Citichat N0 9 2010 New York City

CITICHAT 9/2010



October 2010


Learning from the States (1)

Have just spent a month with two of my sons and their families who live in the USA. I was fortunate to be taken to a number of places of great interest that I hadn’t seen before. The magnificent Shenandoah Park with its Fall leaves in all their glorious colours and its breathtaking Skyline Drive. Had a chance to walk a part of the Appalachian Trail (well, about one mile of its 2 174 mile length - 3 500 kilometres!). Hiked a bit more than that on the Jockey Hollow trail near Morriston, New Jersey where 10 to 13 000 of George Washington’s troops (The American Continental Army) found shelter during 1777 and 1779-80. Visited Princeton University with its 5 000 undergrad and 2 500 grad students in a most beautiful campus founded in 1746. The town of Princeton, in which the campus is situated, and the area surrounding it, has a population of about 30 000 people. Crossed the Delaware River near to where George Washington and his troops traversed over some hundred years before Jozi was established, I walked over a bridge, they crossed in small boats on Christmas Day 1776. Had a short cruise on the Chesapeake Bay and visited the very impressive United States Naval Academy based at Annapolis, Maryland plus some wonderful, for me, new museums and art galleries including the new Air and Space Museum at Dulles airport and the Newseum in DC. Traveled the length of the 3 mile Greenwood Lake - about an hour-and-a-half from New York City – must be amongst one of the most beautiful spots in the world.

The incessant backdrop behind all of this was the baseball playoffs where two underdogs won through to the World Series as well as the electioneering for the American mid-term elections. A poll that I saw on TV reflected that three quarters of those polled considered this to be the most destructive of all such elections. Certainly the programmes I watched showed candidates dragging up as much dirt as they could on each other and nothing about what their parties were going to do about the macro issues facing the country. This approach was repeated ad nauseam in TV and radio advertising – I noted in one newspaper that $4.2 billion dollars had been spent in this meaningless campaigning, on average $100 million per candidate, the most spent on any similar campaign in history. This whilst the US economic situation remains dire!

I also had a chance to visit old friends in New York City and Washington DC for a couple of days each, which gave me the opportunity to update myself on what was happening in those cities. I’ll deal with New York City in this edition and Washington DC in the next.

New York City.

There were two projects in the Big Apple that I particularly wanted to have a look at. The first was what is known as the ‘High Line’.

Going way back to the mid 1800s, Manhattan had a freight railway running on its West side servicing a wide variety of industries particularly meat and various related industries in that area. However, numerous accidents occurred between the freight trains and other surface traffic. As a result, in 1929, it was decided to lift the railway line by one storey so that the trains could run above and over the street level traffic. The ‘High Line’ would eliminate 105 street level railway crossings and opened to trains in 1934. Wikipedia gives some background:

“It was designed to go through the center of blocks, rather than over the avenue, to avoid the drawbacks of elevated subways. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could be transported and unloaded without disturbing traffic on the streets.”


It originally ran from 34th Street to St. John’s Park Terminal, at Spring Street. The growth of interstate trucking in the 1950s led to a drop in rail traffic throughout the nation. In the 1960s, the southernmost section of the line, about one half of its length, was demolished. The last train ran in 1980 with three carloads of frozen turkeys. Shortly thereafter, the owners of property below the line lobbied for its demolition but this was successfully challenged in court by Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, activist, and railroad enthusiast, who tried to re-establish rail service on the Line. It was again slated for demolition under the administration of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.


In 1999, the non-profit Friends of the High Line was formed by residents of the neighborhood the High Line ran through. They advocated for the Line's preservation and reuse as public open space basically turning the High Line into an elevated park or greenway, similar to the Promenade Plantée in Paris.


Broadened community support for public redevelopment for the High Line for pedestrian use grew, and city funding was allocated in 2004. The southernmost section, from about 10th to 20th Streets, opened as a city park on June 8, 2009.

“The park was designed by the New York-based landscape firm of James Corner Field Operations, and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with planting design from Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands and engineering design by Buro Happold.


The park's attractions include naturalized plantings that are inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the disused tracks and new, often unexpected views of the city and the Hudson River. Pebble-dash concrete walkways unify the trail, which swells and constricts, swinging from side to side, and divides into concrete tines (prongs) that meld the hardscape with the planting embedded in railroad gravel mulch. Stretches of track and ties recall the High Line's former use. Most of the planting, which includes 210 species, is of rugged meadow plants, including clump-forming grasses, liatris and coneflowers, with scattered stands of sumac and smokebush, but not limited to American natives. At the Gansevoort end, a grove of mixed species of birch already provides some dappled shade by late afternoon. Ipê timber for the built-in benches has come from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, to ensure sustainable use, conservation of biological diversity, water resources, and fragile ecosystems.”

The High Line - Planting

Seating

 I walked the existing 10th to 25th Streets length and was really impressed by the project which shows just what can be done with decaying city assets instead of destroying them if the community raises its voice. The project demonstrates great ingenuity in providing “green” pedestrian ways off an unusual base. It also illustrates what such projects can do to stimulate economic development in an area that has seen better times! By 2009, more than 30 projects were planned or under construction in the immediate area. It is also a great example of architectural/urban design and brilliantly conceived planting.


I understand that it will ultimately be extended to 34th Street providing a unique pedestrian experience for New Yorkers and visitors.

The second project I wanted to look at in Manhattan was the changes to Broadway that I mentioned in last month’s Citichat. Below are some pictures of the changes showing planting to delineate the seating areas and bicycle paths.

They really have made a huge difference to what has always been a hectic motor vehicle dominated area. Parts of the street have been reclaimed for pedestrian and bicycle use. Chairs and tables provided so that one can sit and read or sip coffee or watch the myriad illuminated giant adverts that surround Times Square and just generally enjoy the inevitable chaos that this great street provides.

More bicycle paths are being provided throughout the city and the Mayor is seriously considering exchanging the City Council’s employees’ motor cars for Zip cars. I described Zip cars some time ago after I’d first seen them in Portland Oregon but they have clearly spread into most other cities. Zip cars are ordinary vehicles that you can access through payment of a small monthly retainer and then booking for the specific period you require them. So, as opposed to rental cars where the minimum is one day and you have to go to a central location to collect and return, Zip cars are spread and parked throughout a city and can be booked and collected from the location nearest you (there are no forms to be filled in nor any staff or queues, just your Zip card!) and returned to any other location. You pay only for the time used.

Imagine the saving to our Council if all those Mercs and Beemers were to be sold over to a similar service provider!

Unique walking trails/green pathways, bicycle paths, pedestrianisation and Zip cars! The Big Apple adds continually to its quality of life.

We’ll look at 2010 Washington DC next time around.

Cheers, neil

PS. Closer to home, congratulations to the Trust for Urban Housing Finance (TUHF). This Joburg based Section 21 company crossed the R1 billion mark in money lend, i.e. money out the door and owing to TUHF, last week. Mostly concentrated in Joburg, they now have loans throughout Gauteng and in Durban and hope to expand to PE by year end.

Some other interesting numbers include that they have financed just short of 17 000 units and beginning in 2003, their lending per unit was just over R27k steadily increasing to a loan per unit of R116k so far this year.

PPS. I was greatly shocked and saddened to hear, on my return, of the death of Ian Fife, the property editor of the Financial Mail. A great character, friend and accomplished property man, he will be sorely missed. Sincere condolences to his family and business colleagues.