Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: free transit for Albuquerque, a city council election roundup, an assessment of four pandemic-era bus lanes, worsening Citi Bike service, and Manhattan’s unsold trophy apartments.

Should public transit be a free service? One city just said yes (Marketplace) “Albuquerque, New Mexico’s City Council made its free-transit experiment permanent…Sarah Kaufman, director of New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation, said in many cases, investments in the quality of transit are more likely to boost ridership. ‘People prioritize reliability and frequency of service over affordability or free fare,’ she said.”

Bronx GOP Council Win Adds Historic Note to Otherwise Quiet Election Night (The City) “Republicans in the City Council got a surprise win in Tuesday’s election, as a progressive Democrat in a politically mixed area of The Bronx couldn’t hang on to her Throggs Neck seat…[F]irst-time candidate Kristy Marmorato, a Republican, appears to have bested incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velázquez — who faced major opposition after she reversed her stance and supported local zoning changes pushed by Mayor Eric Adams to allow more development in her district.”

Eyes on the Street: How Are De Blasio’s Pandemic Era Busways Doing? (Streetsblog NYC) “Four busways announced and implemented in 2020 and 2021 during the latter days of the de Blasio administration appear to have sped up service for transit riders, according to official MTA bus speed data…Bus speeds have improved along all four routes, though the magnitude of the improvement varies by time and location.”

NYC comptroller: Citi Bike service has worsened since Lyft’s 2018 takeover (Gothamist) “Citi Bike users in Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Kensington in Brooklyn and Fordham Heights, Morris Heights and University Heights in the Bronx encountered stations with no bikes or out-of-service docks more than 20% of the time during peak hours throughout June and July 2023, the report found. Riders in the Bronx were 89% more likely to encounter an unusable station than in the three other boroughs in the network.”

Manhattan’s Trophy Apartments Are Gathering Dust (Curbed) “While the low-interest-rate-fueled buying spree of the past few years burned through most of New York City’s residential inventory, it barely touched Manhattan’s newly built trophy apartments. On Billionaire’s Row, 23 percent of sponsor units remain unsold, according to an analysis by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. And that’s not counting all the people looking to offload the ones they previously bought, which likely brings the total percentage of trophy apartments seeking buyers closer to 50 percent.”

Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: tech billionaires’ plans for a new city, the Adams administration’s request to suspend the right to shelter is paused, and a potential land value tax in Detroit.

“New” Cities? An Old Idea Corner Side Yard “Americans are drawn to the newest places and will happily ditch the old places they came from. And honestly, I view this as a flaw. More people are identifying as urbanists today because walkability, mixed use and transit accessibility have been rediscovered after nearly a century of suburban sprawl. Suburbs are struggling to adapt because they haven’t adapted to the changing lifestyles, work environments and household types that characterize modern living. Americans prefer to shed the old and embrace the new. But in my mind, places aren’t disposable. There’s something to be learned from every type of place, something that’s worth saving – and building on – nearly every place ever built. I’d much rather see more people working on making existing places better than creating more new ones.”

NYC Mayor’s Latest Bid to Suspend Adult Shelter Rights Cools in Court (City Limits) “Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is not proceeding with a formal request to suspend the right to a shelter bed for single adults in New York City—at least for now. In a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, following 90 minutes of closed-door discussions, New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits said attorneys for the city, state and homeless advocates will instead continue meeting in private, with an eye toward a possible settlement.”

Detroit could be the largest U.S. city with land value tax, if the state legislature allows it (Niskanen Center) “Passing this law would make Detroit the largest American city to enact a split-rate land value tax – a type of property tax where the tax rate for land and structures are different, often with the tax on structures lower than the one on land. Still, it hit a roadblock in the Michigan state legislature recently as legislators moved to delay the resolution before final passage.”

How 100,000 Apartments in New York City Disappeared (NYTimes)
“The trend, which has continued since then, is among the reasons some neighborhoods have so little new housing — a troubling outcome when city officials have spoken in dire terms about the need to add housing to improve affordability and fight segregation. For example, while 3,000 units of new housing were added in the community district that includes the Upper East Side between 2010 and 2021, about 2,000 units were lost through the consolidation of apartments, according to the research. Another 1,000 or so were lost in demolition.” 

Hochul veto throws Long Island offshore wind project in doubt (Gothamist) “The veto drew recrimination from clean energy supporters who have long been waiting for New York’s offshore wind projects to get underway. The downstate region’s energy sector has become increasingly reliant on natural gas and other fossil fuels in recent years to power one of the world’s most densely populated regions.”

Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: loopholes in rent regulation law, CityFHEPS expands outside of NYC, and mass bird-building collisions in Chicago.

NYC will pay to house low-income residents outside the 5 boroughs – Gothamist “Park said the ability to move out of town with a CityFHEPS voucher will help a range of New Yorkers, including families who entered shelters to escape domestic violence and people pursuing jobs elsewhere in the state. She said the city will adjust its maximum payment standards based on local fair market rates set by the federal government.”

Zombie Renovations are Coming (Curbed) “The state’s 2019 rent laws eliminated almost every way a landlord could take a building out of rent regulation, but left in place a loophole around what’s called “substantial rehabilitation,” which is when a landlord has replaced at least 75 percent of “building-wide and individual housing accommodation systems.” It was originally meant to encourage the renovation of mostly vacant, dilapidated buildings, but now it’s just another way that landlords are trying to flip their aging buildings to market rate.”

Rain Wreaks Havoc on New York’s Mass Transit System (New York Times) “About half of all subway lines were either fully or partially suspended because of the rain. Service on the Metro-North Railroad, the commuter line connecting New York to its northern suburbs, was also badly affected. Travel in and out of Grand Central Terminal — the railroad’s main hub — was suspended because water had submerged the system’s electrified third rail network in the Bronx.”

Almost 1,000 migrating birds die Thursday in Chicago after crashing into McCormick Place Lakeside Center, a 40-year record (Chicago Tribune)“There are fixes for bird-building collisions, Willard said, including bird-friendly windows, but the issue tends to attract more attention than action. In Chicago, a City Council ordinance requiring bird safety measures in many new buildings passed in 2020, according to Prince, but has not yet been implemented.”

EYES ON THE STREET: Drivers Dominate Former W. 22nd Open Street (Streetsblog NYC) “To narrow the roadway along the block, DOT also installed five painted curbside semicircles with flower pots and flex posts, which make the roadway slightly tighter than the row of parked cars. Drivers largely whizzed through those without diminishing their speed.“

Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: the continued survival of Chinatown, highway expansions across America, Detroit’s half-baked freeway removal, our inequitable cities, and the decline of walking, biking, and the school bus.

Saving Chinatown, While Also Making It Their Own (NYT Style Magazine) “To be in Chinatown — whether as a descendant of multiple generations or as one in an influx of hundreds of newcomers each year, both immigrants and those born in the United States — means being part of Chinatown, on the ground, committed to its continuing.”

Why Democrats and Republicans Alike Keep Expanding Highways (Streetsblog)“ Attempts at equity-washing have rung particularly hollow in Maryland, where advocates say adding lanes is unlikely to “eliminate employment barriers” for under-served residents as the Moore administration suggests — particularly for families who are too poor to drive. And even for those who do, many of those advocates have been questioning whose congestion, exactly, would be cut.” 

Michigan Department Of Transportation: “An I-375 With Fewer Than Ten Lanes Would Take Away People’s Right To Get Around” (The Handbuilt City) “Interstate 375 was built in 1964…Half a century later, we’re getting rid of it. …After much ado about the road engineering agency’s emphasis on sustainability and community engagement, the MDOT representative proceeded to show…the exact opposite of what the engaged community requested. People want narrower, safer streets. But this presentation includes…a ten-lane boulevard.”

In Search of Equitable Cities (Corner Side Yard) “The exclusion of Blacks, immigrants and other people of color in American cities has never been resolved. It prevents cities from reaching their fullest potential. It’s been tempered over the years, but it still exists. I’ve yet to see any urbanist movement directly take on what I view as the most critical long-term challenge facing cities: their inequity. Until there is, it will always be with us.”

The Agony of the School Car Line (The Atlantic) “A few generations ago, in 1969, nearly one in two kids walked or biked to school. Now only about one in 10 kids gets to school those ways. And only about a third of children who live within just one mile of school walk or bike there. School buses—a onetime right of passage for American children—have been supplanted as the leading vehicle for getting kids to school. According to the most recent national data, a solid majority of kids—54 percent—are driven to school.”

Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: the evolution of NYC’s community gardens, making housing reform work in Montana, and the subway’s newest candy sellers.

NYC’s community gardens overcame obstacles, including Rudy Giuliani (Gothamist): “Bushwick City Farm may be an outlier in its full-throated commitment to addressing the migrant crisis in New York City, but it shares something with many other community gardens across the five boroughs: They’re public places where private citizens have to jointly decide the best use of a precious resource.”

The Candy Sellers (Curbed): “In recent weeks, the police have stopped her numerous times on the platforms to give her warnings. “They told me that if I kept selling with my children, they’d take them away from me and put me in jail,” she said. “But we do it because we have no other option.”

Why Housing Reform Worked in Montana (Bloomberg City Lab): “While the contentious YIMBY-v.-NIMBY dynamic has bricked other state legislatures over housing issues, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Montana were able to find consensus. The state’s cultural remove and ample natural bounty might help to explain why: Its cities are smaller and its population much more rural than other states that have weighed zoning and permitting bills to boost housing production.”

There’s Been a Decade of Public Engagement on Atlantic Ave — and Years More are Coming Before Roadway is Fixed (Streetsblog): “But considered one of the most dangerous corridors in Brooklyn, little has been done to make Atlantic Avenue safer. In the three years since Sept. 1, 2020, there have been a whopping 472 reported crashes between Brooklyn and Washington avenues, causing 289 injuries and one pedestrian fatality, according to city data compiled by Crash Mapper. And last year, there were 166 reported crashes or one almost every other day, injuring 126 people.”

The Battle for 76 Place: Where Things Stand with the Sixers’ Arena (phillymag.com): “Deep down, the question of economic benefits may be beside the point. And the overwhelming cast of stakeholders makes it very likely that at least one group will be disappointed with the eventual outcome. To opponents of the arena, this is a battle for the soul of their neighborhood, one that has been home to an immigrant population that settled there 150 years ago, when it was an undesirable location, and built a community.”