Futurama 2030 Speech: News Round-Up

Map from the city’s PlaNYC web site. See more maps at Gothamist.

Coverage of yesterday’s long-term planning and sustainability speech, “New York City 2030: Accepting the Challenge.”

Text of the speech and video (NYC.gov)

Bloomy’s Vision of 2030 Foresees Nightmare of Crowding & Crumbling (Post)
When a question was raised about congestion pricing — a proposed policy of charging motorists to use roads in Manhattan, in order to relieve traffic — an unexpected cheer erupted from the audience. It was a clear indication most of the crowd wasn’t from Queens, where elected officials have angrily denounced the proposal as a hidden tax.

New York faces all-day rush hour by 2030 (CNN International)

Transportation 2030 (Post)
Officials studied traffic patterns over the past 15 years to come up with the frightening estimate of a 12-hour rush hour, based on the addition of a million more residents in the next 25 years. Those residents are expected to cram 100,000 additional cars onto already clogged roadways.

Mayor Bloomberg Addresses City’s Long-Term Goals (NY1)

A city plan with room to grow (News)
Rampant development is not universally better, and so we can only hope that inherent in yesterday’s talk was the promise to be more sensitive to those who already live and work here. Most important on that score, the mayor invited all New Yorkers to take part in “a citywide conversation.” Actually, that’s a conversation that has been going on for quite a while. My fear is that the mayor hasn’t been listening.

NYC in 2030: Remedies for Growing Pains (Gotham Gazette)

Queens: Mayor Seeks Plan for City’s Population Growth (NYT)
Mr. Bloomberg made the announcement at the Queens Museum of Art accompanied by videos and images of himself in a plaid bathrobe making toast and drinking coffee to illustrate the many systems, like water and electricity, that the average New Yorker taps into daily.

2030 OR BUST (Post)
Similarly, to truly develop the waterfront, whose rezoning was Bloomberg’s first-term triumph, all those underserved former industrial areas desperately need light rail as London did, when it built the light rail out to Canary Wharf in the Docklands, its new financial center. (Think of New York deciding to move Wall Street to Red Hook.) London is closing fast on New York, which has to reorient itself to its ferocious international competitors…. Still, the usually reserved president of the Regional Plan Association, Robert Yaro, offered slightly different advice: “Our challenge here is to kick ass with London.”

City Plans for Population Explosion (WNYC)
The mayor wants the public to participate in the planning process. A brochure about the city’s challenges will go out next week in local papers and meetings will be held throughout the five boroughs. New Yorkers can also offer suggestions via the city’s website.

Bloomberg Prepares for a 25-Year Boom in the City (Sun)
The bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic that already chokes the city’s highways could, for example, last up to 12 hours a day in 2030 if transportation upgrades are not made. The city’s aging power plants will not be able to keep up with energy demands – in fact, energy demand could outpace supply by as early as 2012. And subway lines where commuters are already squeezed will be “crammed beyond capacity,” according to the city. Within hours of the speech, Environmental Defense, a non-profit group, released a statement calling on the mayor to consider congestion pricing for New York. City Council Member David Weprin, the chairman of the finance committee, called it a “bold vision” but said the city would have to look at the projects in the context of the budget. “There’s no question that we’ll have to prioritize because we can’t do everything at once.”