While New York City Succession (really it is more accurate to call it separation has been raised here before (cf The 51st State – State of New York City) and I’ve been looking into the Greater City of New York Home Rule issue, which will be delved into at a later date. As for now, eye-candy maps are all I can give.

Happy National Train Day from Amtrak. Nothing really to see here, but an allied story from the NY Times, Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit:

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

The New York Daily News is reporting that Atlantic Yards’ Miss Brooklyn is slashed more than 100 feet in massive redo:

Miss Brooklyn, the Frank Gehry-designed signature tower of the controversial Atlantic Yards project, has been dumped.
Originally envisioned as a 620-foot residential and commercial tower, the newly named “B1” – or Building One – will be slashed to 511 feet and feature commercial office space only, Gehry said yesterday.

In fact, as Atlantic Yards Report reports, there has been no change in the overall height:

After all, the agreement to keep the tower shorter than the 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower was announced as a “concession” on 12/20/06, to coincide with the approval of the project by the Public Authorities Control Board. And I reported in February on developer Forest City Ratner’s apparent plans to make Miss Brooklyn an office tower only.

Also interesting are NY Post renderings of Atlantic Yards visions of blight if all phases of construction aren’t completed. As this Brooklyn Paper rendering shows (altered slightly) from December 1, 2007 the height has been at 511 feet for the last few months.

I suspect this is a combination of issuing renderings of the recent redesign in order to tender new tenants to the now wholly commercial building.

India_Chandigarh_24_bw, originally uploaded by weyerdk

See also Chandigarh Flickr Set.

To celebrate Jane Jacobs birthday, why don’t you go on a Jane’s Walk?

Grand Central Terminal – New York City, originally uploaded by Chalky Lives

Illustrating just how easy it is for organizations to save both money and reduce carbon footprint, MetroNorth switched a majority of their lamps to CFL’s:

In time for Earth Day, MTA Metro-North Railroad has completed the conversion from bare, incandescent light bulbs to environmentally sustainable compact fluorescent light bulbs.
With more than 1,700 CFLs installed throughout the public areas of the terminal, the railroad expects to save more than $100,000 a year on utility bills and more than 100,000 kilowatt hours in electricity. And because these bulbs last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, the railroad will save thousands of dollars on replacement costs.
Because of the need to maintain the aesthetic standards of the landmarked terminal, the switch to CFLs in public areas of the terminal was not possible until the introduction of bulbs that closely mimicked the shape of incandescent bulbs.

So not only are the bridges of New York becoming more energy efficient but also major historical buildings as well. Golf clap.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, originally uploaded by Rick Elkins

From the press office:

At the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge today, a maintenance worker suspended in a bucket truck replaced the first of 262 fifty-pound conventional light fixtures and necklace lights with a new lighter fixture and an energy-saving light-emitting diode (LED) bulb.
The Verrazano-Narrows is slated to be the first among the agency’s seven bridges to have hundreds of LED necklace lights installed in the next year as part of the authority’s environmental program.
These lights will cut necklace light electricity use by 73% and, because they have an estimated 5-to-10-year usage expectancy, the move increases worker safety by minimizing the need to change lights or “re-lamp”, high above traffic, which would require lane closures below and cause delays.

It is admirable that the MTA is working on ways to both save taxpayers money and reduce its carbon footprint. Yet I can’t help but worry that the new lights will be inferior to what is existing. Just look at the Empire State Building’s new LED lighting which lacks some of the drama of the older (and more wasteful) high pressure sodium vapor lights. Nonetheless, LED technology will only improve and I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near-future LED lamps will match and exceed both color rendering and dynamic range of the lamps they are replacing.

Herbert Bayer, 1925, originally uploaded by louis_no_0119

See also Type Poster Flickr Set & Paul Renner Flickr Tag.