Against Character

NYC Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

Rezoning in the Bronx:

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden has announced a rezoning proposal for 181 blocks in the Williamsbridge and Baychester neighborhoods in the north Bronx to encourage development and still protect lower density blocks from out-of-character buildings.

The proposed area is bound by the Bronx River and Shoelace Park to the west, the New England Thruway to the east, 233rd Street to the north and East Gun Hill Road, Lurting Avenue, Givan Avenue, and Hammersley Avenue to the south.

I can't tell from this website whether or not this is, on net, an increase in density or a decrease. But in line with what I was saying about Minneapolis architecture, I don't understand the view that protecting blocks from "out-of-character buildings" is a policy goal that should be traded off against the economic benefits of allowing for more construction.

Tighter regulation of worker safety at construction sites has an economic cost, but the benefit is safer workplaces. You try to draw a balance. Blocking the demolition of particularly beautiful existing structures has an economic cost, but the benefit is enhanced aesthetics. You try to draw a balance. But what's being balanced against what when we try to prevent the construction of things that look different from the things we already have. Even in a neighborhood full of tall office buildings, the Chrysler Building is "out of character" but so what? Sagrada Familia is out of character.

Status quo bias is a well-known psychological phenomenon. I'm irrationally hostile to the fact that the neighborhood where I grew up isn't exactly the same as it was when I was a kid. How dare the Kinko's have turned into a burger joint! How dare the locksmith turn into banh mi! I'm even sort of upset that Tompkins Square Park is a nice place now and not a terrifying haven for junkies. But obviously it's not actually the case that it would be better if we'd frozen the area in time no matter how obsolete copy shops become. Policy should, if anything, lean against people's instinctive fear of novelty and change.