Public Planning for Personalities
I didn’t know it at the time, but I moved to New York for Izzy Itzkowitz, who made feather pillows on Ludlow Street. For Ann, the tall waitress in her ’70s, a fixture at Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop. And for Horace Weeks, a hat cleaner in the Garment District, an old-world craftsman.
There’s no point in getting sentimental for a waning New York; it’s always been an in-with-the-new kind of town.
Large retailers have indeed supplanted those old businesses, homogenizing the urban experience — but that’s a trend reflected in cities everywhere.
You can’t design a new Izzy Itzkowitz, but you can design public spaces for New York. You can design foot traffic and public spaces; new opportunities for the new Izzys, Anns, and Horaces to congregate.
That’s why I’m interested in campaigns for fewer cars on city streets; the redesign of the TKTS booth in the theater district, with its red amphitheater steps a beacon for gathering; a sloping public green planned for Lincoln Center; and an unusual mezzanine pedestrian boulevard on The High Line. These spaces can each be vital town squares, for meetings, relaxation, or just people-watching some of the most interesting people on earth.
Charlie Suisman publishes Manhattan User's Guide, a daily email for New Yorkers, and writes the pop culture daily email getTRIO. Rik Lee is an illustrator from Melbourne, Australia. Don’t call him too early tomorrow morning; he’s sleeping in.
Remarks 7 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
miss laboo
love this picture! love love love
bob jarborfski
sadly i have never lived in new york, but the picture 1 vistit i made some years ago fits perfect to this text. oh and rik lee is an amazing artist.
Sam Felder
I couldn't agree more with the sentiment of your essay. It is too easy to write off the planning process as unable to direct the evolution of our great cities.
Good public policy is the only way to build cities that foster the diversity you love and incubate the next generation of skilled craftspeople. Just as every object is "designed," every decision in a city is the result of one policy or another; the trick is to create policies that will guide cities to a more livable future.
Whether housing is affordable, parks are spacious, libraries well stocked with books, streets clean, small independent business supported, or the arts celebrated is in the hands of our urban policy-makers.
Here's to celebrating the power of architects and government to transform our cities into ever better places for us to live, work, and play in.
MIchael McWatters
It's time to work to keep the middle class in New York.
TheUprock.com
I like the art too, but I'm more attuned to the literary portion of this article. I feel the same way about where I live now, and a few of the places I have lived previously.
firmcabbage
That is a beautiful illustration, in particular I adore the bird - a Jacky Winter?
Elana Dweck
I identify in a similar way, as I'm sure many do, with the Izzys, Anns, and Horaces. They are the soul of New York City, they give it character. Although I am not sure that New York is waning, just changing. And as you said, it is an in-with-the-new kind of place, and hopefully that means new (or similar to) Izzys, Anns, and Horaces as well.