ADPSR

Reflections
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    2. Should the twin towers be rebuilt? Certainly not as they were (they couldn't be marketed now anyway), nor with even more beefed up security. What should be done at the site should not reflect the arrogance of power, but rather the resilience of contin-ued and vibrant life and also very clearly the sorrow of their histo-ry and the admission of human vulnerability that is one of its lessons. Waiting and thought and public discussion are in any event necessary; after a great loss it is wise to let time go by and imme-diate reactions settle. Planning for what's to be done at the site should become a symbol of the very democratic processes that ter-rorism puts at risk.

    3. Avoid the hunker-down, fortress mentality, with police, check-points, metal detectors, limited access everywhere. Risk management suggests that the costs, in terms of everyday life, business activities, democratic conduct, must be taken into account in plans to avoid the dangers of terrorism. The quality of urban life is what brings people to cities and makes living there worth while; don’t kill it. People don’t live in cities or come to them to be safe, but to enjoy a fuller, richer life.

    4. Public spaces should remain public, open to the public, available for public uses, without all but the most minimal restric-tions necessary for their effective use. Democracy and urbanity are encouraged by the free availability of public space; surveillance, controls, restrictions, can only be imposed at substantial cost to those values.

    5. The attack will cause a major shift in private market real estate prices in downtown Manhattan and in office clusters throughout the city. Watch developments closely, and if excess profits are being made, if speculation threatens stable business activities, consider forms of control, from commercial rent regula-tion to speculation taxes on real estate profits to planning policies channeling growth.

    6. Economic development policy must continue to be con-cerned with the needs of major transnational corporations, but attention must increase to the needs of smaller-scale businesses (local as well as nationally and internationally-oriented) that draw on the unique skills and talents of the city’s actual residents, including creativity, imagination, hard work, and social commit-ment. They range from media-connected activities to specialty manufacturing, from medical research to printing, from education to community-based neighborhood economic development. The weight of subsidies should go to such locally-based activities, and job creation must be a key criterion, and must be monitored.

    7. Cultural work – artistic, literary, inventive, scientific, media, research, educational – is vital to the city’s economic and social life. Major global business connections are an important connection for such work, but not its heart, which will be largely small-scale anti-bureaucratic. Public policy should support such work, and in planning terms see to it that the real estate market does not exile it through high rents, but permits it to flourish.

    8. While public funding for adequate security must be provid-ed, it cannot be a the expense of meeting the other needs of the city’s residents – including those which, if unmet, themselves breed insecurity. There must be a focus on improving education and economic conditions for the city’s lower-income residents, as the mainstay of its population. The choice is between further exclusion, or real and steady improvement and connection with the

city’s mainstream economic, social, and cultural life. Exclusion, walls, separation cannot provide security; acceptance and shared fortunes can.

    9. Changes in private market real estate developments may lead to a glut of expensive housing and a shortage of affordable housing; the housing goal needs to be new construction, but target-ed to where the need is, not where the greatest profit can be made. The need for low-rent housing is likely to grow even greater with the economic aftermath of September 11. And there is a danger of secondary displacement, as higher-income households who have lost their units near the World Trade Center move into lower-rent units otherwise available to lower-income households, and drive up housing prices.

    10. Tourism planning needs to be refined. Attractions that are available anywhere – Disney stores, conventional mass-market attractions, chain stores and chain entertainment, – will not bring people to New York City if they can have them elsewhere; there are 728 identical Disney stores in the country.. What is really unique to the city must be emphasized, not what makes the city look more like a glorified high-class suburb.

    11.The city must make it clear that it is a welcoming city for all peoples, that we do not confuse culture with cause, that we are and will remain an international city and a multicultural city. Diversity must be shown to be an asset, not a liability; immigration must be shown as an attraction, not a danger.

    12.The city should maintain mixes of uses and occupancy and building types, avoiding homogeneous concentrations of activities either at the high or low end of the economic ladder; avoid both attempting to maintain citadels and permitting ghettos, and encour-age contact across social and physical dividing lines in the city.

    13. The city must invest heavily in mass transit. The inevitable move of businesses from within to outside the city, with the attendant pressure for easier commuting, should be resisted – balanced against – the facility of moving about the city itself free of congestion, making staying in the city more efficient as well as providing environmental and tax benefits. The limit on one-person vehicles entering the south of the city is a step in the right direc-tion, but must be accompanied by an equivalent improvement in other forms of access.

    14. Security for travelers and visitors should be as hassle-free as possible. Consider decentralizing airport check-in and security clearance to convenient multiple central locations, with direct secure transportation to flights. Make access to airports simple and clear, including direct access by mass transit. Make international visitors feel welcome once they have cleared security.

    15. Lobby for state and national legislation preventing fiscal competition among cities to attract businesses (a zero-sum game for cities, a transfer of wealth from public to private hands), akin perhaps to the European Union’s anti-subsidy rules. National, state, and local subsidies must serve social purposes, not simply replace or guarantee business profits. Since high-visibility, prestige cities will be losing some of their attractiveness for the private market after September 11, the danger is that such competition will increase as the stakes

Peter Marcuse is a professor of urban planning at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and a member of ADPSR/NY Board of Advisors.