Amanda Burden
Streetsblog Basics
Bloomberg Touts Approval of 1,600 Parking Spaces at Flushing Commons
The City Planning Commission approved plans for the Flushing Commons development yesterday, sending the project forward through the land use approval process. Officials' portrayals of this development, which will put 1,600 parking spaces in the middle of a transit-rich downtown, put the city's tortured relationship with transit-oriented development into perfect perspective.
June 24, 2010
At First Riverside Center Hearing, Planning Commission Quiet on Parking
The City Planning Commission certified Extell Development's parking-filled Riverside Center proposal yesterday afternoon, setting in motion the city's land use review process. Certification is more about completing paperwork than rendering judgment, but the discussion of the proposal did offer a few clues about which aspects of the three-million square foot project are front and center in the minds of planning commissioners.
May 25, 2010
The Next New York: How NYC Can Grow as a Walkable City
In the last eight years, Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning has rezoned 20 percent of New York along relatively transit-oriented lines, while simultaneously promoting quasi-suburban projects at prominent sites and maintaining parking minimums that erode the pedestrian environment. In other words, the planning department is promoting growth in the right places, but enabling the wrong kind of development.
So in the next four years, will New York's planners adopt more sustainable practices or continue the status quo?
February 22, 2010
The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability
This is the second installment in a three-part series on the
reshaping of New York City and its consequences for sustainability and
livable streets. Read the first part here.
February 19, 2010
Shaping the Next New York: The Promise of Bloomberg’s Rezonings
This is the first installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York City and its consequences for sustainability and livable streets.
February 18, 2010
Smart Growth Leader Tells Planning Commission: NYC Can Do Better
New York may be the most transit-rich city in the nation, but that doesn't mean big changes to the city's planning policies aren't necessary. That's the message Jeff Speck, a leader of the New Urbanist movement and co-author of the newly released Smart Growth Manual, delivered yesterday to the City Planning Commission.
January 5, 2010
In Third Term, Bloomberg Must Align All Agencies With PlaNYC
We continue our series on the next four years of New York City transportation and planning policy with today's essay by Ron Shiffman. Co-founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development and a professor at the Pratt Institute's Graduate Center for Planning, Shiffman served on the City Planning Commission from 1990 to 1996. Read previous installments in this series here, here, and here.
November 19, 2009
Gehl-O-Rama: City Agencies Take Lessons From Copenhagen
Before hitting the "World Class Streets" launch Thursday night, Jan Gehl addressed about 70 staffers from DOT, City Planning, and NYCEDC, part of a day-long exercise that introduced participants to the Danish planner's site evaluation methods. Commissioners Amanda Burden and Janette Sadik-Khan gave a hero's welcome to Gehl, whom they called "instrumental" to revamping New York's approach to planning.
November 17, 2008
City Planning Unveils Bike-Friendly Zoning Regs
The Department of City Planning revealed a zoning amendment today that would require new buildings to include space for secure bike parking. The lack of indoor parking is one of the biggest obstacles for would-be bike commuters, and the proposed zoning joins other initiatives to improve parking in existing office buildings. DCP's amendment includes requirements for residential and retail construction as well. (See the full list of provisions after the jump.)
November 10, 2008
Meet Your Industrial Development Agency
Last week, the board of the New York City Industrial Agency postponed a vote on whether to subsidize the construction of parking facilities at the new Yankee Stadium through the issuance of $225 million in triple tax exempt bonds. Streetsblog has no word yet on when the vote will occur, so in the meantime here is a list of the people who will be making the decision, with as much background as we could gather on the lesser-known members.
September 17, 2007