Holy Morons, Batman!

"Two men, one a practiced French stuntman known for climbing tall buildings, the other a New Yorker who said he wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of malaria, scaled the 52-story New York Times Building in Times Square on Thursday just hours apart. Each was arrested when he stepped safely onto the roof." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/nyregion/06climber.html?_r=1&oref=slogin What else is new?

Spanish Steps on the Hudson?

It was announced today that Tishman Speyer won the bid to redevelop the MTA-owned Hudson rail yards -- a 26-acre desolate site stretching from 30th Street to 33rd Street, between 10th Avenue and 12th Avenue. This would bring in a new Rockefeller Center-like vibe to the Midtown part of the Hudson Riverfront, currently a place no one would ever choose to visit.

The plan includes a green-themed, New York version of Rome's Spanish Steps leading to a plaza dubbed "The Forum," surrounded by four skyscrapers. The complex would include 10 million square feet of office space, 3,000 residential units, 550,000 square feet of retail space, a 200,000-square-foot cultural venue, a public school, and 13 acres of open space. According to http://www.tishmanspeyer.com/HudsonYards/ (which also contains a lot more cool pictures), "The Forum will become New York City’s next great meeting place, a new town square for the Far West Side."

Very cool! But by the time this actually happens, will I need a walker to get up those steps? They constantly talk the talk, but they never walk the walk. Weren't we promised something like this on the lower west side four years back? And what about the beach complex that's been in talks for years on the lower east side? Until they break ground, I ain't buying it. And let's just hope we already have some kind of version of the Freedom Tower by then. All in all, props for the ambition, but please, just build something already! If all this takes just over a decade, as some very hopeful critics suggest, we'll be lucky.