Imagine one is a part of some entity involved with finance, such as investment firms, private equity, etc.
Should not such entities be concerned with the horrific lack of regard for some rather serious planning?
And I do not mean the "Regional Plan Association". Sure it has presented some well needed thoughts, though severely inadequately developed. Such as its proposals for underground versions of the highly needed east west links, as the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and the Cross Brooklyn Expressway- both indisputably required, yet lacking in a fuller outlook, as well as refinement. Just look at the way they were planned, to provide vital connections, WITHOUT the REQUIRED new capacity for what they would connect. Everyone knows both the VZN Bridge and the Holland Tunnel & Williamsburg Bridge are at capacity if not over. Yet neither the CBE nor the LME would have simply connected to these crossings, with at best, a single added two lane outbound tube alongside the Holland Tunnel. And worse, the LME was to accept traffic from both the BQE/LIE, as well as a Bushwick Expressway, carried upon the antiquated Williamsburg Bridge, plus an expressway spur connecting to the Manhattan Bridge! Talk about a westbound traffic trap!!!! And of course these underground roads lacked full encasement, with open air ventilation and echoing noise. QUITE BAD! Disagree with the outright "de-mapping" as that would fail to protect the corridors from stupidly placed development while refusing to purchase needed space over the long term (granting residents time to continue their lives before having to vacate). But it was indeed a wise thing to have not gone ahead with these vital highways as then being planned. Especially when one considers such RPA foolishness of showing renderings of new decks/tunnel caps in Williamsburg atop the BQE WITHOUT shoulders. NOT GOOD!
So, where are any efforts, publicly accessible for developing a better designed expressway network for the NYC Metro Region?
The Regional Plan Association made the news way back in 1997 with a panel at their weirdly too short annual conference in Manhattan, held in the morning but not extending far afterwards. That panel highlighted the efforts of area community activists in promoting the idea of a new expressway TUNNEL along the axis of the Gowanus Expressway. And simultaneously there was the proposal for a straight line tunnel extension northward - the Cross Downtown Brooklyn Tunnel - to bypass the BQE segment to the west with the cantilever with the connections with the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, and the bridges. Accordingly this western segment would be reduced from 3 to 2 lanes in each direction, with the new straight lane tunnel with 2 lanes in each direction. Yet there appears to be no plan on what happens at the northern end, let alone anywhere else, like the Prospect Expressway. Obviously we need a broader plan.
So where are any such efforts?
Regional Plan Association could have followed up with subsequent panels at its annual half a single day conference. Yet in the past 20+ years, nothing (unless I missed something more recently).
And where is high finance?
Well, of course funding anti highway nonsensical propaganda.
https://cos-mobile.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-pseudo-progressive-crusade-to.html
Where are the likes of City Journal?
https://cos-mobile.blogspot.com/2016/02/manhattan-institute-panders-to-princess.html
And how about the local "activism" to essentially preserve an elevated expressway in order to create new waterfront development that is less of an extension of existing neighborhoods, and way more just another new urban enclave like BPC?!
https://cos-mobile.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-conversation-with-shill-for.html
Should not the world of high finance be instead supporting MAJOR EFFORTS to develop and construct a more modern and comprehensive transport network? Would not Wall Street "investors" be favoring a massive upsurge in infrastructure development encompassing tens upon tens of billions of construction efforts?
Speaking from experience, I myself created the "Takoma Park Highway Design Studio" idea to further such efforts, to present new plans to the general public regarding Washington, D.C.'s atrociously incomplete and inadequate expressway system (which I address in my blog "A Trip Within the Beltway"). I contacted one of that area's supposedly public oriented private planning groups, and was visited by a pair pf their representatives. The younger of these two appeared interested, but the older one abruptly ended the meeting taking the other guy with him.
https://cos-mobile.blogspot.com/2013/03/ending-defeatism-in-lower-new-york.html
The High Finance CONTEMPT could not be any more obvious:
https://cos-mobile.blogspot.com/2023/10/how-battery-park-city-authority.html
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