My latest podcast features Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association in New York. We talk about his very unique organization, the threat to the region posed by the Amtrak and commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River, resolving the New York region’s governance dysfunction, the highest priority infrastructure needs in the region, and a bit about megaregions. It was a great conversation. If the audio player doesn’t display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/aaronrenn/new-york-citys-infrastructure-future-with-tom-wright
Subscribe to podcast via iTunes | Soundcloud.
The statistic that I found most interesting was the reversal from 9 of 10 jobs in the region being created in suburban areas in the 1970s to the present day situation of 9 of 10 jobs in the region being created with New York City. The City is clearly booming but this statistic suggests that the suburban areas are 100 times weaker (relative to the City) than they were in the 1970s.
We’ve read on this blog some stories on the challenges in suburban Chicago but now I’m curious as to the extent the same things are playing out in the New York City metro area (only without apparently being noticed in the national urban narratives).
Density is clearly New York City’s trump card. If you can make density work, you are unstoppable.
Concentration of wealth is NYC’s (and SF’s and London’s…) advantage, not density.
Dhaka and Lagos are also very dense cities but lack wealth and don’t function well for the vast majority of their residents.
So it takes wealth to “make density work”.
Manhattan is far denser than any African city. Manhattan makes NYC’s wealth creation possible. Brooklyn and even Queens have started to get in on the Manhattan density/wealth complex, but density is what drives it.