Compared to the rest of the Western world, New York City is young in age. However, given its long-standing infrastructure and housing, sometimes it may seem the older than the rest.
Since the city has developed at such a rapid rate over the past century and especially over the past decade given its heavy population growth and tech boom, there is an increasing demand for the city to cater to the needs of its residents.
In the past week, we have been introduced to two new urban plans to help facilitate the prevailing problems haunting the overcrowded streets, subways and apartments of the city.
Daniel Levy, head of CityRealty proposed a plan for a gondola system -- similar to the one connecting Manhattan to Roosevelt Island -- to be built over the East River connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan through a four minute commute. The city's subway system was launched in 1904, a time at which the breadth of the transportation that would be needed to carry all of the residents and tourists of New York was unfathomable.
A proposed affordable housing project, called "9 x 18," calls for the conversion of parking lots in areas adjacent to public housing buildings into affordable units. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times gave a positive critique to the plan noting those areas lack of need for parking given the reliance of so many residents on the abundant subway and bus stations nearby -- which goes back to the first transportation problem addressed.
However, with the innovative thinking moving the urban design of New York City forward, it looks like the city may be adopting a more "resident-friendly" atmosphere.