This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

night time, originally uploaded by seth_holladay
New York Times has an article about where traffic comes from in the NYC region, and their hook is that it doesn’t come from the suburbs. In Traffic’s Jam, Who’s Driving May Be Surprising:

It’s a common enough thought among city drivers inching through traffic: Everyone around me came from the suburbs, making my life miserable. But it’s wrong, because more than half the drivers who crowd into Manhattan each workday come from the five boroughs.
…
Census data show that more city residents than suburbanites drive to work in Manhattan every day, according to Mr. Schaller. He estimated that 263,000 people in 19 counties in and around New York City drive regularly to jobs in Manhattan below 60th Street. Of those, 53 percent, or 141,000, live in the five boroughs, Mr. Schaller said. The greatest numbers are from Queens, with 51,300, and Brooklyn, with 33,400. About 23,900 auto commuters live in Manhattan, while 17,400 are from the Bronx and 15,200 from Staten Island. The suburban area with the most auto commuters to Manhattan is Nassau County, with 22,091 people driving to work in the borough, followed by Bergen County, with 19,975.

Outer Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx might as well be called the suburbs. Have you ever been out at Far Rockaway or past Shea? It might as well be Levittown, being that outer Queens and Brooklyn were the last to be developed in the post-WWII years.
It would be interesting to cross-reference driving habits by density, because I am sure they are directly related, and the lack (or lessening) of density of outer Brooklyn and Queens means owning a car becomes more necessary.
Below is a population maps of NYC with population density >10K resident per sq. mi (3861 per sq km):

population maps of NYC with population density >10K resident per sq. mi (3861 per sq km) by fake is the new real
And here is a color-coded population density map by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia:

New York City population density 1990
You can see east of the Belt Parkway/Van Wyck corridors, the density fall rapidly. All still in Queens, mind you, but vastly different in scale than the rest of the city. The change in scale and lack of direct, and fast, public transportation makes personal vehicles a no-brainer, and often a necessity.
So, I think there is a good case to be made that a majority of traffic to the Manhattan core comes from what we would all call the “suburbs” – regardless if it happens to fall within the five boroughs. Either way, it doesn’t really matter: there are a ton of cars coming into the Manhattan core from outside the core, to the tune of 239,100 vehicles; 91% of vehicles below 60th Street are not from Manhattan. This is why public policy about parking and congestion pricing will be front and center for the foreseeable future.
Food for thought, I guess.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Broken Angel
The continuing saga of Broken Angel appears headed toward a beneficial conclusion. Last week it was announced that the building and adjoining property were up for sale, but this looks like it was “Plan B.” In today’s New York Times, it appears that that the City and the Woods have come to an agreement:

Yesterday, in a conference with the Brooklyn Supreme Court, the Woods agreed to submit engineering plans by next Wednesday to dismantle the building’s 40-foot rooftop structure, the main violation. The Woods have also entered into a tentative agreement to share ownership with a local developer, Shahn Andersen, who would turn most of the building into condominiums, according to a spokeswoman for City Councilwoman Letitia James. The Broken Angel, as the house is known, would include some form of community space, along with living and studio space for the Woods.

This is exactly what the Woods wanted: save the building’s best and most enigmatic parts, which is the masonry the Wood’s constructed over the years. Pairing up with a developer is the really the only recourse when you have very little cash on hand, but quite a lot of valuable land. The masonry core of the existing building is quite stable, only a bit of shoring appears to be required. The tricky part is removing the wood addition, which is acting like a giant rubber band, holding the masonry top together.
I wish the Wood’s luck; there is still a long ways to go, but it looks like they will be able to save the building.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Viaduc des Arts, originally uploaded by cgfan
Via City Comforts, who is all over the Seattle Viaduct hoopla, comes this fascinating (5 year old) article about the Viaduc des Arts, a former railroad viaduct, stretches east along the wide Avenue Daumesnil between the Place de la Bastille and city hall of the 12e Arrondissement. Instead of tearing it down, they created a series of craftsmen and artists lotfs:

The shops recall the history of the neighborhood, which was once the blue-collar home of artisans, craftspersons, and antiques shops. The shops, therefore, display the arts and crafts of today, some of them made on the premises. Each shop occupies a single arch of the old viaduct. The arches have been refaced in a handsome orange-red brick that deliberately recalls another historic icon, the famous Place des Vosges not far away. Parking is tucked almost invisibly underground. The shopfronts themselves are elegantly detailed in glass, metal, and wood in a taut, minimalist architectural language that is very much that of today and becomes a kind of modern craft in itself. The architect was Patrick Berger.
The shops, though, wonderful as they are, are less than half the story. The rest is the park upstairs. It’s called the Promenade Plantee. Three miles of the old track bed have been converted into a linear park, a kind of aerial nature walk in the city. The landscaping is a botanist’s dream. You’re never bored. Your path is endlessly varied. Some of the plants ripple in the wind like natural marshland. Others resemble formal parterres. In places, the park spreads out into playing fields and strolling parkland. At other times it narrows to a tight file edged by dark trees. Or it becomes a courtyard where oldsters, sipping their wine, watch kids playing games. Sometimes you walk through a trellised arbor. In one place, there’s a cave-like hideaway. In still another, the park shears its way through a new building, splitting it in half. The designers — Philippe Mathieu and Jacques Vergely — seize every chance to dramatize the anomaly of a linear park that slips through Paris like thread through a needle.

Remind you of anything?

On The High Line 04/23 by nicolaitan
Interesting; I just hope the Highline will be half as successful. Unfortunately, instead of artists lofts or workshops, I think that the Highline will, besides be a great urban park, foster luxury condos and high end hotels, thus proving to be a great opportunity lost.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

HEET, originally uploaded by Triborough
Living in New York, unless you are fortunate to live within walking distance to your job, you have to take the subway; which results in having to go through the turnstiles a minimum of four times each day. This means either going through a regular turnstile or a HEET (iron maiden, tourist trap, etc.) daily. With such an ubiquitous experience all New Yorkers endure, one’s technique is forced to be honed to an art form; from the way you swipe your card, to how you go through the turnstile it is hard not to develop a personal style of turnstiling.
Case in point: recently I was following a woman out of the subway car headed toward a HEET exit. Instead of getting into the HEET and pushing on the forward arms, she entered in and pulled the HEET arms which were behind her. Very strange, but that is her way of turnstiling
My style on regular turnstiles is to get my card out of my wallet a few strides before the turnstiles, get my arm out in front of me, swipe, then pivot right so that the bar will hit my left hip. This ensures if I get the dreaded error message the Boys won’t be in danger. In the HEET I just push with my right shoulder.
How do you turnstile?