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."

New York's streets and highways have been deteriorating for so long that few New Yorkers remember better times. Indeed, in the 1980s, the Port Authority released a devastating report noting that reconstruction of the roads should have begun in the 1930s. But since it hadn't, the region would just have to deal with a near-permanent state of bedlam. Emergency repairs would be constant to make up for the lack of basic maintenance -- not to mention the true rebuilding of roads and highways.

Municipalities large and small from around the world are adopting new technologies and new management systems to improve their ability to attract economic growth, manage precious natural resources and improve the quality of life of their residents.

RPA's 2011 Regional Assembly, "Innovation and the Global City," examined what global cities, from Singapore to London, from Stockholm to New York, are doing to remain competitive on the world stage.

Moderator: Julia Vitullo-Martin, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Urban Innovation, Regional Plan Association

Edward Glaeser keynote and response panel video

Richard Burdett keynote and response panel video

Today, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announces whether his state and New York City will soon connect via a new trans-Hudson passenger rail tunnel. Claiming that the project would run up huge cost overruns his state cannot afford, the governor halted construction on the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) tunnel two weeks ago. Metro area commuters now hope a combination of reduced project scope (and therefore cost), increased federal funding commitments and public outcry will convince Christie to turn the drills and boring machines back on.

The bottom line is that New York and New Jersey need this new tunnel.

What gives this plan a competitive advantage is that New Yorkers are so exuberantly greedy for street space -- especially in good weather -- that just putting down a few rickety chairs and ugly tables in the short run will lure them outdoors. This plan will look like it's working as soon as it is activated.

But in the long run, the same high design standards that have been crucial to successful street closings elsewhere will govern here. The city has to make sure that 34th Street -- both the roadway itself and the street furniture -- looks good and offers plenty of retail and entertainment attractions to keep pedestrians happy.

If it doesn't it will find, as Chicago did on State Street, that in the name of injecting life into a street you can in fact pull it out -- especially if you're asking people and buses to share space. So, yes, give this a try, but let's monitor it daily and not declare it a success until we know it's really working.

Julia Vitullo-Martin is director of Regional Plan Association's Center for Urban Innovation.

Confronting the Mire on 34th Street