Saturday, August 25/ Day 158, originally uploaded by JolieNY

Interesting story out of Brooklyn about unintended consequences, The Big Front Yards That Rob the Streets:

IN 1846, the City of Brooklyn passed a law requiring that front yards along certain streets in Carroll Gardens be 33 feet 5 1/4 inches deep.
In time, the big yards were responsible for the name of the neighborhood, and for its reputation as a fine place to view Christmas lights during the holidays. But most recently, those trademark gardens have stirred up a bit of controversy.
Although the yards serve as leafy margins to the streets, creating ample open space between the rows of brownstones arrayed on either side, they also put those streets into the “wide” category for zoning purposes. This means developers can build structures on those streets that are taller than would otherwise be allowed.

The streets in question are below:

For more information please see Carroll Gardens Narrow Street/Wide Street Zoning Text Amendment and the street map. The Problem, from the city’s perspective is thus:

In response to concerns about out-of-scale development from Community Board 6, local civic groups and elected officials, the Department of City Planning is proposing zoning text amendments to define certain streets in Carroll Gardens as narrow streets for zoning purposes. The text amendment would limit the size and configuration of new buildings and enlargements to more closely match the area’s prevailing built character.
Certain streets in Carroll Gardens are mapped on the City Map with widths of 100 to 130 feet. On these streets in Carroll Gardens, the mapped street therefore includes the characteristic deep front yards of homes as well as the sidewalks and roadbeds. The Zoning Resolution has more liberal floor area and height and setback rules for streets that are mapped at widths of 75 feet or more (“wide streets”).

And the solution is to consider for zoning purposes 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Places, and 2nd Street, Carroll Street and President Street between Smith Street and Hoyt Street to be “narrow streets,” thus limiting the total FAR for those locations.
Which is what should happen in order to not create finger buildings in those small blocks.

Sprite, 1960’s, originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures

Flickr Set: Soda Pop!.

Phone Numbers, originally uploaded by plemeljr

We just received a drawing with the translated name of:

A Layer of Air-Conditioned Underground Water Pipes Drawing Plan.

I don’t think that is the correct name, but if that is how you translate Basement HVAC Plan, then that is fine by me.

• Manhattan Crane Collapse at 91st Street and 1st Avenue; 2 People Dead – again…
• Why oil prices rose to more than $100/barrel
• Manifestation of virtual ideas in real space – White House Redux jury find home at 7 World Trade
• Al Sharpton Rides with Critical Mass Tonight
• Accomodating Ridership Growth at Metro Stations & Rob’s Graduation Speech
• Union Station Intermodal meeting recap – interesting that I link to many District urban blogs; where are the NYC urban blogs? Am I not seeing them?
• Video: 7th Annual Great NYC Commuter Race

19th Century Wood Typeface (Large), originally uploaded by nyctreeman

While we are talking about Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, the research springing forth from the arcane administrative allocation of funds and people took me away from New York as 51st State. Throughout my research, I couldn’t find comparative analysis of the different Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Specifically I was interested in how to compare and contrast the different Metropolitan Statistical Areas along a series of interrelated data axis:

• Area
• Population
• Density
• Economic Activity

The population data was easy to obtain through the Census Bureau,¹ which if anything, has too much public facing data. The total MSA area (square miles) was much harder to find however, and I had to resort to breaking down the MSA into their constituent counties and add up the correct area myself. Note to the Census Bureau: you and I both know you have this data, why not make it easier to find? Economic data was relatively easy to find, the problem was finding the correct data which matches the corresponding MSA.²

With the congruent data sources found, I was able to begin comparing and contrasting Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The below figure is the first in a string of figures I hope to produce which compares the New York Metropolitan Area³ and the Washington Metropolitan Area,⁴ area, population, density & average income.

I don’t know how helpful this relative comparison is but I think I know where at least to head to next. I am not wholly convinced that Average Income is a good indicator of economic status for a given area.

I think if I had a series of different Metropolitan Statistical Areas arrayed at the same time, then the relative comparisons would start to tell a story. As it is, comparing a hyper-urban area with a fairly urban area (taken as a whole MSA) won’t tell me much. I suspect it will take comparing cities such as Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, etc to yield interesting arrangements and set the stage for deep examination. Furthermore, I think finding and graphing historical data through time to see how the scatter plot moves would be the most evocative and interesting diagram.

1. For the Census Data, please see: Annual Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 (CBSA-EST2007-01) &#8617
2. I finally found the corresponding data on the May 2007 Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey Estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor which you can download the data here: Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates &#8617
3. Specifically the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as the New York Metropolitan Area &#8617
4. Specifically the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA, also known as the Washington Metropolitan Area. &#8617

I’ve discussed the Separation of New York City as its own State and created fictional maps of New York City State, the research I undertook in order to underpin these logical exercises is interesting in its own right, and worth sharing.
The Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget are arms of the Executive Branch which count people and submit and administer the president’s annual budget proposal respectively. Interestingly OMB has as a tool called a Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). MSA’s are, geographic entities defined by the OMB for use by Federal statistical agencies in collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal statistics.
Furthermore:

A metro area contains a core urban area of 50,000 or more population, and a micro area contains an urban core of at least 10,000 (but less than 50,000) population. Each metro or micro area consists of one or more counties and includes the counties containing the core urban area, as well as any adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration (as measured by commuting to work) with the urban core.

OMB and the Federal Government already statistically count large overlapping urban centers as economically and politically connected, irregardless of their politics boundary or if they are in the same State. While the use of MSA is purely for administration and statistical purposes, it is interesting to take a look at the Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Wall Maps which begin to paint a picture of America which belies the Rural mythos American’s still cling too.
To see how the OMB and the Census Bureau see the New York City Region, and what the fictional New York City State would look like, google or look up the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as the New York metropolitan area.