Public Stages: Growth and Progress

Jamaica Queens is slated for major development in hopes that its location along major transportation routes (JFK AirTrain, The Long Island Railroad, MTA Subway)will allow it to grow into a major center for commerical, business and tourist transactions. In this investment-charged development push less attention has been made to how the local community will be able to participate in the resulting "public-ness" of the site. This gets even more muddled when processes such as Eminent Domain are being used to create public spaces.

Welcome

Public Stages was developed as part of a research project by graduate students at Columbia University's Architecture and Urban Design Program.

The purpose of this blog is to create a public dialog concerning ownership and public space and the recent planning and development trends limiting ones access, and thus claim.

Our research looked at four areas of the New York City region undergoing large development pressures. Listed below are the sites of inquiry. We invite public comment and additional sites of contested public claim.

Clinton West, Manhattan

Vehicular traffic and infrustructure have a strong presence in Clinton West. The Hundson Yards development plan will increase both pedestrian and vehicular density, resulting in less public space than is currently available.
Questions about the impact of the extension of the Javits Convention Center are a strong source of debate for Clinton West. Many feel that the Javits will extend an already massive superblock, eliminate a public street, and will also block accessiblity to the waterfront. Do you feel the positive aspects of the Javits center outweigh the negative?

Newtown Creek, Queens-Brooklyn

Newtown creek is one of only six significant maritime industrial areas recognized within the NY metropolitan coastal zone.The creek suffers from severe ongoing pollution, of which the cleanup process is still being negotiated in court. Currently, there is no intention to rezone or re-evaluate the urban role of these areas as public spaces.
“Some of the creek is accessible by foot, but most of its banks are private property, so the best way in is by water”, says a participant in a Newtown Creek Cruise, organized by the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment (NY Times article, July 16, 2007)
Considering the creek itself as a public space, and the waterway as the only available access, raises the need to re-evaluate the waterfront industrial façade.

Secaucus, New Jersey

In Secaucus, NJ, the introduction of industry to a once agricultural area has created friction with the existing residential neighborhood. This intervention engages the boundaries between the residential district and the industrial district and creates shared public space. By identifying and cultivating once under used spaces to become vibrant shared public space -- like converting a swamp to a recovered wetlands with a pedestrian boardwalk, or using the side wall of an industrial park to project movies at nighttime-- the residential/industrial divide is mediated and ameliorated.