First it was billionaires. Now the so-called Creative Class and its Millennial progeny are deemed responsible for The New Urban Crisis, which is what Creative Class guru Richard Florida has dubbed enormous inequality in cities, the concentration of extreme poverty, and the tsunami of gentrification that displaces lower-income people. (His book by that name, which I have read about—but want to read—arrives in April.) Is there a New Urban Crisis? No. Though income inequality permeates the … [Read more...]
Can We Fall in Love Again with Atlantic City?
At the beginning of summer, when people head to carefree destinations, I went to …. Atlantic City. That's where four of the 12 ocean-front casinos went bankrupt in 2014 leaving thousands of empty hotel rooms and acres of abandoned gaming space. The city itself has been on the brink of insolvency since at least 2010. Economic-development officials turn to gambling as an economic quick-fix, even as Atlantic City has for decades been the poster child of gaming-industry failure. Atlantic City was … [Read more...]
Blunt-Spoken Zaha Hadid Wins over Critics in Death
Zaha Hadid was indomitable, tough, blunt, and pugnacious. You did not want to be on the receiving end of her withering tongue. Her abundant critics said she was an insatiable egoist, inflicting her personal vision—heedless of budget and context. Her projects asserted the primacy of form over operational convenience or easy maintenance. Though she is (incredibly!) the first woman since the professionalization of architecture to reach the pinnacle of architectural fame entirely on her own—with … [Read more...]
In Long Island City Real Estate Thrives on Dystopia
As it emerges from a tunnel, the 7 subway line clatters upward in a broad curve high above the streets of Long Island City, opening a panorama to the East River and the Manhattan skyline pinpricked with skinny super-luxury towers. Welcome to the New New York. In the foreground amid the lumpen jumble of lowrise loft buildings, tower cranes and new residential high-rises are fast forming a new skyline rivaling the old one it is fast obscuring. Long Island City, which has seemed to exist … [Read more...]
Compassionate Voice That Heralded Pope Francis
Few of us will mourn the passing of a year of terror, so much of it inflicted under the banner of alleged religious orthodoxy. Senseless and shameless fanaticism dominates politics in the U.S. The one voice that drew together the hopes of global millions was Pope Francis. He roiled the war mongers with a message of peace. As millions of refugees slogged across continents, forced out of their home countries by power-grabbing autocrats, he chastised the perpetrators, along with the … [Read more...]
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