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May 20, 2008

O, Canada: Paper Sniffs at NYC Mega-Projects

Yesterday the Globe and Mail, Canada's paper of record, weighed in with an assessment of Atlantic Yards and the state of NYC's big developments in general. Basically, our neighbor to the north doesn't seem all that impressed with what it sees. The story's got a zinger about B2, the first non-arena building on tap for AY ("a red-and-pink agglomeration reminiscent of a hillside shantytown"), and it notes the "stark" contrast between a $15-a-head Atlantic Yards fundraiser held at Southpaw last week and the unveiling of the luxury boxes for the Barclays Center ("you could pony up $540,000 a year for one of 12 'elite' boxes, which, in an illustration that rich people operate in a different sphere of logic, are actually bunkers, located under the bleachers, with no view of the action"). The article ends by sticking it to the Bloomberg administration's various grand and doomed plans:

Atlantic Yards isn't the only large-scale development in trouble. At the end of March, the developer Tishman Speyer was granted the rights to build office space, parklands, and residential towers on Manhattan's West Side Railyards. But two weeks ago, when it couldn't change the terms of the billion-dollar deal it had just agreed to, it walked off like a spoiled child. The Bloomberg Administration now has two failures to its credit in that one spot, after its ill-fated plan for a football stadium died with its Olympic bid. Still, the administration, which doesn't seem to grasp that New York is a city of people who live at street level, continues to push these sorts of high concept developments. Up in Harlem, city council has just approved a rezoning that will see skyscraping office buildings and luxury condos consume historic 125th Street. The local community was opposed to it, of course. Not that it mattered.

Not Mr. Gehry's Neighbourhood? [Globe and Mail]
Railyards photo by masnyc; unhappy face by Cubtracker.

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"Canada, America's hat"

Posted by: lifer at May 20, 2008 10:02 AM

high rises with no street life work in Nevada. Why not on 125th Street and Atlantic Yards? Shouldn't we be learning from success?

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:03 AM

Brooklyn's a big place, just like Harlem. Both could stand some big-building development. I don't see a problem.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:06 AM

People who live at street level? Not me - my apartment's on the 17th floor and my office on the 42nd. In fact, I wouldn't feel comfortable literally living at street level because then all the tourists at street level would be peering in at me.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:12 AM

Who cares what Candians think. They are a bunch of total weirdos.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:18 AM

Canada is the 51st state anyway...

Canada couldn't stand without us anyway and they are bitching about NYC...

WOW....

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:21 AM

The street level living comment is a little weird. Well-designed multi-story buildings aren't incompatible with street life, although thoughtless high-rise buildings are. Maybe that was the point.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:25 AM

10:18, is a Candian someone who comes from Candyland, the popular game for children? Anyway, sure, blame Canada. There happens to be much that Americans could learn from Canadians. Their stance on the Iraq "war" (rather invasion) particularly prior to the invasion, is just one of many things. Of course their less egocentric view of the world and their love of hockey are also admirable.

Posted by: Biff Champion at May 20, 2008 10:28 AM

Couldn't agree more, Biff.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:32 AM

Biff, they are still really weird....have you ever been to Canada, eh? I'm soooory, if I was offensive, but I was in Tooroontoo last week, eh? Believe me, those guys don't get out of the house enough...

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:35 AM

Biff, they are still really weird....have you ever been to Canada, eh? I'm soooory, if I was offensive, but I was in Tooroontoo last week, eh? Believe me, those guys don't get oooout of the house enough...

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:35 AM

10:35, you need to work on the accent. Yes, I've been to Canada many times and I think it's a wonderful country, from Quebec City, Montreal, Banff/Jasper and Vancouver to the smaller, incredibly picturesque and charming towns. And Toronto and Torontonians are fabulous; they get out of the house plenty, as much during the winter months as the summer months.

Posted by: Biff Champion at May 20, 2008 10:43 AM

The Globe & Mail is not representative of Canadians generally, but more accurately, caters to the sensibilities of navel-gazing Torontonians who have a severe case of NYC envy. Hence the schadenfreude when things go awry in the Big Apple.

Consistent with the Canadian penchant for dogmatic adherence to sacred cows, there is an abiding belief north of the border than anything that contradicts the urban planning philosophy of Jane Jacobs must be opposed, denigrated and ridiculed post-haste, hence the snide comment regarding the Bloomberg administration's alleged blindness to the reality of NYC living that the column's author, in his infinite wisdom, so clearly perceives better than the rest of us.

I think the article only highlights the author's myopia. Unfortunate that Canada's paper of record can't come up with anything more nuanced and insightful.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:45 AM

Dont get the logic at all

1 & 2 story private homes = suburbs = no street life

skyscrapers with residential + retail = urban = street life.

I think what Canada doesnt understand is that to get street life you need lots of people ehhh

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:47 AM

Canadians are cute. I like Canadians. I don't really care what they think of development in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

Posted by: bigbubba at May 20, 2008 10:49 AM

I've never met a Canadian I didn't like.

Posted by: Fjorder at May 20, 2008 11:05 AM

Fjorder, same here. I recently saw a couple of Canadian tourists by the water in DUMBO and, recognizing the name of the university on one of their jackets, made a comment to them. They turned around, smiled, introduced themselves, asked a bunch of questions about Brooklyn and spoke about how great their trip to New York had been. All of my experiences with them have been equally as positive.

Posted by: Biff Champion at May 20, 2008 11:26 AM

I'm with Biff too. funny how a country so many miles away can see soooooo clearly into the state of the City. It's a sad commentary on the planning board and the Mayor- if anything can be said to describe their plans best it's "oooooohhhhh......shiny!"

Oddly enough, magpies and crows feel the same way about little pieces of glass and coins.

bxgrl

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 11:37 AM

Can there be any greater example of the irrelevancy of DDDB arguments then that they have been adopted by the most irrelevant nation on earth?

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 11:38 AM

oh yes? 11:38- what a classic example of the same arrogant American stupidity we have shown for the last 8 years. At the very least they know how to keep their streets clean.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 11:41 AM

Who cares brownstoner? Slow day?

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 12:13 PM

Canadian chicks are hot.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 12:44 PM

There's no relevance to the source being Canadian. The project is crap, a huge transfer of public resource to a developer - not just a helping hand to promote development, but a transfer that allows millions in excess profits. And thow that it's gotten more expensive, the costs get cut to sustain the profits and the project is not just crap, but cheap crap. And it'll look it too.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 12:46 PM

hilarious. scouring the globe for any anti-AY sentiment one can find. i think the Baghdad Ledger ran something last week if you're interested.

Posted by: BrooklynLove at May 20, 2008 1:25 PM

New York is an example of urban planning that people all over the world look to both for negative and positive examples. That global train of thinking is what gives countries such as Canada a leg up when it comes to international relations and civic pride. But instead of taking constructive criticism with a grain of salt, in true Bush fashion, some of you spit on the very thought that someone would dare critique your city as though it's a personal attack. It's true some of the comments in the article are silly. The thing about street level living for example when Toronto is full of highrises with more going up everyday, but still it does make some intersting points about the abuse of beaurocracy (sp?) that occurred to get this project done.
Toronto, the biggest city in Canada is hardly a Baghdad,it's not as though Toronto is so far flung and out of touch with city living. It's film festival is a major draw these days, as big as the Tribeca festival. Many major corporations have sister parent companies to those in New York both financial and otherwise. Oh yeah and it's dollar increased something like 50% in the last couple of years alone to become at parity with the US dollar and Europeans and other global investors still find it worthwhile to invest in the many new developments that are going on there.

The city should be glad people are still looking at it as an example of urban culture as it becomes more and more mid-west generic every day.

Posted by: Tdeezy at May 20, 2008 2:06 PM

Tdeezy, excellent post and I agree with you 100%.

Posted by: Biff Champion at May 20, 2008 3:36 PM

Agree with you, Tdeezy.

Posted by: gwbrubaker at May 20, 2008 4:12 PM

Tdeezy - interesting commentary but i could've picked any city anywhere to make the same point - that this blog bends over backward to find negative news about A-Y, yet posts little to no positive news (and when posting positive news does so along with a negative view). an analogy that would be specifically apt to baghdad would be: getting one's gulf war status reports from the iraqi info minister getting AY reports from brownstoner.com

Posted by: BrooklynLove at May 20, 2008 4:40 PM

Right on, BrooklynLove! Couldn't agree more.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 5:02 PM

BrooklynLove-
I'm not really commenting on the coverage of AY as the reaction of some of the posters to the source of the article. I personally see pros and cons to the plan although I certailny see that certain sides of the fence have benefitted greatly compared to others and I especially find what I view as the abuse of eminent domain saddening. Nevertheless... I absolutely agree, you could pick any major city to make the point. I'm using Toronto as the main example here just because it's Canada's major city which is the place people seem to have such an issue with. But I have the feeling these same folks would've jumped down the back of any international commentary be it Berlin or Paris as though no one outside of NYC is worthy of commenting on what looks like a plan that's a bit on the shady side.

Side note - the article mentions that Frank Gehry is Canadian born which is probably a big reason why the newspaper thought to comment on the plan. As in every country Canada likes to talk about the status of its own.

Posted by: Tdeezy at May 20, 2008 5:11 PM

The proposed Atlantic Yards project has been a hoodwinking and travesty. I'm sorry.

The public financing for private gain is disgusting and the threat of eminent domain is wretched.

It involves so many hundreds of millions in public funds that it is on the radar screen in many places. Good for the Canadian-based paper for the publishing the article! Why not?!

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 5:57 PM

Wasn't Gehry supposedly pulling out of the project?!!!

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 5:58 PM

Tdeezy -- The central flaw of your argument is that the quality (or lack thereof, as you point out) of the comments posted here has no bearing on whether the article itself merits publication in Canada's paper of record.

It's barely helpful for you to claim that New Yorkers should be happy someone is paying attention to what's going on here. And, it's also pretty noncontroversial (and again unhelpful) to say that New Yorkers shouldn't expect accolades all the time. But, when the commentary from elsewhere is as assanine as what the Globe wrote, then it's fair game to point out the problems and biases of the article. Indeed, fair reporting dictates as much.

More to the point, the Globe's article ought to be held to a higher standard than the posters on this site, which is the central logical point you seem to ignore.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 6:22 PM

asinine in your opinion, 6:22. Unfortunately for your argument, the Canadian article made valid points. And so did Tdeezy.Just what would have constituted a higher standard to you? Oh, we love the AY project?

Actually the article was quite acerbic and took a rather jaundiced view of NYC real estate. But the real point for us is that the present redesign is even more awful and ridiculous than the earlier ones. Hillside shantytown indeed it is.

Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 7:56 PM

Canada will be worthless once AY is built.

Posted by: guest at May 21, 2008 9:16 AM

« End Days for Community Boards? New Building In Pipeline for 94 Prospect Place »

May 20, 2008

O, Canada: Paper Sniffs at NYC Mega-Projects

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