I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn, when I came across the section describing the meandering border. I decided to quickly throw it into Google Maps to see what it would look like…. and then just kept going. Like with all maps of neighborhoods this map generalizes the borders to some extent and excludes some micro-hoods to keep things simple. There is always some overlap and argument but I decided just to use the most widely held definitions of the borders. I really made this because all online mapping services don’t really do a good job of defining neighborhoods (Google, what the hell is “Adelphi”? No one in Brooklyn calls it that.) Download this and use it whenever anyone asks where a particular ‘hood is.

In my last post I outlined the ambitious plan to massively expand the New York City subway system. For various reasons (the Great Depression, World War II, rise of suburbia, etc) the plans were, for the most part, never realized. After World War II many plans were scrapped as limited resources were diverted to building new highways. Some minor expansion took place but the system also lost many miles of track as older elevated lines were removed.

In 1968 the city developed a new, much less ambitious, plan to expand subway service and rebuild aging infrastructure. In an unfortunate case of history repeating itself the city immediately faced a financial crisis causing the plans to be scrapped and subway service to be cut. For the next 20 years the city planned, for the first time ever, to decrease in size and services. It wasn’t until the 1990s, when the population stabilized and the economy of the city began to grow, when serious plans for expansion were brought back. This post covers subway expansion from the end of World War II up to the present.

The IND Second System was the last great city-wide subway expansion plan ever mounted. It would have extended many existing lines while building many completely new lines. The Second System was proposed at the crest of the roaring twenties, mere days before the crash of the stock market. Although plans for the expansion lingered on for 20 more years by the time the city was able to afford such an endeavor the car had rested control of the minds of urban planners and the subways were left to rot. In this post I lay out just what was in these ambitious plans you you can get a sense of what New York might have been like where subways ran deep into Queens, covered the entire Bronx, ran up and down Second Avenue in Manhattan, and even jumped the harbor to serve Staten Island.

Those who follow the MTA closely will scoff at the ideas for such a fantastic expansion but like with the futureMBTA, these ideas are not based on political reality, rather they are presented to stir the mind and to inspire future leaders and city officials of the possibilities. Today, the City of New York has recovered from the population drain of the late 20th Century and now boasts a larger population than ever before with up to a million new citizens expected to move into the city in the next generation. In the past 30 years the city has planned for a reduction of population and services. Now the city needs to plan for expansion. This will take time and it is because of this I think that now is the right time to share my ideas and maps.

This is just the introduction to a series of posts I plan on writing explaining the history of subway expansion in NYC, first with an analysis of the famous IND Second System, a close look at the long history of the Second Ave Subway and my first new map of the SAS System, and finally my plans for new lines into Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

I twittered that I was on my way to the Bauhaus exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and a friend responded that Walter Gropius was the Wes Anderson of architecture. After thinking very long about this prospect I realized that the closest analogy would actually be Frank Gehry, the wonky starchitect known for milking his dying brand long after it was fresh and innovative. This also brings up the close analogy between Gehry and M. Night Shyamalan but I think Anderson wins out since Shyamalan’s work is far too serious.
You might want to queue up some Rolling Stones to accompany this post.

I just posted some more fantastic read submissions to the futureMBTA. Head over and check them out. Great work guys, keep them coming!

I’m looking at the date and it says 2010. That seems more futuristic to me than 2001 did for some reason. So we are in the future, where are the flying cars? Flying cars are what I call a zombie technology, an idea that just won’t die no matter how ludicrous. I’ve been researching rapid transit for many years now and what continues to fascinate me is how some ideas never die. The first zombie idea of rapid transit is Monorails which still hold their 1960s futuristic charm even though they always come up short compared to conventional rail. The second idea, and the subject of this rant post is Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).

Read more…

Happy New Year all! I realize that my last post was in August and I haven’t made a peep since then. I’m happy to report that during that time I wasn’t dead but in fact finishing up my undergrad at Hunter College (BA in Geography). After 7 years and 3 schools I am finally a college graduate. Now the job hunt.

Since I have much more free time now I am looking forward to getting back to blogging on a more regular basis. Also look for a new blog redesign coming… eventually. I keep this site as a continual work in progress and have been working on a new design for some time now.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced plans yesterday for the MTA to improve service to subways, trains, roads, and ferries. Obviously a political stunt for his reelection, they were still interesting and through provoking ideas.

A while back I asked readers of my futureMBTA site to send in their own ideas and maps for MBTA expansion ideas. I got some great ideas and I’ve posted a bunch of them up. Head over and get your mind working on what-could-be.
http://futurembta.com