - 9/11 happened amidst the season of suicide bomber, where security in Tel Aviv was stepped up, so...

CONAN: Right. Daniel, thanks very much. This is a situation which is - the surveillance may do some of that, but uniformed security officers are going to be part of that for the foreseeable future. I think he's right.

VITULLO-MARTIN: Well, he's absolutely right. There are also things that - there are modifications in behavior that uniformed security officers can do to help us all. And, excuse me, and one is to - we really need security officers to be very well trained in dealing with the public and in being courteous.

So, for example, at New York City Hall, Mayor Bloomberg, who had reopened City Hall Park to the public - you can walk through that again, anybody can walk through it, which is very nice, lovely park, Mayor Bloomberg has nonetheless left security on access to City Hall itself. But it is very polite and unobtrusive security, and the NYPD cops who man the kiosk are just as polite and as elegant as you could ask for from anyone, and I think especially in routine security that's really important.

CONAN: Email from Jim Turner in Rocklin, California: I live in the Sacramento area. After 9/11, the road that led past the Folsom Dam was closed, resulting in the lost of miles of lakeside parks, closure of dozens of businesses that had no customers, and it has still not reopened. And let's see if we can get Caroline on the line. Caroline with us from Anchorage in Alaska.

CAROLINE: Yes. Good morning. In Alaska, it'd be almost impossible to build those kind of barricade. People are so independent. But I'm wondering if it's beginning to look in some cities like East Germany and in Russia. And a follow up is real quick, the encouragement of people to move out of cities, did that drive land prices down and be a benefit for those who had the money to purchase?

VITULLO-MARTIN: Well, to start with the last question, absolutely not. Land prices in New York have just skyrocketed since 2001. And that has also happened in LA, Chicago, Miami, Boston, London, Paris. So alas, no. Let me jump to Sacramento, though, for just one moment on the dam question because that particular issue - maybe they were right to close the street, to close the road past the dam. But these decisions all need to be rethought and rethought often and the impulse on the part, especially, I think, of the federal government, is to close streets, close roads, close access, close public parks, and then never even consider the reopening of those, never considered the possibility that maybe circumstances have changed and something should be reopened. And I'm sorry. The - what was the other question on Alaska?

CONAN: The question is whether - well, she said it would be unlikely to be able to put up barriers there because people are so independent-minded but...

VITULLO-MARTIN: Yes, and good for independent Alaskans. That's really an important point. We have to fight for our cities, and our mayors have to fight for our cities. And it's very good to be independent and to question every single Jersey barrier that goes up in your neighborhood.

I'd like to particularly point out Mayor Daly in Chicago, who, you know, he was the mayor of one of the most beautiful cities in America, and he made it even more beautiful, and there was no way he was going to let property owners, public or private, push him around and make your city ugly after 9/11, so he really fought hard to make sure that security measures were as unobtrusive and as good looking as possible, and that makes the difference.

CONAN: Caroline, thanks very much for the call.

CAROLINE: You're very welcome. Excellent topic.

CONAN: And, Julia Vitullo-Martin, thank you very much for your time today.

VITULLO-MARTIN: Thank you.

CONAN: Julia Vitullo-Martin joined us from our bureau in New York. There's a link to her piece "Militarized Urbanism Chokes U.S. cities" at our website. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Tomorrow, the debate over single-sex classrooms picks up again. We'll talk with teachers. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.

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"Ugly" Safety Measures Kill Public Spaces

The Case to Sell the Javits Center (Crain's)

2011-10-23T21:49:18Z

Hulking and obsolete, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center may not look like a well-stuffed piggy bank.

But it is. Or could be.

At a recent meeting of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council for New York City, Regional Plan Association President Robert Yaro proposed selling Javits for redevelopment--netting the state $4 billion.

]]> Those proceeds would pay for four new investments that would resolve New York City's long-vexing lack of high-quality convention and meeting space, at no public cost:

Completing the Moynihan Station infrastructure ($1 billion).

Building a state-of-the-art conference, or "congress," center in the western portion of the Farley Post Office, alongside Moynihan Station ($500 million).

Installing the streets, sewers and sidewalks required to develop the multiblock area now occupied by the Javits Center ($500 million).

Building a 1 million-square-foot, world-class trade and consumer show facility at Willets Point or at the former Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens ($1 billion).

An eight-block obstacle to public access to the Hudson River, the Javits Center has never adequately met the needs of New York's important conference, convention and trade show industry. It's too small for most consumer and trade shows and too inaccessible and expensive for conferences.

Selling Javits would allow New York to separate the roles of trade show venue and congress center into facilities designed for these very different functions--as Hong Kong, London, Milan and Tokyo have done. Like those places, New York could sustain a regional network of smaller conference centers (for example, in the business districts of Newark, Stamford, Conn., and Jamaica, Queens, as well as Manhattan), along with a large trade show hall outside the central business district.

For a new million-square-foot convention center, two sites in Queens offer the highway and airport access necessary for trade shows: Willets Point and the former Aqueduct Racetrack.

Willets Point is a 61-acre redevelopment area near La Guardia Airport. Aqueduct is a 200-acre site located five miles from JFK. Genting Group is developing a racino there--keeping the historic racetrack, turning the grandstand into a casino and eventually building a hotel. This past summer, Genting opened the door to developing a convention center on the site.

A congress center--a place for high-end business and professional meetings--requires a relatively modest 300,000 to 500,000 square feet to attract the lucrative meetings that have long bypassed New York for places like Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.

The western half of the Farley Post Office, located on Ninth Avenue between West 31st and West 33rd streets, could accommodate such a center. It has room for 400,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting room space in the nation's most concentrated business, retail, entertainment and tourist district--with direct access to a wide array of transportation options.

Selling the Javits Center is an idea whose time should come. It would help the region take big steps forward, and would show that thinking and building big is indeed still possible in New York.

Hope Cohen is New York director for the Regional Plan Association and associate director of its Center for Urban Innovation.

The Case to Sell the Javits Center