I recently got an email from the group HumanScaleNYC, which apparently exists to oppose new buildings, or tall buildings, or something. It read: “City Planners think there is no upper limit to density.” Right away, my b.s. radar sounded, since current zoning codes substantially limit density, and planners greatly influence them.
The email continues by asking “when is there too much density? When is there too little? Is there a range of ‘just right’ or Goldilocks densities for a livable city that can still support public transport? We need this debate as a city, otherwise, we will end up as Dubai.”
But Dubai is in fact far less dense than NYC. Had they bothered to check Wikipedia, they’d note that its 2.8 million residents live within 497 square miles–or 5600/sq mile, less dense than Staten Island. So if they want density reductions, the Dubaization of NYC should be their goal.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when we don’t do our homework.
Michael Lewyn is an associate professor at Touro Law Center in Central Islip, NY. His scholarship can be found at http://works.bepress.com/lewyn , and he recently wrote the book "Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl: The Case for Market Urbanism."