Streetsblog New York City

For an investigation published this weekend, the New York Times calculated that governments in New York state give away at least $4.06 billion in corporate subsidies every year. In New York City, the agency that oversees much of this largesse is the Economic Development Corporation. And when it comes to shaping city fabric, NYC EDC has a predilection for showering its subsidies on a specific type of project: the kind with tons of parking.

So when Comptroller John Liu suggested at a mayoral candidates forum last week that all business subsidies should be eliminated, along with the city’s Industrial Development Agency (the arm of EDC that oversaw the Yankee Stadium garage debacle, among other things), he struck on an idea that could do a world of good for NYC’s walkability.

EDC has a hand in many things, from training small business start-ups to encouraging the installation of solar panels, but its biggest imprint on the city comes from large-scale real estate development and financing deals that shape the built environment. EDC projects like the parking-saturated Gateway Center in the South Bronx are completely out of step with the Bloomberg administration’s professed intent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While NYC DOT has helped carry out the city’s sustainability goals by redesigning city streets to enhance walking, biking, and transit, EDC has continued to insist on a car-oriented development strategy that produces large volumes of parking and hostile streets for walking. ”The worst thing we could do,” EDC President Seth Pinsky told Streetsblog in 2010, “is create projects that create a parking need and then not provide that parking.”

Because EDC’s primary focus is on brokering business deals, said Hunter College city planning professor Tom Angotti, it’s common for EDC’s goals not to align with other administration environmental or transportation priorities. ”EDC operates relatively independently,” he said, and it “isn’t subject to the same kind of sunlight that other agencies are.”

So far, Liu is the only mayoral candidate seeking to end EDC business subsidies entirely. But even if EDC continues to offer development subsidies in the next administration, there are ways to better target the incentives so they meet broader goals.

City Council Member Brad Lander, who sits on the economic development committee, told Streetsblog that he wants more rigorous requirements — including transportation benchmarks — if the city continues to subsidize development. ”The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles has a whole series of criteria for sustainability,” Lander said. “I would like EDC to have similar set of standards and guidelines to what the CRA/LA has, including a broad set of transportation issues, such as maximizing use of public transportation.”

There’s a compelling case to be made that EDC’s eagerness to subsidize parking is harming the city, and that the next mayor should reform the agency. Take a look at this by-no-means-comprehensive list of how EDC has spent millions to build more parking, often for no other discernible reason than to distribute political spoils:

Read more…

At a panel put on by the New School last week, some of New York's biggest players in transportation and planning came together to discuss the future of the city's infrastructure. They all seemed to agree: The city can't keep up with its global competitors without new sources of revenue.

Christopher Ward, the executive director of the Port Authority, framed the stakes: "We have to ask, what builds wealth?" The other panelists concurred: New York's health and economic dominance won't continue without consistent investment in its infrastructure, particularly its transportation network.

Seth Pinsky, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, put it more directly. "We have spent the last 20 years trying to get our infrastructure back to pre-1970 levels," he said. Without moving further, "We will not be able to compete with other world cities."

Read more...

Emil Choski has given his Car-Free Bedford Avenue project a serious face lift. The 22-year-old freelance graphic designer and community organizer's new web site includes a three dimensional "flyby" visualization accompanied by some very un-Williamsburgy classical music. With apologies to the Meatpacking District and Ninth Avenue, Emil's project has to be my favorite grassroots livable streets initiative going right now. When is Dan Doctoroff going to wake up and give this kid a job at the Economic Development Corporation?! Choski writes:

The plan calls for the complete banning of automobiles on the stretch of Bedford Ave starting at Metropolitan Avenue and passing through and ending at McCarren park. The cross streets would be left open to cars and trucks in order to allow for necessary deliveries. The current traffic as well as the B61 bus will be rerouted to parallel avenues including Driggs Ave and Berry St. Emergency vehicles will continue to have access to Bedford Ave. What will replace the cars is a thriving pedestrian community, more outdoor seating for restaurants, islands of greenery, public sculpture, and anything else that makes the community more alive and beautiful.

From today's Crain's Insider:

Insiders say Joan McDonald, senior vice president of transportation for the city's Economic Development Corp., is the leading candidate to replace Iris Weinshall as transportation commissioner. McDonald has a broad resume, having worked for Jacobs Engineering Group, the city Department of Transportation, the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Mayor Mike Bloomberg's office would not comment on her candidacy. Weinshall is leaving the job in mid-April to take a vice chancellor's post at CUNY.