Category Archives: Culture
My Comments at the Midtown South Social Equity and Music Festival
FIFTY-ONE YEARS AGO, the Pennsylvania Railroad tragically tore down Pennsylvania Station. Not only is it the best building ever torn down in New York, but in the combined Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, we got the worst building in … Continue reading
Me on the On Cities Podcast
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A Short Discussion of Residential Building Heights in New York City
NOTE: The following was written for the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Street Design, The Secret To Great Cities and Towns, where it will appear in a shorter version. This version still needs some editing for its new context. Part 1 … Continue reading
Location, Location, Location: Affordable Housing and Urban Form in Manhattan
NOTE: The following was written for the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Street Design, The Secret To Great Cities and Towns, where it will appear in a shorter version. This version still needs a little editing for its new context. Part … Continue reading
Mariaplaats, Utrecht
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
Take Back The City
On a recent episode of Billions, the New York Attorney General stands on the roof a car in the middle of a New York City street with a bullhorn. Why? Vecause he’s positioned himself near a meeting on the Highline … 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
TikTok Urbanism
TikTok Car Free Brooklyn Bridge Car Free Brooklyn Bridge Uncropped
Tales From My Privileged Youth / Palate Cleanser
(NB: If you start to lose interest, jump down to the surprise ending.) I GREW UP in Darien, Connecticut, where my father had a college friend named John Pierpont (“Mr. Pierpont” to me). Mr. Pierpont was a tall, elegant man. … Continue reading
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
Crain’s New York: Change the Streets & Change the City
My op-ed in Crain’s New York is in the magazine this week and has been online for more than a week. The online version is longer than the print version but is behind a paywall. You can buy access to both … 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
“I feel like it’s 1968,” says every reporter on CNN and MSNBC watching the protest marches.
In another, less grave context, I wrote about one of my favorite Harvard professors, who back in the 1980s talked about what he thought were connections between the 1960s and the 21st century (see below). Today, like the reporters on … Continue reading