Doctoroff analyzes PlaNYC

By 2030, New York City’s population is expected to grow to 9 million
people, and to prepare for all the new residents, Mayor Michael
Bloomberg’s administration created PlaNYC in 2005 to invest in
infrastructure, build more homes, improve subways and make the city
more environmentally friendly.

At the Museum of the City of New York
last night, Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor and an originator of
PlaNYC, talked about some of the successes and failures of the program.

Doctoroff said 93 percent of PlaNYC’s initiatives are underway, but the
plan had some setbacks, like the rejection of the mayor’s congestion
pricing plan last year, which Doctoroff said was a “horrible tragedy.”

One goal of the housing initiatives is preserving the city’s existing
affordable housing, but the mayor’s deadline to create and preserve
165,000 units of affordable housing has been pushed back a year, until
2014, because of the economy.

Doctoroff said currently 70 percent of
New Yorkers live within walking distance of a subway line, which needs
to be increased as the population grows, and the number 7 line’s
extension to the Hudson Yards is underway.

Hilary Ballon, associate vice chancellor for New York University Abu Dhabi, and Thomas Bender, a professor of humanities at NYU, also spoke at the event about the history and future of city planning in relation to PlaNYC. TRD