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The
New York 2030 Notebook edited by Jeff Byles
and Olympia Kazi
Institute for Urban Design, 2008
Paperback, 72 pages
In late 2007 the Institute
for Urban Design's symposium New
York 2030: New York's Green Future brought together
authors of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC
and a panel of urban design experts. The initial excitement
and optimism about the Mayor's plan gave way to questions
about its details, process, potential and other considerations
in the months leading up the event, after the plan's official
unveiling in April of the same year. Adrian Benepe, Alexandros
Washburn and others from the administration spoke positively
yet realistically about the plan's goals (ten in three broad
categories) in the morning, and academics and advocates
questioned the goals and more in the afternoon session.
This first in a series of notebooks by the Institute for
Urban Design documents the New York 2030 discussion and
adds other voices to the mix, "experts...invited to
share their visions for an urban future."
For both the proceedings and the
invited voices, brevity is apparent, fitting for a document
calling itself a notebook. This results in a large number
of contributions touching on numerous topics, from biking
and street trees to environmental justice and citizen participation.
The variety is most appealing, but those interested in learning
more about a particular contribution's perspective are left
to their own devices; the notebook does not proffer suggested
readings. Also appealing are the news timeline that accompanies
the essays in part two -- noting important events "both
directly and indirectly affected by the plan" -- and
the ticker tape at the bottom of each page that transcribes
the 127 initiatives from PlaNYC's ten goals.
In effect the book is a layering
of these four areas: New York 2030 symposium, invited contributions,
news timeline, and PlaNYC goals and initiatives. The notebook
can therefore be read in a number of ways, and the relationships
between the four areas, while clearly focuses on the Mayor's
plan, vary depending on one's approach as well as background.
Without an index or another way of connecting the dots,
the information basically floats on the pages, raising important
considerations but then stepping aside. This characteristic
of the notebook exhibits the complexity and diversity of
the ideas swirling around the plan, though ultimately it
becomes clear that PlaNYC is just a start. Much more needs
be considered, addressed and strived for if the plan is
be successful and just.
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