Mayor Adams could learn a good lesson from Bloomberg’s ‘real city’

Not too many years ago — before the miserable mayoral reign of Bill de Blasio and the tumultuous one of Eric Adams — the Big Apple was truly the “City of Yes.”

The wildly optimistic tagline Adams recently chose for his worthy but slow struggle to generate new housing development belies how feeble his vision is — compared to the Homeric transformation of the five boroughs that took place under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Many of the changes began between 2002 and 2007, when Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development, dreamed up, championed and nurtured some of Gotham’s most impressive, game-changing projects — from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Governors Island on the Hudson . yards.

“I just believe in the idea of ​​New York,” Doctoroff says in the new book The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff and the Rise of New York (Monacelli; out now), edited by Sophia Hollander and Marc Risks. “I believe that New York . . . it truly represents the best – yes, imperfectly, but the best – of what the world can really be.”

With stunning images, the book shows Doctoroff’s great ambitions and achievements.

They stand in stark contrast to today’s environmentally and gender-obsessed city, where sensible initiatives such as accelerating office-to-residential conversion are blocked by resistance from the City Council and community board. Even de Blasio, who hated major development, allowed new skyscrapers to rise near Grand Central Terminal.

Building human-scale apartments is stymied by progressive elected officials, who regard any new development — including a tragically rejected proposal on West 145th Street in central Harlem — as racist and capitalist exploitation.

Instead, the Adams administration’s idea of ​​progress is a $43 million plan, announced in January, to make us “the most women-friendly city in the US,” whatever that means.

The Bloomberg-Doctoroff team functioned like a 21st-century Robert Moses without the bulldozers, passionate about the future growth of New York City. Some of their best achievements came from Doctoroff’s rejected proposal to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics to New York — a notable setback in 2005 that turned out to be a boon for the city.

The changes they have made to land-use laws—for an unbuilt sports stadium and other Olympic-related facilities in the 1930s West—paved the way for Hudson Yards, the Hudson River Greenway, and spectacular new apartment buildings, hotels and restaurants west of Ninth Avenue.

Doctoroff and Bloomberg had help from others who shared their vision, notably city planning commissioner Amanda Burden. They also had advantages that Adams can only dream of. They inherited a city that was largely free of crime and misery, thanks to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the public’s desire for renewal after 9/11.

Doctoroff, who at age 65 is battling the neurodegenerative disease ALS, also led the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Moynihan Station. His impact on the city and its residents cannot be overstated.

He saved the new World Trade Center from paralysis when he brokered a deal between Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority that allowed the Freedom Tower to be erected.

He promoted epic rezoning to unleash the potential of unused productive areas—an unheralded engine of progress that brought new homes and offices to 6,000 city blocks.

Every time you marvel at the booming skyscrapers of Flatbush Avenue, bike or stroll the High Bridge between Manhattan and the Bronx, or cheer on the Nets at Barclays Center, you revel in the works that Doctoroff has created or had an indispensable hand in creating. bring them to life.

In short, as the book says, “He oversaw one of the most profound renovations of New York’s physical environment in the city’s history.”

Take a look at six of his many achievements.

Brooklyn Cultural District

The plaza at 300 Ashland Place in Fort Greene lies in the heart of Brooklyn’s cultural district, which is home to BAM, the recently renovated live music venue Brooklyn Paramount, and dozens of other new and revived institutions. art. The district’s turbulent birth required Doctoroff to persuade feuding real estate interests, local residents and art venues to find common ground. It was part of his larger vision for the wider area around her. Rezoning near Downtown Brooklyn brought 32 million square feet of new homes, offices, shops and cultural attractions. The city’s $2.4 billion contribution spurred more than $34 billion in private investment.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Many minds and hands contributed to the transformation of rough and inaccessible land into this 1.3-mile-long paradise on the East River, but Doctoroff was definitely his father figure. A believer in the economic value of recreational land, he embraced Bloomberg’s goal of creating more than 3,000 acres of parks and investing $6 billion in them over 12 years. As vice president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp., he brokered a landmark 2002 deal with then-Gov. George Pataki to co-finance early construction. Today the park is a wonderland of art and entertainment loved by locals and tourists alike.

He was also instrumental in the revival of other East River districts. He redeveloped the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront, previously a wasteland of disused factories and vacant lots, to spur construction of more than 12,500 apartments along 1.6 miles of North Brooklyn waterfront.

Far West Side

Neither the Associated Companies’ 26-acre Hudson Yards complex atop a rail yard nor the thriving neighborhood around it would exist without Doctoroff’s belief in the area’s untapped potential. He oversaw the city’s 2005 master plan for a district where modern skyscrapers could rise on blocks previously dominated by tire repair shops and junkyards. Although the Related site remains unfinished, it already boasts glitzy office towers — which are home to BlackRock, Tapestry and Wells Fargo — shops, restaurants, the soon-to-reopen Vessel and the Edge. The latter is the highest open-air viewing platform in the Western Hemisphere at 1,100 feet above street level.

Doctoroff made sure the complex wasn’t just about commerce, setting aside space for the stunning art venue The Shed. After leaving City Hall, he became chairman and president of the nonprofit corporation to build and operate the architectural marvel and led the $550 million capital campaign that paid for it.

The High Line

Everyone loves the High Line Park, but few are aware that it wouldn’t exist without Doctoroff. The Giuliani administration wanted to tear down the decaying, disused train station and, although Bloomberg disagreed, he seemed doomed. The city faced the devastation after 9/11 and its priorities lay elsewhere. Preserving the raised relic required a heavy effort. Doctoroff had to satisfy the railroad that owned it and dozens of companies that owned property along its 1.5-mile route. The park, which saw its first segment open in 2009 and complete completion in 2019, is now projected to generate $2 billion in economic development over 20 years.

New Whitney

The Whitney Museum of American Art needed more space for its collection than it could add to its relatively compact upper Madison Avenue location. Doctoroff believed that culture could help spur the kind of economic development he envisioned for the lower West Side. Some Whitney officials balked at his suggestion to move the museum to the foot of the still-unbuilt High Line. But he convinced them that this was the way to ensure the future of the institution. He was right. Today, the Renzo Piano-designed masterpiece in the Meatpacking District attracts over a million visitors a year compared to 400,000 in the city.

Governor’s Island

The 172-acre oasis in New York Harbor, once a military base and Coast Guard station, had been off-limits to the public for 200 years when Bloomberg took office. Doctoroff saw its potential as a spectacular park easily accessible by ferry from Manhattan and Brooklyn. He made a deal to buy it for $1 from the federal government in 2003. Later, as chairman of the island’s corporate board of directors, he set in motion today’s wealth of family-friendly attractions, which include the park with beautiful scenery, hiking trails, picnic grounds, summer sheep visits and rotating arts shows.