•  
  •  
  •  

What We're Working On

Our Cities/Ourselves

Event on July 28, 2010

A panel on reclaiming New York City's streets

Featuring Pratt Center's Joan Byron and NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan

 

Pratt Center director of Sustainability and Environmental Justice Joan Byron will join leaders from other civic groups and agencies to present innovative projects to reclaim New York City's streets. Byron will be discussing the Sheridan Expressway site proposal, which would replace an underutilized highway with riverfront open space, affordable housing, commercial space and other resources.

Event Details

July 28, 2010 - 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Center for Architecture

Read more

Tour the Sheridan Expressway Community Plan

News last updated July 13, 2010

As The New York Times reports, the community-generated proposal to replace the underutilized Sheridan Expressway with parks, affordable housing, commercial space and amenities is gaining momentum. 

Here's a video tour of the community-generated plan, as developed by the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance with the support of the Pratt Center. Learn more about the project here. And see Times architecture critic Nicolai Ourossoff's appreciation of the Sheridan plan as one of the leading ideas for "Reinventing America's Cities." 

Click "Read more" to see the video.

Read more

Tell the Charter Commission: Don't Put Off a Fair Share Fix

Page last updated July 12, 2010

Fix fair share

Let the City Charter Revision Commission know that communities' health can't wait.

The New York City Charter Revision Commission must decide which questions it will put on the ballot on election day.

If the commission follows a recommendation from its staff, the processes for approving development and siting decisions won't be among them. The charter commission's staff recommends that land use "should be reserved for future consideration."

The Pratt Center agrees that reforming the charter's land use provisions will require significant time and attention. They deserve a full and wide-ranging discussion – not only by the commission, but by all New Yorkers. But one thing that can't wait are urgently needed fixes to the City Charter's "fair share" provisions designed to ensure that no community is overburdened with environmental or social service facilities.

Read more

"Street Value" Profiles Fulton Mall Work

News last updated July 7, 2010

Street Value, a new book by Rosten Woo and Meredith TenHoor with Damon Rich (Princeton Architectural Press), delves into the history, streetscape, culture and politics of Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall. It includes an interview with the Pratt Center's Vicki Weiner and Randall Mason of Minerva Partners, who collaborated on a Pratt Center report recommending strategies for the Fulton Street Mall's preservation. Weiner and Mason sought to preserve not only the architectural legacy of Brooklyn's premier shopping street but also its role as a home to local retailers serving a large and diverse base of longtime customers.

As Weiner told Woo: "Our big 'ah-ha' moment in the analysis of the data happened when we read through and analyzed the shopper surveys and found that a lot of the perceptions of the mall that we'd heard before were just not true - i.e., it's not successful, it's all discount stores."

Read more

City Charter Revision

Project last updated June 23, 2010

As the New York City Charter Revision Commission meets to rewrite the document that governs New York City, the Pratt Center has been the city's leading advocate for reform to the city's land use process.

NEW: Tell the City Charter Commission fair share must be fixed this year.

Read the Pratt Center's June 24 testimony to the City Charter Revision Commission.

Comprehensive, Inclusive City Planning: What NYC Needs Now

Since the 1930s, charter review commissions have recognized that New York City needs to map out the course of its future growth, through an impartial body and transparent process. Under the current charter, the City Planning Commission (CPC) must detail its zoning and planning policies and describe proposals for implementing them.

But while the City Planning Commission was created to guide comprehensive city planning in the public interest, it is not fulfilling this basic part of its job description. Instead, the mayorally controlled Department of City Planning (DCP) calls the shots on land use, and redraws the city’s map at will. While CPC sometimes modifies DCP’s zoning proposals, it invariably approves them. Under the current charter, the two bodies work hand in hand, in structual alignment.

The result is that unlike other major U.S. cities, New York lacks a road map for future development. The city is inadequately prepared for growth – and neighborhoods pay the price when development overloads their streets, schools and services. Too often, developers drive the land use process for their own benefit. In the absence of a forward-looking, publicly developed plan, government agencies do not know where their resources will be needed. And when communities attempt their own planning, under charter Sec, 197-a, they have no way to connect their efforts with the city’s own plans. Opposition to land use proposals frequently arises out of fear impacts won’t adequately be addressed.

The City Planning Commission should create and enforce a planning framework, to make sure that rezonings promoted by the Department of City Planning serve neighborhoods and the city as a whole.

Read more

Let's Get This Revolution Started

Issue Brief last updated June 7, 2010

How Will New York Ramp Up Energy Efficiency Retrofits?

Reducing energy consumption, increasing the use of renewable energy and moving toward a low-carbon economy and culture demand both a cultural shift in routine behavior and an infrastructure to support that change. Households are the number-one source of greenhouse gas emissions in New York City, accounting for more than 14 million metric tons each year. In a growing city, that number will only shrink if a critical mass of New Yorkers weatherize their homes and apartments for energy efficiency. That act must become as normal as recycling garbage.

This Pratt Center issue brief focuses on a critical ingredient in building the infrastructure: financing mechanisms that help property owners and renters retrofit their homes for energy efficiency.

Read more

Parking Rule Erects Barriers to Affordable Housing

Testimony last updated April 7, 2010

City Council Subcommittee on Zoning & Franchises of the New York City Council
Residential Streetscape Preservation Text Amendment

The Pratt Center recommended that the subcommittee reject a proposed zoning amendment that would require a new off-street parking space for every new unit of housing in residential districts zoned R3 and R4. The requirement would erect a significant barrier to the creation of new units in these zones, and make it prohibitive for owners of houses containing illegally subdivided units to bring those units into compliance with zoning and building codes.

Read more

Follow Pratt Center on Twitter

Press Release last updated February 24, 2010

The Pratt Center is now on Twitter. Follow us: we're @prattcenter.

Read more

Retrofit Block By Block Inspires New Citywide Program

News last updated February 17, 2010

In her 2010 State of the City Address, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced a new Council-led initiative to retrofit homes for energy efficiency, focusing efforts in targeted locations in all five boroughs. Speaker Quinn noted that the new program will be based on a project created by the Pratt Center for Community Development. The Council will be supporting the five retrofit sites with assistance to property owners in obtaining financing for improvements, including a new loan fund.

Read more