City Planning’s Amanda Burden to join Bloomberg consultancy

Amanda Burden and the High Line
Amanda Burden and the High Line

Outgoing City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden singled out the High Line on Manhattan’s Far West Side as the highlight of her 12-year stint with the Bloomberg administration – and said she would stick with her current boss even after he leaves office.

“It had become over time a garden in the sky than ran for 22 blocks,” Burden, speaking in an interview on WNYC, said of the High Line. “I thought that if this could be turned into a park, this could become the defining feature of a whole new neighborhood.”

Indeed, several projects in the area, including the Hudson Yards megadevelopment, tout the High Line as a key perk.

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Burden told WNYC that when she took office, the immediate challenge was to help Mayor Michael Bloomberg “restore confidence in the city,” referring to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Later, her efforts moved to ensuring that New York “became a city of five boroughs,” with major development projects in Brooklyn and Queens.

When asked of her future plans, Burden said that “Mayor Bloomberg has asked me to stay with him.”

Burden revealed that she would join an upcoming venture called Bloomberg Associates, which she dubbed “an Urban SWAT team” that would help cities around the world realize their development and planning ambitions. [WNYC]Hiten Samtani