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Originally Posted by ardecila
Why tear them down? They're not the crime-infested ratholes that tower projects are/were in most other American cities. In fact, I hear they function quite well.
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To improve the public realm (some of them are very bad for crime, but that's another issue). It's not just about crime. Even if they had no crime, they break up the city's grid, and provide little (in some cases no) retail to enliven the streetscape and give anyone not living there a reason to go there. Plus they too have the useless open space/parking space between buildings and the street, and between buildings and other buildings. These are the identical issue pre-development Regent Park had/has.
Even if they're not going to tear them down, they should at least encourage lowrise retail buildings to be built on the unused open space. Thousands of people can live in a single housing project. Easily enough to support 50,000+ square feet of retail. I'm not talking Dolce and Gabbana, just basic everyday stuff - grocery stores, drug stores, dry cleaners, mid-market restaurants, convenience stores, etc.
Read about the Tower Renewal Project:
http://knol.google.com/k/a-future-vi...erican-suburb#
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The pressures to live in New York are so great that any sort of redevelopment would inevitably turn into a major gentrification - the opportunities to make money are just too great.
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Yes, that's the idea.