Wonder City

Lynn Ellsworth is an economist, mother, New Yorker, and founder of Humanscale NYC, the Tribeca Trust, the Empire Station Coalition, the Citywide Land- use Coalition, and the Friends of Duane Park. She is on the advisory board of the historic preservation program at the University of Notre Dame and lives in Lower Manhattan.

1. Competing Visions of the City and Urban Life 1 2. The Failure of Trickle- Down Housing Supply Theory 36 3. The Costs of Towerization and the Problem of Density 67 4. Economics of the Urban Commons 97 5. The Curse of New York: The Real Estate Lobby as the Demolition Machine 133 6. How Big Real Estate Stays on Top 173 7. Demonizing Historic Districts and the Capture of the Landmarks Preservation Commission 209 8. The Architecture of Rupture and Nihilism 251 9. What Policies for a Human- Scale City? 286 Acknowledgments 319 Notes 321 References 327 Index 359

A compelling argument for readers interested in the future of urban development, as well as anyone who has ever been enchanted by the Big Apple.---Shelf Awareness Lynn Ellsworth's Wonder City blows up the myths that underlie the real estate growth machine in New York City and beyond. She makes a passionate activist's argument for human-centered urban planning and architecture and backs it up with rigorous research and analysis. In the spirit of urbanists from Camillo Sitte to Jane Jacobs, she values human-scale development and historic preservation. She contrasts the powerful role of the real estate industry in shaping the built environment with the docile submission of city and state governments and their urban planners to the growth machine. Her masterful critique of trickle-down housing policies includes a brilliant take-down of economist Edward Glaeser and his use of free market fundamentalism to rationalize failed urban policies in major cities.---Tom Angotti, Professor Emeritus of Urban Policy & Planning, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York Finally an economist who understands sustainable housing policy! Lynn Ellsworth's book explains the problems that arise when 'market fundamentalism' is inappropriately applied to the market for housing in NYC. Currently the debate around housing cost is largely a debate about the extent to which simple notions of 'supply and demand' can explain high home prices. This author explains at length, and in accessible terms, that there are myriad other factors at play and that bulldozing existing urban fabric is not the solution. A must read for all, especially by self identifying NIMBYs and YIMBYs.---Patrick M. Condon, University of British Columbia Wonder City reveals how current city planning, housing, and real estate development policies and practices in New York City (and not only there) promote skyscrapers as the dominant building type and manage to overcome popular resistance that favors low-rise and pedestrian-scaled neighborhoods. This essential book challenges the architecture and urban design ideas that have dominated in the professions and among public authorities for many decades and offers specific reforms that prioritize human-scale urban environments for all.---Steven W. Semes, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture