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The New York Times

A Century 21 Urban X-Ray

New York Times Critic's Notebook column Times Square, Grand Central and the Laws That Build the City by Michael Kimmelman, is one chop short.

Nancy Anderson's comment in The New York Times appears in full below.

The Sallan Foundation
New York, September 24, 2020

While cheering this piece as an X-ray of the inner workings of Manhattan development — as it's been practiced for decades — showing vital internal organs like eminent domain, arcane zoning + land use rules + historic preservation, it's backward looking not forward facing in a critical way.

Not a word about building codes that are beginning to demand energy efficiency, nothing about climate resilience which could mean how buildings are able to deal with blackouts or heatwaves. With emerging financial demands + insurance demands for climate risk assessments, this omission is puzzling. Changes here are part of any 21st century urban X-ray.

Finally, nothing about prospects for laws that shape how developers will support resilient infrastructure. Manhattan may be an island, but it's not isolated from our climate crisis, nor is its real estate.