The Dark Side of Metropolis

by Sandy Ikeda
Mon, 15 Sep 2008 at 1:16 PM

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In "Delirious New York," Rem Koolhaas defines

…the dark side of Metropolis as an astronomical increase in the potential for disaster only just exceeded by an equally astronomical increase in the ability to avert it. Manhattan is the outcome of that perpetual neck-and-neck race.

It's hard to blame anyone for thinking that the forces that converged on the World Trade Center on and since September 11, 2001, have deeply challenged this dynamic. After seven years and a great deal of activity later the site still looks pretty much like a cluttered excavation project. I know there's been a lot of work, but construction of the 9/11 Memorial, for instance, has been achingly slow.

Bemoaning this snail's pace of reconstruction, Mayor Bloomberg has called for taking the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation out of the picture, arguing that "It's just another level of checks and balances and bureaucracy that you don't need." The number of stakeholders in Ground Zero has no doubt retarded recovery, but of course that's also an argument for excluding the Mayor's office and leaving it to the Port Authority.

No doubt if Robert Moses were in charge, something would have risen on the site long ago, whether the rest of us liked it or not. (Incidentally, here's an article about what appears to be the first fictionalized portrayal of Moses to be published.) Which is to say that it might not be such a bad thing that some time has passed since the tragic event, but only so long as some flexibility remains in the process.

In particular, I hope there's some flexibility in the way in which our well-intentioned security officials plan to police the area. According to a study by Justin Hollander of Tufts University and Jeremy Nemeth of the University of Colorado, as reported in Crain's New York Business:

Almost 30% of the public space in the financial district and the area around city hall is either limited or closed to the public because of security measures and barriers, threatening the city's vitality….

(Hat tip again to JW.)

It's important for the long-term revitalization of this district that traffic (vehicular and especially foot) flows freely, because genuine urban development, which is inherently unpredictable, emerges from the contacts freely made in public space. Successful city spaces are those that promote such informal, spontaneous contacts. In this regard the design for the WTC site is a vast improvement over what was there before.

But cement barricades, police check points, and restricted access — responses to the last disaster — can undermine even the best urban design, and effectively render the areas around them immune to public attention and scrutiny. What has enabled great cities to push ahead of disaster is the free movement of those living in it, and the safety, the security, and, ultimately, the prosperity that result from their "eyes on the street."

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