Cleaning up the Duece

Cleaning Up the Deuce

This video has been up on the New York Times front page from a couple of days now.  The link unfortunately takes you to the general video section but if you search for the title of this post it should come up.  The video is essentially about the transformation from of Times Square in NYC from a sex and drug filled pleasure land to the corporate tourist trap that it is today.  A few things struck me about this video.  The first was the original move by the city to essentially demolish several square blocks of the city, seemingly on a whim.  At first glace, this move appeared to be yet another post-modern authoritarian move by a government to impose their will on a unsolicited community.  However, the reaction of the community to the proposed "suburban office park" that the city planned was quite amazing.  Having just read Tom Angotti's piece, seeing a community take control over there area from the government was refreshing.  Angotti argues this is an essential aspect to urban planning, particularly in NYC.  However, I do find some objections in the case of Times Square to Angotti's argument.  For although the community certainly raised concerns about the cities original plan, and they did change it to make it their own, I am not convinced that it was necessarily the best move.  Rather than invigorate the spirt of the place with less trash (not the literal kind), they really just transferred power of the place from the hands of one authoritarian (government) to another (corporations).  When one walks through Times Square now, especially as a lifetime New Yorker, it can be fairly depressing.  What the place lacks in smut it makes up for in corporate greed and a certain placelessness that Jane Jacobs would scoff at.  I wonder if the greed that governments and corporations are vilified for doesnt exist in some small part in the hearts and minds of community planners.  However, I ultimately find myself in agreement with Angotti that what is need is not a specific group to take the reins of community planning, but for the entirety of the process to be democratic between all parties involved.