Folder_0047

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

MIDTOWN-WEST: OPTIONS FOR MID-MANHATTAN'S LAST FRONTIER December 8, 2000

To call "Midtown-West" underused is to risk offending those who currently work or live in this area running from 30th to 57th Streets and from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River. By the stan- dards of a thriving, 21st Century, global city -- not to mention New York! -- this area has remarkably low density, low height, and zon- ing regulations that refer to circumstances sometimes hundreds of years old. Residential and commercial pressures on Manhattan make rede- velopment of Midtown-West inevitable. The fate of this area involves decisions about the needs of the whole city: priorities for residential and commercial use, for open space and for civic facili- ties that can express the way that Manhattan's future is envi- sioned. Midtown-West is strongly viewed as a logical and neces- sary continuation of Manhattan's central business district. But there are competing interests: Home for the New York Jets, a launching site for the 2012 Olympics, reclaimed parkland, an expanded convention center. How might the existing manufacturing uses, moderately-priced residences, and small retail establishments that have been the identity of this area for the past century and a half survive? Should they? And what are the infrastructure issues that will be critical to making anything -- whether new and ambitious or con- scientiously upgraded -- a reality? The 2000 Development Conference explores these issues in eight parts, each led by an individual deeply immersed in and conver- sant with the particular issue being addressed. The morning's schedule and capsule summaries of each of these parts follow.

3

NYC-WTC 000137722