As if there weren't enough disagreements over the West Side stadium, the Regional Plan Association, a private planning organization, released a report yesterday saying that the plan to build a new stadium for the Jets should be scrapped. In its place, the RPA suggested the area should be rezoned for high-rise commercial and residential development. Their report also said that the expansion of the Javits Center should proceed as planned and that the stadium would repel development and not attract it as city officials claim.
This location is ideally suited for high-density residential development that would take advantage of its waterfront location and Manhattan's persistent demand for new housing locations. The design should include public open spaces, walkways and connections to Hudson River Park that will draw city residents, office workers and tourists to the western edge of the district.
Officials from the city and the from Jets, however, maintain that the stadium will help develop the West Side. Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff called the RPA plan "flawed" and "a halfhearted recipe that will not produce significant change on the West Side." There's nothing quite like a debate over land use.
All this talk of commercial and residential spaces has Gothamist thinking of Sim City. Clearly, city planning isn't as easy as clicking on the bulldozer icon and demolishing blocks of land, but it would be kind of fun to destroy rail yards with the click of a button.
Read the full report from the RPA (.pdf file) and Gothamist on the West Side stadium.
