It seems New York really is the ‘can-do’ town that every seems to imagine we are. Sure, after ten years we still can’t seem to Penn Station on track, and Governor’s Island languishes while we remain starved for green space, but we did redesign two of the largest pending projects in the area in under a week. First it was the Freedom Tower going from hopeless to fearless in seven days (well, it was end of the semester), and now the Olympic Dream went from “No Plan B” to “Queens 2012” almost overnight.
The Times has a nice piece on the Borough of Sloppy Seconds, and everyone seems to relish the pouty air Bloomberg has been wearing all week. It’s a shame he’s suffered from bunker mentality these past few months, because it undermines his (perhaps misguided) quest for Olympic glory, and it has certainly hindered the possibility of rational planning both here at the center of the universe and out in the hinterlands.
The plan, if you missed it, and you have, since it involved both Queens and the Mets, is a retread of the Atlanta Plan: build a baseball stadium, and piggy-back on some Olympic doodaddery. In Atlanta, it was all fresh and then they tore it down to make way for Chipper Jones and Buckhead racists. This time Fred Wilpon & Co. — who are going to actually spend money — will use the stadium for a couple of seasons before vacating for the 2012 season to accommodate the Olympics.
Avoiding for a moment the fact that any Olympics on this continent over the past three decades have either been a boondoggle or dust bowl bland, and Mike-Mike’s nose holding presentation of the concept, it should be noted that there are interesting and valid reasons for a Queen’s-centric Olympiad.
The most obvious is the incredible diversity of the borough, a fact unnoticed in any significant way until John Cracker of the Atlanta Braves opened his mouth. It can be reasonably argued that Queens is the most diverse agglomeration of cultures over a compressed time frame (say a little more than a century) of any significant scale ever. This creates myriad opportunities for a borough-wide approach to integrating the games and the attendant visitors. It is impractical to salt the entire area with mini villages, but the need for other forms of itinerant housing (USOC and IOC reps, media, and games visitors) and support services could prompt development nodes along the 7 line.
Logistically it makes sense as well. The 7 line provides an easy link between Manhattan and Queens, and the distribution of culture and event will be easily managed. Though the Olympics is a big event, the numbers won’t stress the transit system. And sporting events are largely inward focusing events that don’t engage communities. When people want to eat or find other entertainment, it can be far removed from the venues. There isn’t a surfeit of space in Queens, but many of the extant venues being considered for reuse or new construction are there, as is the proposed Village.
Lastly, the community there is likely more enthusiastic at the prospect of a large, diverse sporting event. The lifeblood of soccer in this city is not Manhattan. Our baseball teams aren’t located here. Except for perhaps softball or running and cycling (or any other ‘fitness’ associated sport), the centers of interest will be in the outer boroughs. Rather than face a bunch of sniveling hipsters and dismissive dowagers, our Olympic guests can be treated to rude and embittered outer borough types. It will be a far more accurate experience of the prototypical New Yorker.
And given the continued hubris of the IOC in the face of a declining relevance and fading imperial inability to respond to the massive change globalization has wrought, we shouldn’t be turning so many cartwheels to please them. We can get a damn stadium built, and even if our opening ceremony is in Staten Island, they should feel privileged to select us as host city. Maybe it isn’t that Queens is good enough for the Olympics, but the Olympics aren’t good enough for Manhattan.
The slapdash manner in which this alternate plan was presented does create some questions: given the EDC just closed a round of RFEI’s for Willets Point, will this mean that the firms that submitted are given advanced consideration, or is their work simply discarded as the city looks for new development partners (which also raises a heretofore mostly quiet issue: how is all this development being distributed)? The Mets claim they are committed (and to HOK, of course) either way, so their role in the wider development is limited.
The Willets Point development isn’t crucial, but if it isn’t done, they will have to erect a rather large wall to hide it. Take a look at the map: leaving this lie is passing on a key opportunity. Assuming it moves forward, what about infrastructure improvements for the 7 station? The relocated stadium will be further from the station, which could stand a substantial upgrade for any number of reasons, not the least of which will its role as the preeminent access point for the Olympic stadium.
In the end, I’m skeptical about the Olympics in general. Or at least the continued effort to host them in the largest urban areas. Spectacle does seem to provide a focus and occassionally is viable as legitimate economic development. But the Olympics seem best suited for emerging economies or regional centers (Atlanta was actually a good host site, but unfortunately is the blandest large city in this country), and, in this country at least, the lack of adequate regional planning makes their impact more expensive and unwieldy with each passing year. So the tepid enthusiasm likely won’t play very well with the vestigial aristocrats at the IOC, but if it all goes as planned and we do become friends of friends of strangers, or whatever that campaign is promising, but don’t like the results, we can simply continue our practice of ignoring Queens with little visible impact.
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You are already dating someone? Well, do you have a sister?
It seems New York really is the ‘can-do’ town that every seems to imagine we are. Sure, after ten years we still can’t seem to Penn Station on track, and Governor’s Island languishes while we remain starved for green space, but we did redesign two of the largest pending projects in the area in under a week. First it was the Freedom Tower going from hopeless to fearless in seven days (well, it was end of the semester), and now the Olympic Dream went from “No Plan B” to “Queens 2012” almost overnight.
The Times has a nice piece on the Borough of Sloppy Seconds, and everyone seems to relish the pouty air Bloomberg has been wearing all week. It’s a shame he’s suffered from bunker mentality these past few months, because it undermines his (perhaps misguided) quest for Olympic glory, and it has certainly hindered the possibility of rational planning both here at the center of the universe and out in the hinterlands. The plan, if you missed it, and you have, since it involved both Queens and the Mets, is a retread of the Atlanta Plan: build a baseball stadium, and piggy-back on some Olympic doodaddery. In Atlanta, it was all fresh and then they tore it down to make way for Chipper Jones and Buckhead racists. This time Fred Wilpon & Co. — who are going to actually spend money — will use the stadium for a couple of seasons before vacating for the 2012 season to accommodate the Olympics. Avoiding for a moment the fact that any Olympics on this continent over the past three decades have either been a boondoggle or dust bowl bland, and Mike-Mike’s nose holding presentation of the concept, it should be noted that there are interesting and valid reasons for a Queen’s-centric Olympiad. The most obvious is the incredible diversity of the borough, a fact unnoticed in any significant way until John Cracker of the Atlanta Braves opened his mouth. It can be reasonably argued that Queens is the most diverse agglomeration of cultures over a compressed time frame (say a little more than a century) of any significant scale ever. This creates myriad opportunities for a borough-wide approach to integrating the games and the attendant visitors. It is impractical to salt the entire area with mini villages, but the need for other forms of itinerant housing (USOC and IOC reps, media, and games visitors) and support services could prompt development nodes along the 7 line. Logistically it makes sense as well. The 7 line provides an easy link between Manhattan and Queens, and the distribution of culture and event will be easily managed. Though the Olympics is a big event, the numbers won’t stress the transit system. And sporting events are largely inward focusing events that don’t engage communities. When people want to eat or find other entertainment, it can be far removed from the venues. There isn’t a surfeit of space in Queens, but many of the extant venues being considered for reuse or new construction are there, as is the proposed Village. Lastly, the community there is likely more enthusiastic at the prospect of a large, diverse sporting event. The lifeblood of soccer in this city is not Manhattan. Our baseball teams aren’t located here. Except for perhaps softball or running and cycling (or any other ‘fitness’ associated sport), the centers of interest will be in the outer boroughs. Rather than face a bunch of sniveling hipsters and dismissive dowagers, our Olympic guests can be treated to rude and embittered outer borough types. It will be a far more accurate experience of the prototypical New Yorker. And given the continued hubris of the IOC in the face of a declining relevance and fading imperial inability to respond to the massive change globalization has wrought, we shouldn’t be turning so many cartwheels to please them. We can get a damn stadium built, and even if our opening ceremony is in Staten Island, they should feel privileged to select us as host city. Maybe it isn’t that Queens is good enough for the Olympics, but the Olympics aren’t good enough for Manhattan. The slapdash manner in which this alternate plan was presented does create some questions: given the EDC just closed a round of RFEI’s for Willets Point, will this mean that the firms that submitted are given advanced consideration, or is their work simply discarded as the city looks for new development partners (which also raises a heretofore mostly quiet issue: how is all this development being distributed)? The Mets claim they are committed (and to HOK, of course) either way, so their role in the wider development is limited. The Willets Point development isn’t crucial, but if it isn’t done, they will have to erect a rather large wall to hide it. Take a look at the map: leaving this lie is passing on a key opportunity. Assuming it moves forward, what about infrastructure improvements for the 7 station? The relocated stadium will be further from the station, which could stand a substantial upgrade for any number of reasons, not the least of which will its role as the preeminent access point for the Olympic stadium. In the end, I’m skeptical about the Olympics in general. Or at least the continued effort to host them in the largest urban areas. Spectacle does seem to provide a focus and occassionally is viable as legitimate economic development. But the Olympics seem best suited for emerging economies or regional centers (Atlanta was actually a good host site, but unfortunately is the blandest large city in this country), and, in this country at least, the lack of adequate regional planning makes their impact more expensive and unwieldy with each passing year. So the tepid enthusiasm likely won’t play very well with the vestigial aristocrats at the IOC, but if it all goes as planned and we do become friends of friends of strangers, or whatever that campaign is promising, but don’t like the results, we can simply continue our practice of ignoring Queens with little visible impact.