The link between high rises and affordable housing is a real one: in New York City, the 421a tax abatement program rewards developers who build debt-free affordable apartments anywhere in the city with 10-year tax abatements on 5 market apartments in Manhattan between 14th and 96th Streets (a representative 2000 article).

In general, the market apartemnts are high-rise units: the affordable housing is whatever makes sense (the 421a units that I know of in the Bronx are all mid-rise units on infill sites).

Couldn't disagree more.

As a native NYer I see the glory of the ever changing neighborhood and I appreciate it. But I also see the value in keeping Greenwich Village looking pretty much like it should, and restricting buildings on Broadway in the UWS to 16 stories.

High rises cause shadows, they darken neighborhoods and make them more dangerous. To prevent this, you need to have large amounts of open space, which is then a good place to congregate, which is also a good place to sell drugs.

Neighborhood character is vital to what makes NYC what it is. It's a lovely idea to say we shouldn't keep things the way they were, but how about having the neighborhood continually evolve around a theme or style instead of allowing people to right to 'doze the tenaments and put up high-rise condos in their stead.

"But I also see the value in keeping Greenwich Village looking pretty much like it should"

Like it *should*? 'scuse me, but as another native New Yorker, I'd really like to know the reasoning behind this... I suspect it amounts to "I'm used to it this way" and nothing more.

I like a lot of the current look of NY as well, but I tend to put a higher premium on affordable housing than 'gee, those stores and bars look nifty'.

"High rises cause shadows, they darken neighborhoods and make them more dangerous."

I was thinking the same thing... until I remembered electricity.
And do you really feel less safe when standing in the midday shadow of a skyscraper? I know I don't. High rise shadows don't transport a block to Burton's Gotham City.

"It's a lovely idea to say we shouldn't keep things the way they were"

It's not about forcing change, it's about allowing it. In all systems, stasis is stagnation. We can either let it grow or watch it die.

There's a big difference between one generation of immigrants being replaced by another, and neighborhoods being coopted by boorish yuppies from Ohio. The former is change, the latter progress. Manhattan is no longer made up of 'neighborhoods' at all. Greenwich Village is just a tasteful facade. The same can not -yet- be said of most areas of the outer boroughs, especially those populated by immigrants. Go to Astoria at night and in some areas you might think you were in Paris. though the languages overheard are usually other than french (or english.)

Life shouldn't be about either 'progress' or money;
Leftists and -grass roots- social conservatives whatever their differences, agree on this. American liberals and economic conservatives think otherwise, to which I respond with a polite fuck you.

Good post, Nathan. Government is too often used by people to impose their will on society, as in this case. That's why I'm a libertarian.