I just found this good economic revitalization proposal from an NYU website. There is a whole list of recommendations on that page, including creation of skyscrapers in Midtown West and Queens West, and the further development of Downtown Brooklyn. Also included are transportation improvements that include a new Second Avenue Subway and reform in the MTA, improved access to airports, especially Kennedy Airport, and a comprehensive plan to bring all kinds of manufacturing and distribution industries back to the city. It seems quite similar to the NYC and WTC revitalization petition that is part of my signature, so I couldn't pass it up.

The report was published two months before 9-11, but it's still a good read. Of course, we should add the rebuilding of the Twin Towers to their 110-floor height and 4 milion sq. ft. of space-each capacity on Ground Zero, and the rebuilding and revitalization of Lower Manhattan as a whole (not by the shitty LMDC) to the list of recommendations.

The Comprehensive Long-Term Development Strategy for New York City was created by Senator Charles Schumer and some 35 other people with a little help from NYU. Strangely, no one I know of in the LMDC is among this Group of 35; the only WTC-linked name I recognized in that group was RPA president Robert Yaro.

The :

Premise

"During the past decade, New York City's economy reached astounding heights, and projections indicate the next 20 years could be better still. Estimates show that the City could gain nearly 600,000 new jobs by 2020. Just as in the past 20 years, these new jobs will come more and more from companies in the "Ideas Economy" where value is created by "thinking things, rather than moving things". These growing companies need office space. In fact, half of the projected employment growth for the next 20 years will be found among office-based companies. To accommodate the growth in the office sector, the City will need to add approximately 60 million square feet of office space by 2020. Without this new space, New York City stands to lose thousands of jobs and the economic activity they will generate.

In the 1990s, the City's depressed real estate market offered growing companies affordable rents and an abundance of available office space. This helped to foster economic expansion and the creation of new businesses that eventually filled office buildings that had long been vacant. Now the once languishing real estate market has turned completely around, with rents climbing to historic highs and vacancy rates dropping to 20 year lows. The City's main economic concern is not that new employment growth might wane in the short term - it is that there is not enough new office space to support future employment growth.

In the market today, troublesome barriers block efforts to create new office space. At the outset of the Group of 35's work in the spring of 2000, the City was experiencing strong office-based employment growth but was producing almost no new office inventory. In the following year, the City's employment growth has slowed somewhat, with short-term employment increases likely to be less than have been seen in peak years. However, this has very little impact on the City's need for more office space in the future.

While economic recessions like the one seen in the late 1980s and early 1990s spawned severe contractions in the real estate market, conditions today are much different than in the past. New construction has all but stalled, and vacancy rates remain near historic lows. While a slowdown in the City's economy could certainly loosen the extremely tight real estate market for a year or two, the supply shortage is so severe that even a recession would not restore the market to equilibrium in the long term. The barriers to new construction and subsequent limited development activity have left the City's office market poorly equipped to meet the economic challenges of the next two decades. Without taking action to create more space, New York City will miss out on hundreds of thousands of new jobs and increased economic activity in the next 20 years."

My favorite part of this plan is:

"PART 2: CREATING THREE NEW AND EXPANDED CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICTS CENTERED AROUND THREE URBAN BUSINESS CAMPUSES

While Manhattan's existing Central Business Districts offer opportunities for new office space, they do not have enough space to meet all of the projected demand. In addition, the City does not currently offer low-cost alternatives to compete with other locations in the region. To fill these needs, the Group of 35 calls for the creation of three new and expanded Central Business Districts, at the core of which will be an Urban Business Campus (see below).

The three Central Business Districts will be in the following locations:


Downtown Brooklyn - an expanded Central Business District anchored by MetroTech. The assemblage and development of sites along Willoughby Street and surrounding areas will yield an additional 12 million square feet of office space, which combined with existing office stock will produce a Central Business District with 20 million square feet.


Long Island City - a new Central Business District centered around the Jackson Avenue corridor and served by a new intermodal station at Sunnyside Yards. This development will provide
15 million square feet of office space.


Far West Side - a new Central Business District on Manhattan's Far West Side to be served by an extended No. 7 train that will connect the area to Penn Station, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Times Square and Grand Central Station. The development in the area will provide at least 20 million square feet of office space.

Creating each Central Business District requires tailored strategies to induce development. While the elements of each strategy are similar (all require rezoning, condemnation and transportation improvements) the primary barrier to each Central Business District is different. In Downtown Brooklyn, the key to development is using condemnation to overcome obstacles to site assemblage. In Long Island City, the primary factor is providing enough zoning density for a sizable office district. On the Far West Side, the most critical issue will be providing mass transit access west of Eighth Avenue. These tasks present challenges that will require considerable public and private sector investments and strong political will. However, adding at least 47 million square feet of new office space in Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City and the Far West Side must be a top economic development priority."


I highly recommend this report because I firmly believe that the rebuilding of the Twin Towers, which for some reason neither Libeskind or Silverstein will allow, really needs to go hand in hand with that kind of overall city revitalization program.