Category Archives: Beauty
Car Free Brooklyn Bridge – photos and drawings
A Car-Free Brooklyn Bridge Is Possible Images and Illustratons AFTER: Aerial view looking east towards a car-free Brooklyn Bridge. Centre Street and Park Row next to the Brooklyn Bridge are reimagined as an extension of City Hall Park. © 2020 … Continue reading
“Big Real Estate’s Continuing Stranglehold Over New York City”
Recently, the Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times about the causes of unaffordable housing in New York City. He blamed the crisis on a few things, including a powerful financial “monoculture” in the city, NIMBYs, … Continue reading
MSG
Two MSG quotes: “In animal studies, injecting high doses of MSG into the brains of rats made them fat.” – Wikipedia “Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god…. One scuttles in now like a rat” [under Madison … Continue reading
Spoke Up at the Hotel Pennsylvania
CNU NYC is a member of the Empire Station Coalition that opposes Governor “Demo Dan” Cuomo’s plan to declare the blocks around Pennsylvania Station “blighted,” as part of an urban removal scheme for the area. Yesterday, several members of the … Continue reading
My Privileged Youth: After My Summer of Florence
MY JOB AT THE RED GUTTER ended in late August. I rented a FIAT Cinquecento and spent a week driving through Tuscany and Umbria, hitting all the highlights like Todi and Perugia. I had a little over a week until … Continue reading
TikTok Urbanism
TikTok Car Free Brooklyn Bridge Car Free Brooklyn Bridge Uncropped
We Built This City To Walk And Stroll
“What if we treated historic districts historically, making the cars accommodate the city, rather than the other way around?”
Tales From My Privileged Youth
I WAS LUCKY. I was sitting around with friends during the spring term of my senior year in college. “I want to go to Europe,” I said. “How can I get a job there?” “Call Franco at the Red Garter … Continue reading
My Recent Op-Eds
New York Times New York Daily News (print) Crain’s New York Business (print) Streetsblog NYC City Limits Many others in local papers and publications like the Berkshire Record and The Patent Trader. For a complete list, click here. Bonus: Two … Continue reading
Streets for People, or Streets for Profit?
My Op-Ed at City Limits (click to read) Excerpt: AVs will be programmed to stop immediately if a pedestrian steps in front of them to cross the street—and we all know that given the opportunity, New Yorkers will do that … Continue reading
Architecture Is Frozen Music
Imagine the following scenario. There are some problems with it, but you’ll get the point. The Berlin Philharmonic has the only sheet music for Mozart’s Requiem. One day, a fire destroys the last 10 pages. Angela Merkel announces that the … Continue reading
Philip Johnson Quote of the Day
Philip [Johnson] was always a perfect gentleman of the old school. But once I saw his wit and grace take an almost grandfatherly form. It was at the end of a splendid fall day that I had spent with him … Continue reading
Seaside, Battery Park City, the State of Our Streets, and New Urbanism
I RECENTLY spent a week in Seaside, where I was once Town Architect. In honor of Seaside, I’m uploading two essays from Street Design, The Secret to Great Cities and Towns. The first is the opening of the chapter on … Continue reading
Seaside
I RECENTLY spent a week in Seaside, where I was once Town Architect. In honor of Seaside, I’m uploading two essays from Street Design, The Secret to Great Cities and Towns. The first is a general essay on Seaside and … Continue reading
My New York Times Op-Ed: “There Are Better Ways to Get Around Town”
New York City Streets for People After the Congestion Zone May 15, 2018 (link) The debate continues over how to make New York City’s streets less crowded, safer and better for people as well as cars. Some, like Gov. Andrew … Continue reading
NYC Needs You
New York City’s Historic Districts and Landmarks Are Under Siege Have you noticed how many ideas and movements from the 1960s are back in a big way? Feminism. The civil rights movement. Streets for People, which was the title of … Continue reading