Building Boom Altering Neighborhood Landscapes
One part of today’s NY Times story on the housing boom that is reaching the farthest corners of the five boroughs is how it is changing the landscape of many neighborhoods–often for the worse. While building bonanza has done a lot to improve the housing stock in areas that developers would not have touched a…
One part of today’s NY Times story on the housing boom that is reaching the farthest corners of the five boroughs is how it is changing the landscape of many neighborhoods–often for the worse. While building bonanza has done a lot to improve the housing stock in areas that developers would not have touched a decade ago, the changing of zoning regulations and the squeezing out of every last drop of FAR has also resulted in buildings that look completely out of context, like the one in the photo above.
Housing Boom Echoes [NY Times]
Is anyone concerned about all this ‘downzoning’? The city has always dreamed big. I am a neighborhood-orientated person, but I don’t want development to be completely stifled by low-rise. Yes, Manhattan is expanding beyond the island. But I feel its a natural progression in urban development. Imagine the city a 100 years from now. Curbing development in places like open Staten Island and formerly stagnant Brooklyn and Queens may be a decision to regret as the free enterprise zones become more and more limited. The city is a living organism! Towers must continue to rise for New York to grow!!
Look again at the picture. Surely even those of us who are in favor of providing additional housing stock in this city can agree that this particular building on this particular block is hideous? Development and design should really go hand in hand.
I’m the moron, and I posted it to get a rise out of people. Obviously worked. Sarcasm doesn’t come across well on a blog.
Some moron posts:
“If the newbies want to live in a certain low rise brownstone nabe, but there is not enough house, tough. Go find an area where there is more housing rather than build sh*t that destroys the beauty of the neighborhood that attracted them in the first place. Be a pioneer like the people who gentrified the brownstone nabe in the first place.
Let the blogging battle begin… Mooo haaaa haaaaa haaaa”
Not as many people give a shit about living in a ‘beauty’ of a neighborhood, as much as a NICE neighborhood.
This also ignores the point that there are already people living in Bed Stuy, Crown Heights, etc.
“Pioneer”, I just love that term. People who use it makes it seem as though vast portions of Brooklyn were prairie and shrub brush before they and their buddies showed up.
If the newbies want to live in a certain low rise brownstone nabe, but there is not enough house, tough. Go find an area where there is more housing rather than build sh*t that destroys the beauty of the neighborhood that attracted them in the first place. Be a pioneer like the people who gentrified the brownstone nabe in the first place.
Let the blogging battle begin… Mooo haaaa haaaaa haaaa
Agreed. Well put, Linus.
linusvanpelt,
great post.
Zoning has changed in some neighborhoods, but by and large, much of the zoning out there is much higher than the actual built housing. This has led to many neighborhoods being downzoned (mainly Staten Island and the outer areas of Brooklyn & Queens), but this usually only happens after a wave of out of context development starts hitting the area.