At a City Council hearing this past summer, I said that the problem with the Bloomberg Administration’s plan for the redevelopment of the West Side is that it is the vision of only a handful of men. New Yorkers have learned from the Robert Moses years that grandiose schemes are not the way to make this city better. We have learned that it is wrong to ignore the needs and aspirations of residents when it’s their space being used and their tax dollars being spent.
But Deputy Mayor Doctoroff is still trying to force his narrow vision for the West Side on neighborhood residents and the city as a whole. The purpose of today’s hearing is to make the public’s concerns and desires known to the Administration. It is their obligation, under the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, to listen.
As the recent votes of the Community Boards and the Borough Board make clear, it is not the land use change, which is to say the act of rezoning, that New Yorkers find objectionable. Everyone concerned agrees that the redevelopment of the West Side is an exciting opportunity to realize the development goals and ambitions of New York City . As is so often the case, the devil is in the details, which is to say the text changes.
For example, the administration has slipped a massive parking lot into its plan, even though it has claimed from the start that 70% of the people who will visit the proposed Jets stadium will take public transportation. And even as he assures residents that the neighborhood will not become one giant parking lot, the Deputy Mayor is asking for a higher maximum parking allowance on the West Side than anywhere else in the City, welcoming a traffic nightmare into the neighborhood.
The Doctoroff plan ostensibly sets limits on the density of development, but again, look closely at the text and you’ll find a so-called “district improvement bonus,” which allows developers to pay for the right to build at even higher densities. This “zoning-for-sale” provision will add to the already excessive density proposed for 10 th and 11 th avenues, especially the four corners of the Eastern railyards.
The Doctoroff plan calls for the creation of the Hudson Yard Infrastructure Corporation, which will float the bonds to pay for this scheme. The Independent Budget Office has concluded that the Deputy Mayor’s house-of-cards financing plan will cost 1.3 billion dollars more than a standard, capital-budget-based plan, and burden future administrations with enormous, unnecessary debt. If Deputy Mayor Doctoroff has his way, the City will approach its bond limit paying for a pie-in-the-sky vision that lacks public support.
The Hell’s Kitchen/Hudson Yard’s Alliance has offered a plan that will develop the economy of the West Side and spur job growth without sacrificing the entire neighborhood—not to mention hundreds of millions in tax dollars—to a stadium for the Jets. It will create affordable housing and attractive public spaces without forcing monolithic skyscrapers and giant parking lots down the throats of residents.
A comparison of the Doctoroff plan and the Alliance plan makes it clear that New Yorkers don’t have to accept an unpalatable, take-it-or-leave-it proposal. They have a choice:
The Doctoroff plan includes an artificial limit on residential development--even though the market may ultimately call for residential development over commercial development. And it squanders a golden opportunity to offer a creative and far-reaching program for the creation of affordable housing, affordable housing this City desperately needs. The Alliance plan encourages residential over commercial development and includes a substantial, meaningful affordable housing component.
The Doctoroff plan concentrates open space on an expensive boulevard that displaces homes and businesses, including major employers like Federal Express. The Alliance plan calls for small, neighborhood-friendly parks located throughout the area without sacrificing homes or jobs.
The Doctoroff plan allows for buildings of unlimited height on the four corners of the Eastern railyards. The Alliance plan calls for reasonable height limits on all buildings and shifts the high-density office space to a more logical location around Penn Station and the 34 th Street corridor.
The Doctoroff plan cuts off access to the waterfront and to the Hudson River ferry. The Alliance plan doesn’t.
I urge Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Doctoroff to stop thinking about ignoring their constituents and start thinking about cooperating with them. Instead of trying to sell us their vision, they should be heeding the Community Boards, which voted against their proposed text changes. They should be working with the Hell’s Kitchen/Hudson Yard’s Alliance , and with all of us, to fulfill a collective vision.
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