The White House Office of Urban Affairs offers hope of a new direction in federal urban policy, including that for transportation. Public transportation is critical to a sustainable future for our city and the metropolitan region, essential to integrating housing, economic development, and environmental practices and policies.

What is the Obama administration doing that will help or hinder the development of the transportation system we need? How can local stakeholders ensure that the smartest investments receive federal support? An outstanding panel will answer these and other questions next Wednesday as New Yorkers face fare hikes and service cuts.

Investing in Infrastructure: Transportation and New York’s Future
Wednesday, May 6, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society MAP
Reception to follow.
Moderator: Kate Slevin, director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Panelists: Susan Bass Levin, deputy executive director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Linda Bailey, federal programs advisor, New York City Department of Transportation; Jeffrey Zupan, senior fellow, transportation, Regional Plan Association; Martin Robins, founding director, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center, Rutgers University.
$15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075.

At the first annual Jane Jacobs Forum last night, an expert panel considered how to house a million more New Yorkers over the next twenty years, and how to do this while retaining neighborhood character and diversity. Panelists also suggested ways of making housing affordable in an increasingly land-poor city, and described the kind of changes in city infrastructure they think are necessary to accommodate all these new New Yorkers.

Panelist Jerilyn Perrine, director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council, said (jokingly) that she would like to see Staten Island swapped for portions of New Jersey that are well-connected to regional mass transit, and (seriously) the extension of the 7 train in both Manhattan and, more importantly, in eastern Queens where affordable housing could be built to serve growing immigrant communities.

But, what would you do to make housing affordable? What improvements to the city’s infrastructure do you think the city and federal governments should focus on? Tell us. Continue Reading>>

The New York Post reports from Wednesday’s MAS panel discussion “Coney Island at the Crossroads,” that the City attempted to cut an eleventh hour deal with Thor Properties over the extension of a lease for Astroland – the Coney Island amusement park that closed its doors two Sundays ago.  Recognizing that Astroland is an existing amenity for millions of New Yorkers, MAS had urged the City to find a way to help Astroland continue, including relocating the park to City-owned land.

In other news, the City’s Economic Development Corporation has reached another agreement with a business owner in Willets Point, Queens. Continue Reading>>

The Municipal Art Society is examining the effects of high-density office towers on the riverfront and their impact on how cities experience the water. The commercial development proposed by the city may have imposing effects on park users, and a disconnecting effect for people east of 10th Avenue. Continue Reading>>

For decades, Manhattan, west of 8th Avenue from 14th to 43rd Streets has been underused and underappreciated. Today, an urban drama is playing out on the Far West Side, in which the City of New York, the US Olympic Committee, and the neighborhoods themselves are among the primary players. A city-sponsored planning project now underway would rezone the area from mostly manufacturing to a high-density mix of residential and commercial uses and extend the 7 train west to 11th Avenue. The NYC 2012’s Olympics proposal would bring a football stadium, a grand park space and an expanded convention center to the area bordering the Hudson River from 30th Street to 41st Streets. Continue Reading>>