1.O’Connell, “15 Reasons.”
2.Leon, “Skyscraper Boom.”
3.Trejos, “Berlin.”
4.Ozimek, “Richard Florida.”
5.Nezik, “Tourism Troubles.”
6.White, “London.”
7.Clack, “Would You Live in Cupboard?”
8.Blackwell, “Urban Renaissance.”
9.Richter, “San Francisco.”
10.Misener, “9 Private Islands.”
11.Earth Porm, “7 Castles.”
12.Graff, “What $350,000 Buys.”
13.Carroll, “Never Be Able to Buy.”
14.Smith, “Conversation.”
1.Solomont, “220 CPS.”
2.Navarro, “Long Lines.”
1.Kelley, “Disappearing Acts,” 64.
2.REBNY, website.
3.New York Times, “Harlem Is Booming.”
4.Hackman, “When Harlem Becomes White.”
5.Makalani, “Sociological Analysis of Renaissance,” 12.
6.New York Times, “Landlord Brings in Negroes.”
7.William Blumstein, then head of the store, finally gave in to pressures from local residents and promised to hire 35 African Americans for clerical and sales positions. In 1938, Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. led the Greater New York Coordinating Committee for Employment and secured agreements with Woolworth’s, Kress, A. S. Beck, and other major businesses to cease their discriminating hiring policies.
8.Schoener, Harlem on My Mind, 132–134.
9.Schoener, Harlem on My Mind, 237–238.
10.Sterne, “Harlem’s Dreams.”
11.Felber, “Apollo Theater.”
12.According to calculations by Schaffer and Smith, “Gentrification of Harlem,” 358, based on census data.
13.“The western corridor of Central Harlem is experiencing the beginning of gentrification. Above-average increases in income and rent levels as well as in the number of high-income families were matched by a rapid increase in sales activity” (Schaffer and Smith, “Gentrification of Harlem,” 357).
14.Novy, “Marginalized Neighborhoods,” 172.
15.Hicks, “Street Vendors.”
16.NYPD, “2001 Crime Statistics.”
17.Furman Center, “Trends.”
18.Waldman, “Harlem, Hero’s Welcome.”
19.The UMEZ began operations in 1995 and made its first round of grants and loans in 1996. In 2000, the UMEZ’s operations were extended through December 2009. Legislation enacted in 2009 extended again the UMEZ’s program through December 2011.
20.Maurrasse, Listening to Harlem, 38.
21.Maurrasse, Listening to Harlem; Hyra, New Urban Renewal.
22.Quoted in Hyra, New Urban Renewal, 75.
23.Dunlap, “Changing Look of Harlem.”
24.Zukin, Naked City, 87.
25.Novy, “Marginalized Neighborhoods,” 167.
26.Maurrasse, Listening to Harlem, 97.
27.Novy, “Marginalized Neighborhoods,” 202.
28.Starting in 2007, the BID also started cooperating with the Department of City Planning and issued reports and recommendations for the rezoning of 125th Street as a cultural and shopping hub.
29.Cardwell, “Casting Call (Smile!).”
30.Sadly, the Lenox Lounge closed the same year, in December 2012, because of the escalating rental price.
31.Kaufman, “Must-see Harlem.”
32.Uptown Magazine, “Toast to Luxury.”
33.Uptown Magazine, “Toast to Luxury.”
34.From the website of BET: “ ‘Harlem Heights’ will provide a window into the fascinating world of New York’s young, Black and fabulous crowd. Set against the backdrop of the increasingly gentrified neighborhood of Harlem, the series features a diverse cast of eight young adults from different backgrounds who share common goals—making the post-college leap into adulthood and finding love and success in the big city on their own terms.”
35.Burden, “Statement at City Planning Commission.”
36.City of New York, DCP, “125th Street Original Proposal.”
37.City of New York, DCP, “125th Street Press Release,” 2007.
38.Feltz, “Redlining.”
39.City of New York, DCP, “125th Street Corridor Rezoning.”
40.Feltz, “Redlining.”
41.See Buettner, “Faltering Harlem Housing Deal.”
42.Hyra, New Urban Renewal, 137.
43.Williams, “Council Approves Rezoning.”
44.Durkin, “Council Approves Rezoning.”
45.Vornado Realty Trust, developer of the demised “Harlem Park” office tower at 125th Street and Park Avenue, and Kimco Realty, which has purchased a two-story building at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass and evicted its long-time tenants to replace the building with a new retail complex, are both linked to donations for hundreds of thousands of dollars to Representative Charles B. Rangel’s fundraising operation since the 2004 election cycle, according to Hernandez, “Real Estate Developers.”
46.Williams, “Council Approves Rezoning.”
47.Rudish and Lombardi, “Council OKs Rezoning Plan.”
48.Barron, quoted in Chung, “Council Passes Rezoning.”
49.Topousis, “Rezoning OK’d.”
50.Dickens, quoted in Durkin, “Council Approves Rezoning.”
51.Gale, personal interview, 2014.
52.Tucker, “Zoned Out.”
53.Henry, “Community Fights Gentrification.”
54.Bailey, quoted in Chaban, “Harlem’s Future?”
55.Rhodes-Pitts, quoted in Warner, “Rezoning Harlem’s Main Street.”
56.Craig Schley, quoted in Tucker, “Zoned Out.”
57.Gale, personal interview, 2014.
58.CUF, “Attack of the Chains?”
59.A commentator on Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York Blog, April 9, 2008.
60.Heilpern, “Princess of the City.”
61.Williams, “City’s Sweeping Rezoning Plan.”
62.City of New York, DCP, “125th Street Rezoning Plan.”
63.City of New York, DCP, “Final Environmental Impact Statement,” 1.0–17.
64.The theater, whose facade and lobby will be restored, is set to become the centerpiece of a massive redevelopment project which will include a 26-story Renaissance Hotel by Marriot, 200 residential rental units, half of which will be below-market rate, retail and cultural space. See City Realty, “Victoria Theater Site.”
65.Henry Adams, quoted in Irwin, “Landmarking the Black Capital.”
66.Angotti, New York for Sale.
67.Barnes, “Harlem on the Rise.”
68.A commentator on Curbed New York, April 30, 2008.
69.Halstead Property, website.
70.Douglas Elliman Real Estate, website.
71.Freeman, There Goes the ’Hood, 53.
72.Hyra, New Urban Renewal, 4.
73.Freeman, There Goes the ’Hood, 92.
74.Beveridge, “Affluent, White Harlem?”
75.Fanelli, “Census Trends.”
76.Zhang, “West Harlem, Identity Crisis.”
77.Spike Lee, quoted in Coscarelli, “Spike Lee’s Rant.”
78.Williams, “Evolving Harlem.”
79.In his book, Freeman documents both the positive and negative sides to the mixing of the new gentry with indigenous residents. Among the positive sides are the dropping crime rates, cleaner streets, and better services, including supermarkets, chain stores, food delivery services, ATM machines, and taxis—in sum, services that are common in most Manhattan neighborhoods but were for too long lacking in Harlem. The other side of the coin, however, is that other kinds of businesses and services, including social services aimed at the poor, are likely to disappear in the gentrifying neighborhood. See Freeman, There Goes the ’Hood, 154.
In his book Listening to Harlem, David J. Maurrasse interviewed Harlem locals to find what their perception of the changing neighborhood was. When asked about what they liked most of the changes in the neighborhood, 22% indicated the availability of new businesses, while another 20% pointed to the rehabilitation and construction of new housing. When asked about what they liked least, however, an overwhelming majority (62%) indicated the escalating costs of living in the neighborhood as the worst aspect of change. When asked whether they knew anyone who had been forced to move because of rising rents, over 58% of respondents answered yes. See Maurrasse, Listening to Harlem, 77–86.
80.Freeman, There Goes the ’Hood, 105.
81.Gale, personal interview, 2014.
82.Henry Adams, quoted in Feltz, “Redlining.”
83.CBS New York, “Police Focus.”
84.Freeman, There Goes the ’Hood, 105.
85.Williams, “Old Sound in Harlem.”
86.Mays, “Brownstone Residents.”
87.Mays, “Brownstone Residents.”
88.Corcoran, “1Q-2001 Manhattan Report.”
89.Corcoran, “1Q-2007 Manhattan Report.”
90.Fusfeld, “Closing Prices.”
91.Budin, “Neil Patrick Harris.”
92.Warerkar, “Record-Setting Townhouse.”
93.Carlos, personal interview, 2014.
94.A Harlem real estate broker, personal interview, 2014.
95.Bailey, “Harlem.”
96.Trotta, “Black New York.”
97.If an apartment is rent regulated, increases each year can’t exceed a fixed amount set annually by the Rent Guidelines Board; however, when an apartment is vacated, rents can climb much faster. When the rental price rises above $2,500 (under the 2011 Rent Act), the unit exits from the rent regulation system and is valued at market rate.
98.Jones, “Subsidized Housing.”
99.Associated Press, “New Laws.”
100.Stulberg, “City to Landlords.”
101.Morgenson, “Rent Tactics.”
102.Associated Press, “New Laws.”
103.Jones, “Subsidized Housing.”
104.Del Signore, “Tenants Sue Owner.”
105.Lowery, “Harlem Growth Plans.” Also see, Solis, “Lenox Terrace Landlord.”
106.Solis, “Lenox Terrace Residents.”
107.Chiaramonte, “Tenants Flee.”
108.Suh, “East Harlem Tenants.”
109.Kapp, “Tenants Evacuated.”
110.U.S. Census Bureau, 2010.
111.A policy of housing discrimination and segregation “formally began in 1935 when the Federal Home Loan Bank Board helped create ‘residential security maps’ to indicate the level of risk for real estate investments in 239 cities. The maps defined most black neighborhoods as ineligible for loans, including Harlem” (Feltz, “Redlining”).
112.Mays, “East Harlem Leaders.”
113.Budin, “Harlem’s Tallest Buildings.”
114.Solis, “City Moving Forward.”
115.A commentator on Curbed New York, May 1, 2008.
116.REBNY, “REBNY Retail Report Fall 2005.”
117.NRA, “Obamacare.”
118.Ryley, “Retail Vacancies by Neighborhood.”
119.Ryley, “Harlem Losing Soul.”
120.Mazor, “Razing Rage in Harlem.”
121.Pruitt, “Developers Back Off.”
122.Bagli, “Blighted Area?”
123.Bagli, “Blighted Area?”
124.Moss, “Boro Hotel.”
125.Moss, “Lenox Lounge Stripped.”
126.CUF, “Attack of the Chains?”; CUF, “Chain Reaction”; Irwin, “Landmarking the Black Capital.”
127.REBNY, “REBNY Retail Report Fall 2011.”
128.CUF, “State of the Chains, 2012.”
129.Melton, “Mark-Viverito.”
130.Clarke, “Extell Makes Deal.”
131.Schaffer and Smith, “Gentrification of Harlem,” 352.
132.Regina Smith, quoted in Feiden, “Big Retailers Moved Uptown.”
1.Moss, “125th Street.”
2.Lefebvre, Production of Space, 347.
3.See Harvey, Urbanization of Capital; and Harvey, Urban Experience.
4.Harvey’s writings have identified urbanism as the spatial manifestation of the process of accumulation of surplus capital. He explains that the capitalist system is inherently unstable and requires constant accumulation to ensure its survival, which results in regular crises of overaccumulation that must be dealt with through numerous “spatial fixes.” Harvey’s argument is based on the idea that space can function as an alternative “fix,” or a “safety valve” for capital accumulation. He distinguishes three different circuits of capital accumulation: the primary circuit is centered on the production and consumption of commodities; the secondary circuit revolves around the production of the built environment; and the tertiary circuit consists of investments in social services and technological innovation. Investment in the production of the built environment can provide a profitable “secondary circuit” of surplus capital absorption, which can be used when overaccumulation problems arise in the primary circuit of commodity production—that is, whenever profitable reinvestment in the primary circuit of capital is made difficult (e.g., because of lack of demand or high labor wages) and when such barriers cannot be easily overcome (e.g., by disciplining labor, outsourcing production, or opening new export markets). See Harvey, Urbanization of Capital; Harvey, Urban Experience; Harvey, “Globalization.”
5.Loomis, “Consuming the City.”
6.Brenner, Marcuse, and Mayer, “Cities for People.”
7.This section draws on Harvey, Urban Experience; and Lefebvre, Production of Space.
8.Jacobs, Death and Life, 4.
9.Harvey, Urban Experience, 44.
10.Van Riper, “Ford to City.”
11.See Fainstein, City Builders; Weber, “Extracting Value.”
12.See Harvey, “Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism.”
13.Weber, “Extracting Value.”
14.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 76.
15.Fainstein, City Builders, 48–49.
16.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 78.
17.The 421-a property tax exemption was established to stimulate residential construction in New York City in times of crisis. It exempted landlords from paying increases in property taxes resulting from their construction. For instance, if a vacant lot was initially valued at $5 million but its value rose to $30 million after construction, the $25 million increase in value wouldn’t be taxed during the exemption period.
18.The J-51 tax abatement was first introduced in the 1950s to encourage capital improvements and repairs, by reducing the taxable assessed value in properties repaired or renovated by their landlords. Through the years, the program was expanded to benefit the conversions of industrial buildings to residential uses, or the conversion of rental buildings to co-ops or condos.
19.Soffer, Ed Koch.
20.See Sanders, Celluloid Skyline; Greenberg, Branding New York; Macek, Urban Nightmares.
21.Schwartz, “New York City and Subsidized Housing.”
22.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 150.
23.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 150.
24.Schwarz, “Gentrification and Its Discontents.”
25.In Marxist economic theory, the term is never explicitly used. The concept, however, is described in The Communist Manifesto and expanded in the Grundrisse and volume IV of Das Kapital, and refers to the interrelated processes of accumulation and destruction of wealth occurring in capitalism.
26.Schumpeter, Capitalism, 83.
27.Lefebvre, Production of Space, 360.
28.Weber, “Extracting Value.”
29.Brenner, Marcuse, and Mayer, “Cities for People,” 178.
30.Weber, “Extracting Value.”
31.Weber, “Extracting Value,” 520–521.
32.Lefebvre, Production of Space.
33.This notwithstanding, the three dimensions of space are intensely contested in capitalist societies. The social space of the city, administered by regulations and policies aimed at enhancing the market value of urban land, is constantly contested by social movements and citizen groups who strive to challenge the dictates of capital profitability and prioritize the value of neighborhoods as spaces for community building and everyday-life social practices. The physical space of the city, dominated by planning arrangements required to ensure the smooth extraction of value from urban land, is challenged by the multiform practices of collective mobilization that strive to reappropriate it, reinvent it, or self-manage it (through occupations, forms of community-based planning, establishment of land trusts, etc.). The symbolic space of the city, monopolized by dominant institutional representations aimed at enhancing the city’s competitiveness in the global market, is constantly scrutinized and challenged in the arts, literature, and the media, and in the personal perceptions of city users, leading to the production of alternative narratives and counterrepresentations of what the city is, or ought to be.
34.NYU, “NYU Space Planning.”
35.Molotch, “Growth Machine,” 309.
36.The growth machine thesis has been the object of discussion and critique in urban geography. Some critics have pointed to its almost exclusive focus on human agency, which de-emphasizes the influence that broader structural social relations play in guiding growth policies. According to some commentators, a flaw of the growth machine thesis lies in its notion of locally tied elites concerned almost exclusively with property development, which on one hand excludes other potential political concerns, and on the other does not take into account the influence of extra-local, super-national, and transnational forces. See Rodgers, “Urban Geography.”
37.Harvey, Urban Experience, 47–48.
38.See Logan and Molotch, Urban Fortunes. See also Molotch, “Growth Machine.”
39.Logan and Molotch, Urban Fortunes, 51.
40.Gutekunst-Roth, “Note: New York.”
41.Gutekunst-Roth, “Note: New York.”
42.Newfield and du Brul, Permanent Government.
43.Harvey, History of Neoliberalism, 45.
44.See Stone, “Summing Up”; and Stone, Regime Politics.
45.See Stone, “Summing Up”; and Stone, Regime Politics.
46.My account of city producers is based on some of the main pivots of urban regime theory (the coalition between governments and nongovernmental organizations; the relative stability of urban regimes, which operate across different administrations). It takes into account the multiscalar nature of urban governance, where decisions affecting local development are often made at extra-local levels, including the national, the super-national, and the transnational level. It also takes into account the contribution of heterogeneous forces, such as grassroots organizations and advocacy groups that strive to have a say in the decision-making process affecting the city.
47.In the scheme that follows, I summarize some of the ways in which city producers contribute to reshaping the physical, social, and symbolic space of the city:
City producers and the production of the physical space—Urban development: Local governments manufacture flexible planning blueprints to encourage privately led real estate development in strategic areas of the city or accommodate development proposals launched by individual developers through ad hoc land use plans. As urban land is re-engineered to maximize its market value, underperforming property markets are obliterated or rehabilitated to pave the way for new capital investments.
City producers and the production of the social space—Urban policy: The corporate and real estate industries lobby governments to enforce measures aimed at facilitating real estate growth and business expansion. This can be accomplished through advantageous fiscal policies by which public budgets are used to absorb the risks of private investment, but also through investments in technology innovations, or even through structural changes in labor and welfare policy aimed at enhancing the productivity of companies.
City producers and the production of the symbolic space—City branding and city marketing: Local coalitions of interests, including elected officials, strive to manufacture attractive images of the city through city marketing and branding initiatives. The manufacturing of dominant representations of a consumerist urbanity through branding and marketing campaigns is aimed at stimulating consumer demand for the commodified city from high-value industries, investors, visitors, and newcomers.
48.Lefebvre, Production of Space, 337.
49.In Marxist political economy, commodification occurs when something is assigned a value in the marketplace that goes beyond its sheer use value, making it into a marketable commodity.
50.See Lefebvre, Production of Space; Harvey, Urban Experience.
51.Marx and Engels, German Ideology, 131.
52.See Harvey, “Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism.”
53.Lefebvre calls it “abstract space” (Lefebvre, Production of Space, 49–50).
54.Florida, Who’s Your City?, 7.
55.See Lloyd and Clark, “City as Entertainment; Florida, Cities and Creative Class; Glaeser and Saiz, “Rise of Skilled City.”
56.Lloyd and Clark, “City as Entertainment,” 362.
57.Let’s see in more detail how:
City consumers and the production of physical space—Physical upgrading: New geographies of consumption emerge in gentrifying neighborhoods, in districts that are catalysts for tourism, and areas that are undergoing large-scale redevelopment plans. In these areas, city consumers’ demand for residential space, retail, services, and amenities is met by public policy and private efforts directed at a physical upgrade of the built environment: the old housing stock can be demolished or rehabilitated according to new consumer tastes and preferences; new urban apartments are built for a more affluent population; new office buildings are created to meet the demands of in-moving companies and their employees; parks, squares, and streetscapes are sanitized and refurbished; bike lanes materialize everywhere; large-scale chain retail and hipster specialty shops settle in; and “obsolete” local businesses that don’t cater to the refined tastes of the new consumers are forced to shut their doors or relocate. Elsewhere, waterfront industrial areas are refurbished and turned into residential communities, high-tech hubs, or office districts, while stunning flagship architectures mushroom all over the city.
City consumers and the production of social space—Social transformations: Entrepreneurial urban policy mobilizes resources to attract different groups of city consumers, by implementing “creative” development agendas favoring the arts and cultural events, subsidizing specific businesses through tax incentives, enforcing forms of control to keep the inner city safe, and stimulating the gentrification of inner-city working-class districts. In areas where new city consumers settle, the old neighborhood life gradually dissolves: long-time social networks are threatened as households who can’t afford to live in the upgraded district are displaced by wealthier residents; small local businesses, intimidated by the competition of larger and more powerful retailers or by escalating rental prices, are forced to relocate or shut down. The old community’s socioeconomic and cultural capital erodes, while a new community emerges, with new habits, new lifestyles, new consumption patterns, new rules, and even a new political voice.
City consumers and the production of symbolic space—Rebranding: In districts undergoing development, even nefarious reputations of times past can be gradually substituted by new, glittering brands of urban living. Real estate developers, city officials, and even the local media strive to craft new narratives of “urbanity,” “diversity,” and “sustainability,” to which the new in-movers can easily relate as customers. Gradually, the consumption of the city becomes a crucial aspect of the daily practices of most city users, including its residents, to which the city is presented as a landscape of consumption.
58.There are two main interpretations that link the urban development process to the practices of production and consumption of space. Demand-side (or consumption-side) explanations stress the importance of the living preferences of new affluent urbanites as the crucial engine of urban transformations: according to this view, city consumers are the major drivers of an urban restructuring process that revolves around their consumption patterns. In other words: what consumers want determines how the city is built. On the other hand, supply-side explanations emphasize the dependency of consumption patterns upon the dictates of capital accumulation. In other words, our environment is built in such a way that it affects the way we consume.
59.With regard to the production of gentrified space for affluent city consumers, urban scholar Kevin Fox Gotham argues that the need for such space is “created and marketed, and depends on alternatives offered by property capitalists who are primarily interested in producing the built environment from which they can extract the highest profit.” See Fox Gotham, “Redevelopment for Whom?.” See also Firat, “Social Construction of Consumption Patterns.”
60.See Harvey, “Right to the City.”
61.Smith, “New Globalism.”
62.See Lees, Slater, and Wyly, Gentrification. See also Lees, Shin, and Morales, Planetary Gentrification.
63.Smith, “New Globalism.”
1.Goodman, “New York Allowed Gentrification.”
2.REBNY, “Invisible Engine.”
3.Mahoney, “REBNY Members.”
4.The program had been established as a 10-year tax abatement for new construction in 1971, at a time when the city was desperate for property investments. It wasn’t until 2006, however, that the program was used to subsidize luxury developments in exchange for including a percentage of affordable units, on- or off-site. Until 2016, most newly constructed housing developments in New York City were eligible for a 10- to 25-year exemption from property taxes under this program. See King, “Calls for Public Discussion.”
5.See King, “Calls for Public Discussion.”
6.Mitsubishi’s ownership was short-lived, and the building was purchased by a group led by Goldman Sachs and Jerry I. Speyer in 1996.
7.Fung, “Foreigners Purchase City Condos.”
8.AFIRE, “Annual Foreign Investment Survey.”
9.Sorkin, “Hotel Buying Spree.”
10.Angotti, New York for Sale.
11.Story, Fehr, and Watkins, “$100 Million Club.”
12.Fiscal Policy Institute, Good Jobs New York, and National Employment Law Project, “Overview of Job Quality.”
13.Gross, “Subsidies in the City.”
14.On August 1, 2002, the deal was pronounced dead by NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso.
15.CUF, “State of the Chains, 2016.”
16.CUF, “Attack of the Chains?”
17.SBE Council, “Small Business Tax Index 2015.”
18.Pratt Center for Community Development, “Saving Independent Retail.”
19.The public advocate is one of the three city offices elected by voters. He or she serves as a mediator between New Yorkers and the local government and advises the mayor on all relations with the electorate. The public advocate responds to complaints about city services, investigates disputes, and provides oversight over city agencies. Bill de Blasio served as public advocate between 2010 and 2013, before his election as mayor of New York. The city comptroller, elected directly by city voters, is the city’s chief financial officer. He or she is responsible for advising the mayor and city council on financial matters, overseeing the city’s budget, and auditing the performance and finances of city agencies. The five borough presidents are elected by direct popular vote but have only limited power and a minimal discretionary budget. Borough presidents are responsible for appointing community boards but have an advisory role on issues relating to their borough, including land use decisions and financial needs.
20.These include the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Buildings (DOB), the Department of City Planning (DCP), the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and dozens of other agencies related to economic development and land use, including the Department of Finance, the Department of Small Business Services, and the mayor’s office of Operations and Long-term Planning and Sustainability (OLPTS).
21.Clarke, “Goldman Sachs.”
22.Of the remaining six members, five are appointed by each of the five borough presidents, and one by the public advocate.
23.The 51 members of city council (1 member for each of the 51 districts) are elected by New Yorkers. Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign them into law. If the mayor vetoes a bill, the council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote.
24.See Peyser, “Melissa Mark-Viverito.”
25.The Real Deal, “Affordable Lender CPC.”
26.Putzier, “De Blasio’s Donors.”
27.Angotti, “Real Power.”
28.Velsey, “Twilight of an Era.”
29.Pogrebin, “Preservation and Development.”
30.Pogrebin, “Preservation and Development.”
31.See Lloyd and Clark, “City as Entertainment”; Florida, Rise of Creative Class; Florida, Cities and Creative Class; Florida, Who’s Your City?; Glaeser and Saiz, “Rise of Skilled City.”
32.See Florida, Rise of Creative Class; Florida, Cities and Creative Class; Florida, Who’s Your City?.
33.Florida, Rise of Creative Class.
34.According to Florida (Who’s Your City?, 84), a 2002 survey released by strategic planning consultancy firm Next Generation Consulting found that “three-quarters of recent college graduates first choose where to live, then look for a job in that market.”
35.The term “perpetual travelers” or “permanent tourists” is used to describe a population of temporary urban residents who live in such a way that they can’t be considered legal residents of any of the countries in which they spend time. By lacking a legal permanent residence status, they are able to avoid the legal obligations that come with residency, such as income and property taxes, social security contributions, and so on.
36.The term was coined by Norma McCaig, president of Global Nomads International. In 1984, she used the term to define “anyone of any nationality who has lived outside their parents’ country of origin (or their ‘passport country’) before adulthood because of a parent’s occupation.” The group may include children of employees in the diplomatic or military sector, international businesses, missionary organizations, and intergovernmental or voluntary agencies. As a social group, they share the experience of having been uprooted from their hometown and of having experienced the cultures and languages of different countries.
37.Florida, Who’s Your City?, 79.
38.Florida, Rise of Creative Class.
39.See Peck, “Creative Class.” See also Malanga, “Curse of Creative Class,” and Kotkin and Siegel, “Too Much Froth.”
40.Peck, “Creative Class,” 747.
41.Peck, “Creative Class,” 760.
42.Currid, “Global Creative Hub.”
43.City of New York, DCP, “Employment Patterns in New York City.”
44.Klinenberg, “Solo Nation.”
45.Lloyd and Clark, “City as Entertainment.”
46.Smith, “New Globalism.”
47.Kim, “Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Motivations.”
48.Alpha shoppers are the most enthusiastic shoppers, with high levels of motivation in all aspects of shopping and consuming. Usually, alpha shoppers have a relatively low degree of education, and most are middle- to low-income individuals. Hedonistic motivations play a large role in their consumption behavior. Beta shoppers are individuals that have strong shopping motivations, but not as high as alpha shoppers. They associate both hedonistic and utilitarian shopping motivations (Kim, “Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Motivations”).
49.Kim, “Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Motivations,” 76.
50.Trendwatching, “Citysumers.”
51.Zukin, “Urban Lifestyles.”
52.Porter, Blaxil, Hervé, and Mixer, “Inner Cities.”
53.The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World’s Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town? is the title of a book edited by Jerilou and Kingsley Hammett, published in 2007.
54.See Judd and Fainstein, Tourist City; Fainstein, “Tourism.”
55.Michael Bloomberg, quoted in Powell, “Despair?”
56.Urry, Tourist Gaze.
57.Moss, “Disney World.”
58.Moss, “Disney World.”
59.See Judd and Fainstein, Tourist City.
60.Sassen and Roost, “The City.”
61.Kotkin, “Where Inequality Is Worst.”
62.CWF, “Empire State of Inequality.”
63.Stilwell and Lu, “10 Most Unequal Big Cities.”
64.FPI, “Grow Together?,” 15.
65.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 200.
66.Gross, “Don’t Hate Them.”
67.Parrot, “Incomes Gap Widens.”
68.Parrot, “Incomes Gap Widens.”
69.FPI, “Grow Together?,” 16.
70.Katz, “Gentrification Hangover.”
71.Kroll, “Billionaire’s Daughter.”
72.Rice, “Stash Pad.”
73.Korn, “NYC’s Luxury Housing Market.”
74.Plitt, “$110K/Month Pad.”
75.Rosenberg, “Buyer Outed.”
76.Marino, “2015, Shattering Records.”
77.McKee, “Tax Breaks for Billionaires.”
78.Satow, “Want a Green Card?”
79.Rice, “Stash Pad.”
80.Rice, “Stash Pad.”
81.Solomon, “Hermès Birkin Bag.”
82.Davidson, “World’s Most Expensive Basketball Sneaker.”
83.Olmsted, “$1,000 Ice Cream Sundae?”
84.New York Daily News, “Serendipity 3.”
85.McGeehan, “Manhattan Area Codes.”
86.Bloomberg, quoted in Yakas, “Old Man Bloomberg.”
1.Caro, Power Broker.
2.See Harvey, Limits to Capital; Harvey, Urban Experience; Harvey, “Globalization.”
3.The program, which ended in 1974 with over 2,000 urban renewal projects across the country, caused great controversy for its disregard for the livelihood of low-income and especially minority communities across the nation.
4.Caro, Power Broker.
5.Each use was mapped with the letters “R” (for residential), “C” (for commercial), or “M” (for manufacturing), followed by a number, 1 through 10, whereby a higher number meant a higher building density.
6.By the 1970s, however, as larger lots became scarcer, many buildings were built through special permits from the City Planning Commission that allowed them to rise straight up from the street line, with no setbacks or pedestrian plazas.
7.In 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission was established as a result of these events with the mission to protect historical landmarks in New York City.
8.In 1951, 12 so-called community planning councils had been introduced in Manhattan by Borough President Robert F. Wagner, with advisory powers on local planning and budgetary matters. The model was soon adopted by other borough presidents across the city. In 1968, the city was divided into 62 community districts and each board was given the responsibility for advising the City Planning Commission on matters relating to the development of their communities.
9.Today, the key participants in the ULURP process are the Department of City Planning, the City Planning Commission, the borough presidents, the borough boards, city council, and the mayor. But only the commission and city council have a binding say. Any decision made by city council is considered final unless the mayor vetoes a council action within five days of the vote.
10.City of New York, CPC, “Rules for Processing Plans,” 1.
11.Angotti, New York for Sale.
12.Jahr, “All Together Now.”
13.Murphy, “Whose Dreams Will Decide?”
14.Murphy, “Whose Dreams Will Decide?”
15.Marcus, “City Zoning,” 720.
16.Marcus, “City Zoning,” 726.
17.Fainstein, City Builders.
18.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate; Fainstein, City Builders.
19.Notably, with the elimination of the Board of Estimate, whose functions in land use and budget decisions were reassigned to the city council and the mayor.
20.Pristin, “Council Approves Zoning Plan.”
21.City of New York, DCP, “Unified Bulk Program.”
22.Stern, “Gotham’s Developers.”
23.Although the city’s campaign finance laws pose strict restrictions on the amount of contributions that candidates can receive, it prescribes no limitations if a candidate chooses to use his or her own money to finance a campaign.
24.Nagourney, “2011 Elections.”
25.As a result of a 1993 referendum, a two-term limit was imposed on the mayor, city council members and citywide elected officials. A council proposal to extend term limits was turned down by voters in 1996.
26.Chen and Barbaro, “Bloomberg Wins 3rd Term.”
27.Chen, “Bloomberg Biggest Giver.”
28.Purnick quotes head of the Community Service Society David Jones, claiming: “I think the personal funding has clearly kept the not-for-profit community very pro-Bloomberg. It chills dissent. You are going to watch what you say” (Purnick, Mike Bloomberg, 197).
29.Chen, “Bloomberg Biggest Giver.”
30.Noticing New York, “Bloomberg’s Increasing Wealth.”
31.Forbes, “World’s Billionaires 2007”; Forbes, “World’s Billionaires 2009.”
32.Forbes, “World’s Billionaires.”
33.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 166.
34.In the words of NYU Professor Mitchell Moss, quoted in McGrath, “The Untouchable.”
35.Greenberg, Branding New York.
36.Porter, Ketels, Habiby, and Zipper, “New York City.”
37.Bloomberg, “State of the City.”
38.Steinberg, “Planning the Neoliberal City.”
39.Michael Bloomberg, quoted in Brash, Bloomberg’s New York, 85.
40.Title of a report by Moss, “New York City Won Olympics.”
41.Brash, Bloomberg’s New York, 50–53.
42.Jay Kriegel, quoted in Brash, Bloomberg’s New York, 51.
43.Brash, Bloomberg’s New York, 248–253.
44.Fainstein, “Urban Renewal.”
45.Angotti, New York for Sale, 210.
46.Angotti, New York for Sale, 208.
47.An anonymous analyst, quoted in Kolben, “Ratner Arena, Olympics.”
48.Angotti, New York for Sale, 216.
49.Angotti, New York for Sale.
50.Confessore, “Another Step.”
51.Brown, “Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Battle.”
52.Doctoroff, quoted in Porter, Ketels, Habiby, and Zipper, “New York City,” 10.
53.See Cardwell, “Once at Cotillions,” and Satow, “Remake New York.”
54.McGrath, “The Untouchable.”
55.Burden, quoted in Satow, “Remake New York.”
56.Burden, quoted in Satow, “Remake New York.”
57.Watanabe, “Contextual Zoning.”
58.Watanabe, “Contextual Zoning”; Nicas, “Bloomberg Machine.”
59.Angotti, New York for Sale, 2008.
60.Nicas, “Bloomberg Machine,” 2.
61.Bloomberg, quoted in Lueck, “Bloomberg Draws Blueprint.”
62.Cardwell and Bagli, “25-Year Outline.”
63.Finn, “PlaNYC Initiative.”
64.ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA and the Mayor’s Office for Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, “Process Behind PlaNYC,” 6–8.
65.Finn, “PlaNYC Initiative”; Paul, “PlaNYC.”
66.Paul, “PlaNYC.”
67.Krueger and Agyeman, “Sustainability Schizophrenia.”
68.See APA, Diversity Committee of the New York Metro Chapter, “Written Response to PlaNYC 2030,” and Marcuse, “PlaNYC Is Not a Plan.”
69.Finn, “PlaNYC Initiative,” 15.
70.See City of New York, IBO, “Fewer New Apartments Likely,” and New York City Comptroller, “Rents Through the Roof!”
71.Arden, “Bloomberg Housing Plan.”
72.CUF, “Reviving the City.”
73.City of New York, OLTPS, “PlaNYC, Greener, Greater,” 12.
74.City of New York, DCP, “Celebrating DCP Rezonings.”
75.City of New York, IBO, “Fewer New Apartments Likely”; New York City Comptroller, “Rents Through the Roof!”; Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, “Key Findings.”
76.Paul, “Affordable Housing.”
77.See Paul, “Affordable Housing”; and Angotti, “Building and Zoning.”
78.Hartman, “Right to Stay Put”; Hartman, “Case for Right to Housing”; Fullilove, Root Shock; Newman and Wyly, “Right to Stay Put”; Turffrey, “Human Cost.”
79.Hartman, “Right to Stay Put”; Hartman, “Case for Right to Housing”; Turffrey, “Human Cost”; Fullilove, Root Shock.
80.Angotti, “Building and Zoning.”
81.City of New York, OLTPS, “PlaNYC, Greener, Greater,” 12.
82.City of New York, OLTPS, “PlaNYC Progress Report 2010,” 11.
83.City of New York, OLTPS, “PlaNYC Update 2011,” 21.
84.City of New York, IBO, “Fewer New Apartments Likely,” 11.
85.New York City Comptroller, “Rents Through the Roof!”
86.New York City Comptroller, “Rents Through the Roof!”
87.Coalition for the Homeless, “State of the Homeless 2013.”
88.City of New York, IBO, “Fewer New Apartments Likely.”
89.Flegenheimer, “Flooded Tunnels.”
90.Kaplan, “Cuomo, Aid Appeal.”
91.Bloomberg quoted in Chaban, “Hurricane, Bloomberg Bullish.”
92.Turetsky, “Seas Rise, Storms Surge.”
93.Rayman, “Flood Zone.”
94.See Rayman, “Flood Zone.”
95.Daly and Townsend, Valuing the Earth, 267.
96.UNEP, “Towards a Green Economy,” 16.
97.Owens, “Land, Limits, Sustainability.” Quoted in Finn, “PlaNYC Initiative.”
98.Burden, quoted in Treskon, “Constructing an Oppositional Community,” 297.
99.City of New York, DCP, “Greetings from the Chair.”
100.Burden, “Interview.”
101.NYCHDC, “Income Eligibility.”
102.Thirteen Metrofocus, “New Yorkers Out in the Cold?”
103.Burden, “Interview.”
104.Angotti, “Zoning Without Planning?”
105.See Angotti, “Zoning Without Planning?”; Bloustein, “Gentrification and Rezoning.”
106.Burden, “Interview.”
107.Angotti, “Zoning Instead of Planning.”
108.Angotti, “Zoning Without Planning?”
109.See Marcus, “City Zoning,” 717; Nicas, “Bloomberg Machine,” 29.
110.Smith, “Theory of Gentrification”; Smith, “Gentrification and Rent Gap.”
111.Weber, “Extracting Value.”
112.Smith, “New Globalism,” 446.
113.Gross, “Reshaping the City.”
114.Busà, “Unsustainable Cost,” 194–195.
115.Newman and Wyly, “Right to Stay Put,” 38–42; Busà, “History of Decline and Revival”; Busà, “125th Street Rezoning.”
116.Burden, quoted in Satow, “Remake New York.”
117.Slater, Curran, and Lees, “Gentrification Research,” 1144.
118.Slater, Curran, and Lees, “Gentrification Research,” 1145.
119.Hartman, “Right to Stay Put”; Smith, New Urban Frontier.
120.See CUF, “Reviving the City”; and ICP, “Cost of Good Intentions.”
121.Newman and Wyly, “Right to Stay Put.”
122.A commentator on Curbed New York, 2009.
123.A commentator on Curbed New York, 2009.
124.Bloustein, “Gentrification and Rezoning,” 7.
125.Bloustein, “Gentrification and Rezoning,” 4.
126.Bram and Anderson, “Declining Manufacturing Employment.”
127.Wolf-Powers, “Up-Zoning Mixed Use Neighborhoods.”
128.Fung, “Push to Restart Manufacturing.”
129.FPI, “State of Working New York.”
130.City of New York, DCP, “Employment Patterns in New York City.”
131.Curran and Hanson, “Getting Globalized.”
132.Curran, “Frying Pan to Oven,” 1427.
133.Curran, “Frying Pan to Oven.”
134.A commentator on Curbed New York, 2009.
135.A commentator on Curbed New York, 2009.
136.Lefkowitz, “The Holdouts.”
137.Busà, “City Producers, City Consumers.”
138.GOLES, “No Go for Local Business.”
139.Bloustein, “Gentrification and Rezoning,” 15.
140.Pratt Center for Community Development, “Downtown Brooklyn’s Detour.”
141.FUREE, “Out of Business,” 14.
142.Angotti, New York for Sale, 208.
143.City of New York, “No. 7 Subway Extension,” 5–3.
144.See Lefkowitz, “The Holdouts.”
145.Baird-Remba, “City Releases Plan To Rezone.”
146.CUF, “Chain Reaction.”
147.Hammett, and Hammett, Suburbanization of New York.
148.Lefkowitz, “The Holdouts.”
1.A commentator on Curbed New York, 2009.
2.A commentator on Curbed New York, 2009.
3.Kasson, Amusing the Million, 8.
4.Koolhaas, Delirious New York, 29.
5.The addition of subway service in 1920 allowed visitors from throughout the city to reach Coney Island for a five-cent ticket. It was said that over one million visitors a day visited Coney Island. Many of these were poor immigrants, who at the time made up about 40% of the city’s population.
6.Cautela, “Coney,” 238.
7.Immerso, “Coney Island Cornerstones.”
8.Denson, Coney Island.
9.Matassa, “Whaddya Want?,” 56.
10.Denson, Coney Island.
11.The first Steeplechase Park was opened in 1897 by George C. Tilyou, a visionary salesman and entrepreneur. Right after the park was destroyed by fire in 1907, a second Steeplechase Park was opened in time for the 1908 summer season. Tilyou’s second Steeplechase Park was rebuilt with steel, glass, and concrete.
12.Denson, Coney Island, 138.
13.Denson, Coney Island, 205–210.
14.“In 2000, when plans for a Brooklyn ballpark were being finalized, Jeff Wilpon—a top New York Mets executive and the man whose minor-league team would play in the new park—mentioned to Mr. Giuliani that the Thunderbolt was an eyesore that looked dangerous. Say no more. Whether by coincidence or design, the Thunderbolt was now squarely in City Hall’s sights.” The case ended in court. In September 2003, “a federal jury in Manhattan ruled that the city had no justification for tearing down the Thunderbolt, and in doing so had trespassed on Mr. Bullard’s property. It also determined that one city official, who was integral in the decision to demolish, had acted with ‘deliberate indifference’ ” (Barry, “About New York”).
15.Matassa, “Whaddya Want?,” 3.
16.New York State Comptroller, “Economic Snapshot.”
17.SocioWiki, “Presence of the Past.”
18.Section 8 is a Federal housing assistance program for low-income individuals or families. Under the voucher program, tenants pay only a portion of the rent, while the rest is guaranteed by the federal government. City of New York, DCP, “FEIS for Coney Island Rezoning Proposal,” 3–20.
19.SocioWiki, “Presence of the Past.”
20.Rivero, “Coney Island,” 17.
21.New York State Comptroller, “Economic Snapshot,” 1.
22.Matassa, “Whaddya Want?”
23.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
24.Save Coney Island, “FAQs.”
25.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
26.In February 2007, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden herself told an audience at a breakfast sponsored by local business magazine Crain’s Business: “Amusements are incompatible with immediate adjacent residential use” (Calder, “Cyclone”).
27.City of New York, DCP, “Coney Island Comprehensive Rezoning Plan.”
28.The “Reasonable Worst Case Development Scenario” projects that the plan would increase total residential use in 2019 by 2,407,941 square feet (383.8%), commercial use by 403,980 square feet (152.7%), and amusement use by 251,411 square feet (264.9%). An additional 4,019 parking spaces and 411,300 square feet of hotel use would also be introduced in the neighborhood. See Coney Island, “FEIS,” 3–14.
29.Coney Island, “FEIS,” 3–8.
30.Coney Island, “FEIS,” 3–36.
31.Bloustein, “Rezoning New York City.”
32.Treiman, “Bloomberg Killing Coney Island.”
33.Local City Councilman Domenic Recchia has been a close childhood friend of developer Joe Sitt. See Bagli, “Beyond Sideshows.”
34.Fung, “Coney Island Keeper.”
35.A few rides are still in storage. One of the stars from the gate was donated to the Smithsonian Air Space Museum. The Rocket was donated to the city.
36.Sargen, “Makeover of Coney Island.”
37.Fung, “Coney Island Keeper.”
38.Miller, “Whose Coney Island?.”
39.Bagli, “Seeking Revival.”
40.Amusing the Zillion, “Under Construction.”
41.The Real Deal, “Major Revenue for City.”
42.Amusing the Zillion, “R.I.P. Coney Island’s Shore Hotel.”
43.While it can’t protect the buildings within the district from demolition, an inclusion on the Registers of Historic Places could make grants and tax credits available for redevelopment projects that rehabilitate and reuse historic properties in the amusement area. The determination of eligibility released on August 12, 2010, states that the amusement district is “nationally significant … as the birthplace of the modern American amusement industry.” It also claims that the area’s surviving historic buildings are “valuable cultural assets worthy of recognition and consideration in preservation planning” (New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, “Coney Island’s Historic District,” 2).
44.Almost ironically, on December 14, 2010, after all properties of Thor Equities had been razed to rubble to make them ripe for development, the Landmarks Preservation Commission belatedly approved the designation for the Shore Theater, a neo-Renaissance theater built in 1924 and boarded up since the late 1970s, giving it landmark status.
45.The Cyclone roller coaster, opened in 1927, was declared a New York City Landmark in 1988 and a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
46.Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel, opened in 1920, was named an official New York City Landmark in 1989.
47.The Parachute Jump was built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows and brought to Coney in 1941 as part of the Steeplechase Park. It was completely restored in 2002–2003.
48.Pincus, “Demolition Permits.”
49.Broadcasted on September 27, 2010.
50.Yet, the buildings had great potential, as a set of architectural renderings commissioned by the Save Coney Island advocacy groups in June 2010 showed: “These renderings show that the historic buildings of Coney Island still have life in them and still have a future,” said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council. “It’s now up to the City to say whether that’s better than acres of rubble” (Save Coney Island, “Potential of Endangered Buildings.”
51.Brown, “New Coney Island?”
52.Save Coney Island, “History in Danger.”
53.Amusing the Zillion, “Out with the Old.”
54.Amusing the Zillion, “50 Years on Coney Island Boardwalk.”
55.Matassa, “Whaddya Want?,” 79.
56.Treiman, “Bloomberg Killing Coney Island.”
57.According to Treiman, “Bloomberg Killing Coney Island.”
58.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
59.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
60.In 2009, Save Coney Island filed an eventually unsuccessful lawsuit against the city right after the rezoning passed. The lawsuit was filed on the basis that the city had failed to perform an adequate environmental review of the proposed plan—for example, the city had failed to adequately study a meaningful alternative to the proposed rezoning or to properly consider the impacts that the presence of high-rise hotels and residential towers would have on the pedestrian experience at Coney Island.
61.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
62.City Data, “Coney Island Neighborhood.”
63.City of New York, DCP, “DEIS for Coney Island Rezoning Proposal.”
64.The State of New York’s Mitchell-Lama subsidy program was signed into law in 1955. It focused on the development of affordable housing, both rental and cooperatively owned, for low- and middle-income residents.
65.Kusisto, “Complex Upgrade.”
66.Jones, “Coney Island Housing Complex.”
67.Amusing the Zillion, “1st Private Beachfront Condos.”
68.Smith, “40-Story Tower.”
69.Rosenberg, “Future Tallest Tower.”
70.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
71.City of New York, DCP, “DEIS for Coney Island Rezoning Proposal,” 3–14.
72.City of New York, DCP, “DEIS for Coney Island Rezoning Proposal,” 3–17.
73.Burden, “Statement of Commissioner.”
74.Municipal Art Society, “Comments on Draft Scope.”
75.Burden, quoted in Brown, “Municipal Art Society.”
76.Rivero, quoted in Save Coney Island, “Rezoning Vote.”
77.New York State Comptroller, “Economic Snapshot.”
78.Weichselbaum, “Hurricane Sandy.”
79.Weichselbaum, “Hurricane Sandy.”
80.Bidon, “How Sandy Changed the Game.”
81.Bidon, “How Sandy Changed the Game.”
82.Back in 2012, the popular blog Amusing the Zillion asked, “Will Coney Island’s Surf Ave Become a Mecca for Franchises?”
83.Amusing the Zillion, “Coney Island 2016.”
84.The plan was approved by the city despite the resistance of local Community Board 13, whose majority (21 to 7) voted against it.
85.Rosenberg, “Concrete Likely for Boardwalk.”
86.Rosenberg, “Concrete Likely for Boardwalk.”
87.Amusing the Zillion, “Boardwalk Bunco.”
1.Hegarty, Advertising.
2.See North, “Taylor Swift Unwelcome.” Also see Barnes, “Rejected Taylor Swift,” and Shepherd, “Taylor Swift’s New Song.”
3.In the words of Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company, at the IPW Press Conference, June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Y7G0_xhsg.
4.Stuart, “Taylor Swift Tourism Campaign.”
5.Sanders, “Mythic Movie Dream.”
6.Hubbard and Hall, “Entrepreneurial City,” 7.
7.Gunn, Vacationscape.
8.Marx and Engels, German Ideology.
9.Gramsci, Prison Notebooks.
10.Kipfer, “Urbanized Gramsci,” 205. Also, scholar Tony Bennet alerted us that “the bourgeoisie can become a hegemonic, leading class only to the degree that bourgeoisie culture ideology is able to accommodate, to find some space for, opposing class cultures and values. A bourgeoisie hegemony is secured not via the obliteration of working class culture, but via its articulation to bourgeoisie culture and ideology….” See Bennet, “Popular Culture and Return to Gramsci.”
11.Klein, No Logo.
12.Procter, Stuart Hall, 1.
13.Smith defines it as “the deliberate (re)presentation and (re)configuration of a city’s image to accrue economic, cultural and political capital” (Smith, “Conceptualizing City Image Change, 399.”
14.Lefebvre, Production of Space, 50–53.
15.Hall, Cultural Representations; Hall, “Representations and Media.”
16.Lefebvre, Production of Space, 50–53, 370.
17.Ward, Selling Places.
18.See Harvey, “Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism”; Hubbard and Hall, “Entrepreneurial City”; Greenberg, Branding New York.
19.Greenberg, Branding New York; Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 118.
20.Kavaratzis, “City Branding”; Kavaratzis and Ashworth, “Place Marketing.”
21.Kotler, Marketing Management.
22.Pine and Gilmore, Experience Economy.
23.Klein, No Logo, 23.
24.Kavaratzis, “City Branding,” 63–65.
25.Kavaratzis, “City Branding.”
26.Van Riel and Balmer, “Corporate Identity,” 355.
27.Arnold, Handbook of Brand Management, 12.
28.Stigel and Frimann, “City Branding,” 248.
29.Or “representation of space,” as Lefebvre puts it. See Lefebvre, Production of Space, 370.
30.Greenberg, Branding New York.
31.Grodach, “Urban Branding,” 193.
32.Zukin, Cultures of Cities.
33.Grodach, “Urban Branding,” 183.
34.Brash, Bloomberg’s New York, 103.
35.Sanders, “Mythic Movie Dream.”
36.Sanders, Celluloid Skyline; Sanders, “Mythic Movie Dream”; Greenberg, Branding New York; Greenberg, “Branding New York”; Macek, Urban Nightmares.
37.Macek, Urban Nightmares.
38.Greenberg, “Limits of Branding,” 393.
39.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate; Greenberg, Branding New York.
40.Bailey, Crisis Regime.
41.City of New York, DCP, “Economic Recovery,” 34.
42.Greenberg, “Limits of Branding.”
43.The New York City Partnership was founded by David Rockefeller in 1979. Affiliated with the New York City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it was a business advocacy group committed to lobby the government, labor, and the nonprofit sector for legislation favorable to economic growth and business development.
44.The Convention and Visitors Bureau was created in 1934 to attract travel and conventions to the city. It changed its name to NYC & Company in 1999, under the administration of Rudolph Giuliani.
45.The Association for a Better New York (ABNY) is active in lobbying local government to promote the city’s position as a corporate business capital.
46.Greenberg, Branding New York, 163.
47.The logo has continued to sell for decades, and became especially prominent following the 9/11 attacks on the city, when visitors to the city purchased and wore the shirts bearing the “I Love New York” logo as a sign of their support.
48.Greenberg, “Limits of Branding,” 402.
49.Greenberg, Branding New York.
50.“The towers were finally completed … for a price of $900 million, five years behind schedule and $500 million over budget, creating a public finance fiasco that dragged New York deeper into debt…. Thus, many have argued that the multi-million dollar public debt incurred in building and maintaining this new symbol of Downtown’s financial might have contributed heavily to the city’s spiraling fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s” (Greenberg, “Limits of Branding,” 392).
51.Greenberg, “Limits of Branding,” 402.
52.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 119.
53.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate.
54.Particularly during the Nixon years, the term was redefined toward issues that had little to do with social inclusion and more with middle-class well-being. See Vitale, City of Disorder. Under the mayoral administration of Ed Koch, “an agenda originally targeted at uplifting the nation’s poor became a buzzword for addressing the daily problems of transit, crime, and pollution affecting the urban middle-class” (Shaw, “Politics of Homelessness”).
55.Stohr, “I Sell New York.”
56.Shaw, “Politics of Homelessness.”
57.Smith, “New Globalism”; Shaw, “Politics of Homelessness.”
58.Shaw, “Politics of Homelessness.”
59.Allison, “How Much Credit Does Giuliani Deserve.”
60.Levitt, “Understanding Why Crime Fell.”
61.Among these, the torture of Abner Louima, horribly assaulted and sexually abused by police officers, or the shootings of unarmed, innocent suspects like Amadou Diallo or Patrick Dorismond, a father of two who was shot by an undercover police officer on March 16, 2000. See McArdle and Erzen, Zero Tolerance.
62.Moody, Welfare State to Real Estate, 132–133.
63.Giuliani began aggressively reforming the municipal welfare system soon after taking office, and his policies were already well under way before 1996, when Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act and ended “welfare as we know it.”
64.See Mazelis, “Spotlight on NYC Police Brutality.”
65.NYC & Company, “37.4 Million People Visited NYC.”
66.Giuliani, quoted in NYC & Company, “37.4 Million People Visited NYC.”
67.Cole, “Against the Giuliani Legacy.”
68.Greenberg, Branding New York.
69.Oprah Winfrey called Rudolph Giuliani “America’s Mayor” at a 9/11 memorial service held at Yankee Stadium on September 23, 2001.
70.Hochberg, “Small Business.”
71.Shalit, “Brand New.”
72.Greenberg, Branding New York, 258.
73.Fox Gotham and Greenberg, “From 9/11 to 8/29.”
74.The LMDC was created after 9/11 by Giuliani and then-governor George Pataki to channel nearly $10 billion in federal funds for the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan.
75.Greenberg, Branding New York.
76.Pataki, quoted in CNN, “$40 Million Advertising Campaign.”
77.See Greenberg, “Limits of Branding,” 412.
78.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 126–127.
79.Greenberg, Branding New York.
80.Bloomberg, “State of the City.”
81.Brash, Bloomberg’s New York.
82.Bloomberg, “Speech at Republican National Convention.”
83.Some of the report’s major conclusions are reported in Brash, Bloomberg’s New York.
84.Brash, Bloomberg’s New York.
85.Bloomberg, quoted in Cardwell, “Worth the Cost.”
86.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 131.
87.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 122–123.
88.Bloomberg, quoted in Rangan, Elberse, and Bell, Marketing New York.
89.Doctoroff, quoted in City of New York, “Bloomberg appoints Perello.”
90.Herszenhorn, “What Will It Be?”
91.Rangan, Elberse, and Bell, Marketing New York.
92.Rangan, Elberse, and Bell, Marketing New York.
93.Rangan, Elberse, and Bell, Marketing New York.
94.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 123.
95.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia”; Brash, Bloomberg’s New York.
96.Idov, “Another Fifty Million People.”
97.Prior to his appointment, George A. Fertitta was the chairman and founder of Margeotes Fertitta Powell, a New York City–based advertising agency whose clients include major corporate giants such as the Coca Cola Company, Disney, Campbell Soup Company, McGraw-Hill, Bacardi, Godiva Chocolatier, SunCom Wireless, Radisson, and Seven Seas Cruises, among others.
98.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 126.
99.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 125.
100.Idov, “Another Fifty Million People.”
101.City of New York, “Bloomberg and Tisch Announce City’s Plan.”
102.Under the agreement, Cemusa would design, install, and maintain 3,300 new bus stop shelters, 330 new newsstands, and 20 public toilets and pay the city $1 billion over 20 years for the rights to sell advertising on these structures (Rangan, Elberse, and Bell, Marketing New York). The city received a share of the ad revenues as well as 22.5% of the ad space for its own agencies and for corporate partners, and secured $18 million worth of free ad space a year in international Cemusa markets, including Spain. As a result, Spanish travel to New York City promptly increased by 25% (Idov, “Another Fifty Million People.”).
103.Michael Bloomberg, quoted in City of New York, “Bloomberg Launches ‘This Is New York City.’ ”
104.Heilman, “Gotham Glory.”
105.Heilman, “Gotham Glory.”
106.NYC & Company, “New York City Hotel Industry.”
107.Lee, “Foreign Tourists.”
108.McGeehan, “Remaking the City’s Image.”
109.McGeehan, “Remaking the City’s Image.”
110.NYC & Company official, quoted in Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 129.
111.Idov, “Another Fifty Million People.”
112.Such family-friendly campaigns have been repeated ever since: in 2011 the city declared a “Smurfs Week” to promote the feature film by Sony Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, and made the Smurfs 2011’s “NYC family ambassadors.” Other NYC family ambassador characters were the Muppets in 2012, Where’s Waldo? in 2013, Curious George in 2014, Dora the Explorer in 2015, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2016.
113.Goldman, “Gay Marriage.”
114.Fickenscher, “NYC Tourism.”
115.NYC & Company, 2010 TV ad, “See More Be More.”
116.Michael Bloomberg, quoted in NYC & Company, “Bloomberg and NYC & Company Announce Campaign.”
117.City of New York, “Bloomberg and Officials Announce Campaign.”
118.NYC & Company, “Bloomberg and NYC & Company Announce Campaign.”
119.NYCEDC, “New York City Breaks Tourism Record.”
120.Idov, “Another Fifty Million People.”
121.NYCEDC, “Mayor Bloomberg Announces New York City Breaks Tourism Record.”
122.On August 1, 2002, almost four years after the first version of this deal was announced, it was pronounced dead by NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso. Yet, according to reports by Good Jobs New York, taxpayers were still paying for approximately $100 million in expenses associated with the plan in 2012. See Good Jobs New York, “Spotlight.”
123.Goldensohn, “Hudson Yards Debt.”
124.Figures by Good Jobs New York, “Spotlight.”
125.Fung, “Bklyn Developer Wins.”
126.Clint Irwin from the Bronx, comment in Marcus, “Taylor Swift Explaining New York Vocabulary.”
127.NYC & Company, “Annual Summary 2013.”
128.De Blasio, quoted in City of New York, “Transcript.”
129.De Blasio, quoted in City of New York, “Transcript.”
130.City of New York, “Road to 10 Million More Visitors.”
131.City of New York, “Road to 10 Million More Visitors.”
132.Sugar, “More tourists visited NYC in 2016.”
133.Rooftop films started in 1997 as a series of illegal summer screenings of movies on the roof of a tenement building in the East Village, but by 2011 had become a legitimate, nonprofit organization with a massive program including 47 events over the course of the summer.
134.With the launch of “Syfy’s 31 Days of Halloween,” sponsored by the American science fiction cable channel, “ownership of the Halloween experience was delivered to Syfy by blanketing the City through traditional media, press coverage, experiential events and more.” See NYC & Company, “Annual Summary 2011.”
135.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 132.
136.Lowry, “CEO Mayor.”
137.Greenberg, “Branding, Crisis, Utopia,” 117.
138.Grynbaum, “De Blasio Still Trying.”
1.Goodyear, “De Blasio Feels Your Pain.”
2.Putzier, “Love-hate Relationship.”
3.Pareene, “De Blasio’s Impossible Task.”
4.Walker, “De Blasio Tells ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’ ”
5.Samtani, “Mayoral Candidates Get Candid.”
6.Dionne Jr., “America Shifts Left.”
7.The New York Times noted, “The elevation of an assertive, tax-the-rich liberal to the nation’s most prominent municipal office has fanned hopes that hot-button causes like universal prekindergarten and low-wage worker benefits … could be aided by the imprimatur of being proved workable in New York.” See Grynbaum, “De Blasio Draws Liberal Eyes.”
8.See New York City Campaign Finance Board, Election Cycle 2013, http://www.nyccfb.info/searchabledb/SimpleSearchResult.aspx?cand_id=326&cand_name=de+Blasio,+Bill&election_cycle=2013. See also Taylor, “De Blasio Attracts Donors.”
9.Fermino, “Christine Quinn Unleashes Attack.”
10.Grynbaum, “De Blasio Endorses Hillary Clinton.”
11.Pazmino, “State of Atlantic Yards.”
12.Goldenberg, “De Blasio Position Assailed.”
13.Rubinstein, “De Blasio, Development Pragmatist.”
14.The full text is available here: http://genius.com/Bill-de-blasio-fostering-economic-growth-in-new-york-city-annotated.
15.Rubinstein, “De Blasio, Development Pragmatist.”
16.De Blasio, quoted in Rubinstein, “For Planning.”
17.Rivlin-Nadler, 2013.
18.De Blasio, quoted in Barkan, “De Blasio Says No Contradiction.”
19.Janison, “NYC Planning Chair.”
20.See HR&A Advisors, “Council Approves Rezoning.”
21.Bredderman, “De Blasio Appoints Exec.”
22.Velsey, “Rent Freeze!”
23.Fermino, “De Blasio Names Chair.”
24.Daly, “Tell New York the Truth.”
25.Putzier, “De Blasio’s Donors.”
26.Putzier, “De Blasio’s Donors.”
27.Neumeister and Long, “No charges to be filed.”
28.City of New York, “Housing New York.”
29.Gartland, “De Blasio Recycles Housing Plan.”
30.Velsey and Colvin, “De Blasio Unveils Housing Plan.”
31.Barro, “De Blasio Left Wing?”
32.Angotti, “Two Housing Plans.”
33.Farkas and Newman, “Rezoning Plan.”
34.Wishnia, “De Blasio’s Controversial Plan.”
35.Farkas and Newman, “Rezoning Plan.”
36.Hertz, “Make Housing Assistance Easy.”
37.Wishnia, “De Blasio’s Controversial Plan.”
38.Wishnia, “What Does ‘Affordable Housing’ Mean?”
39.Letitia James, quoted in Wishnia, “What Does ‘Affordable Housing’ Mean?”
40.Wishnia, “What Does ‘Affordable Housing’ Mean?”
41.Quoted in Wishnia, “What Does ‘Affordable Housing’ Mean?”
42.Angotti, “Two Housing Plans.”
43.Yee and Navarro, “Some See Risk.”
44.East Harlem Preservation, “Dumbing-Down East Harlem.”
45.Goldman, “$41 Billion Plan.”
46.Samtani, “Execs Laud de Blasio’s Plan.”
47.Samtani, “Rudin’s St. Vincent’s Condos.”
48.Anderson, “ ‘Hospitals Not Condos’ Rally.”
49.Gartland, “De Blasio’s Plan.”
50.Quoted in Wishnia, “De Blasio’s Controversial Plan.”
51.Fermino and Durkin, “Manhattan Board Votes.”
52.Navarro, “Council Hearing.”
53.Calmes, “Mayor’s Zoning Proposals.”
54.Savitch-Lew, “Ayes and Nays.”
55.Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, “ANHD Helps Win Deeper MIH Affordability.”
56.Yee and Navarro, “Some See Risk.”
57.Blockbusting is an illegal and discriminatory scheme through which unscrupulous brokers use scare tactics to convince residents to sell their homes at a deflated price, by making them believe that tenants from minority groups may soon move into the area, and that this will lead to a decline in the value of their properties. Once the properties are vacated, brokers can buy them up at reduced prices, only to resell them later at an inflated price.
58.Yee and Navarro, “Some See Risk.”
59.New York City Comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, “Mandatory Inclusionary Housing.”
60.Bredderman, “De Blasio Commissioners.”
61.Josefina Salazar, quoted in King, “East Harlem Tenants Group.”
62.Roberts, “East Harlem Residents Protest.”
63.Roberts, “East Harlem Residents Protest.”
64.According to a 2016 Housing and Vacancy Survey report compiled by the Citizens Budget Commission, the number of severely rent-burdened households in the very low-income and extremely low-income brackets amounted to 379,000 in 2014. For these residents, the plan reserves only 40,000 units. Almost three times this number (116,000 units) will be instead set aside for households making between $41,951 and $67,121, while around 22,000 apartments will be earmarked for households making between $100,681 and $138,435 (which in New York is considered to be “middle income”). See Cheney, “De Blasio Housing Plan.”
65.Wishnia, “What Does ‘Affordable Housing’ Mean?”
66.Jost, “Housing Plan Misses Big Question.”
67.Alicia Glen, quoted in Rubinstein, “Official Dismisses Idea.”
68.Take Back NYC, “De Blasio Continues Anti-Small Business Policy.”
69.Woolums, “Mayor and Speaker Are M.I.A.”
70.Woolums, “Mayor and Speaker Are M.I.A.”
71.Woolums, “Mayor and Speaker Are M.I.A.”
72.Bill de Blasio for Mayor, “One New York, Rising Together.”
73.Quoted in Woolums, “Mayor and Speaker Are M.I.A.”
74.Alicia Glen, at the Municipal Arts Society Summit 2015. On that occasion, “MAS Director Carol Colleta, revealed to DM Glen that 100 percent of the people polled in the audience supported commercial rent control for NYC, to which she quipped ‘anybody in the audience who actually [has] done any real estate finance? It is a very complicated issue, like most issues, and I’m not sure that necessarily adopting commercial rent control would lead to solve the problem that people think the problem is.’ DM Glen’s answer implies that her background in real estate finance at Goldman Sachs gave her knowledge about the regulation of commercial leases and rents that the audience would not have. The reality is, what would someone who worked at Goldman Sachs before joining the de Blasio administration, know about owning a small business?” (Take Back NYC, “De Blasio Continues Anti-Small Business Policy.”)
75.Rivlin-Nadler, “Law That Would Help.”
76.Take Back NYC, “1994–2015 NYC Court.”
77.City of New York, “De Blasio Administration Announces ‘Small Business First’ Initiative.”
78.Riley, “NYPD Running Stings.”
79.Riley, “NYPD Running Stings.”
80.McGeehan, “De Blasio’s New York.”
81.The tax on the wealthy was killed in Albany by Cuomo, although the governor still provided full funding for de Blasio’s universal prekindergarten plan.
82.New York Civil Liberties Union, “Stop-and-Frisk Data.”
83.Rice, “De Blasio Revolution.”
84.Barkan, “De Blasio’s Approval Ratings.”
85.Marist Poll, “11/3.”
86.Calder, “NYers Think de Blasio Clueless.”
87.Dawsey, “Poll.”
88.De Blasio, quoted in Katz, “On Homelessness.”
89.Elliott, “Invisible Child.”
90.Coalition for the Homeless, “State of the Homeless 2015.”
91.Coalition for the Homeless, “State of the Homeless 2015.”
92.Goldensohn, “LINC Homeless Rent Vouchers.”
93.Coalition for the Homeless, “State of the Homeless 2015.”
94.Savitch-Lew, “Advocates Like, and Critique.”
95.Goodwin, “De Blasio Proves He’s Clueless.”
96.Stewart, “New York’s Rise in Homelessness.”
97.Gartland, “NYC Homeless Population.”
98.Rice, “De Blasio Revolution.”
99.Stewart, “De Blasio Unveils Plan.”
100.Fermino, “Head of Homeless Services.”
101.Katz, “HOME-STAT.”
102.Katz, “HOME-STAT.”
1.Ferro, “New Steampunk Condo Development.”
2.Christie, “Occupy Protesters.”
3.Dailey, “Chelsea to High Line Tourists.”
4.Saltz, “Problem of Public Art.”
5.Greenspan, “Micro-Apartments.”
6.Huen, “Inside Luxury Micro-Apartment Building.”
7.Greenspan, “Micro-Apartments.”
8.Bellafante, “Mayor Puts Wall Street First.”
9.Raymond, “Report.”
10.Misra, “Towering Income Inequality.”
11.Frank, “Manhattan Real Estate Prices.”
12.Alberts, “Rents Rise.”
13.Cheney-Rice, “Meet the Artists.”
14.Cuozzo, “NYC Development Surge.”
15.Joseph Stiglitz, quoted in Martin, “Nobel-Prize Winning Economist Stiglitz.”
16.Rubinstein, “Expect No Help.”
17.Cohen, “Developers Rushed.”
18.Leon, “Skyscraper Boom.”
19.Massive private developments like the Bank of America Tower or the Goldman Sachs headquarters have taken advantage of millions in Liberty Bonds, in subsidy packages from the city and the state, or in special lease arrangements. See Good Jobs New York Database, http://www.goodjobsny.org/economic-development/major-corporate-giveaways. But developers of luxury residential buildings are also benefiting from tax breaks or exemptions. For instance, Extell benefited from generous tax abatements through the 421-a tax exemption program for the ultra-luxury One57 condominium building, whose penthouse was sold in 2015 for a staggering $100.5 million. See Solomont, “One57.”