THE FUTURE NEW YORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20331, 12 August 1929, Page 14

THE FUTURE NEW YORK.

1 .PLANNING FOR 1965.

PURVEY COSTS £200,000. WONDER CITY OF 20,000,000. N'luv Yorkers may now envisage their city as it will bo 36 years hence. Tho regional plan committee of tho Russell Sugo -Foundation in New York has issued u report, which cost £200,000 to prepare, regarded as tho most exhaustive .study of regional planning over made, resulting in the most comprehensive programnio over proposed. Tho committee sees Nov; York in 1965 with a population of 20,000,000 people, comfortably housed, with an amazingly intricate system of rapid transit and plenty of parks, playgrounds and breathing space. Tho New York of to-day, with its congested traffic areas, its skyscrapers, its underground tunnels and bridges, and tho mad hustle of daily life, is vastly different from tho city of 56 years ago. What life in New York will be like after 36 more, years can, of course, only bo conjectured. But if tho general principles of tho regional plan arc followed it, is possiblo that the New York of lib. will havo regained some of tho leisure, comfort and spaciousness now lost for tho sake of progress. The report shows how New York and tho rest of an area embracing 5528 square miles can lie gradually made over •through scientific development until it is not only a desirable place in which to work and live, but also a place in which the /present inhabitants and the prospective 20,000,000 of 1965 may work comfortably and live happily, with all the room and air and sunshine that nature demands. Fifty Miles Across. The .survey, which began in 1922, differed from other city planning in that the , effort was made not primarily for tho sake of beauty, although tho wholo plan tends toward that end. The social factor predominated throughout. Tho committee maintains that _ its aim has/ beeu to preserve civilisation, and that no element entering into this consideration has been OV( * r " looked. The committee expects the present population of New York City and its environs, which is 10,000,000, to double, itself:by 1965, and the report asserts that there-is no want of land to enable 20,000.000 people to live in spacious surroundings within a radius of 25 miles of Manhattan. Every family could have a house of its own on a lot 40ft. by 100 ft., with ; ample sunlight; and oven then only one fourth of tho land in the region would bo occupied for residential purposes. A few impressions formed by ono in-' dividual of the life of the New Yorker of 1965 are as follows:—"Ihe Xew \orker of 1965 will havo plenty of room, if he wants it. lie will not spend so much of his time sitting in stationary motor-cars in congested traffic, unless he really wishes to. He will not havo to brave the perils of tho open streets so often. He will be able to get round tho 5000 square miles of the region far more easily than now. But lie will not have so much occasion to do so. His job, his recreation, his stores, his children's schools will bo much more conveniently situated with respect to where lie lives than they are now. Triple-decked Streets. " r 6lie city of the future, by 1965 or soon&r, will not only havo large fields for types of airplanes similar to those now in use, but provision will also be made for types not needing so much room. Tho number of 'planes in use might oven become comparable to the number - of motor-cars now in use. We may, perhaps, see largo flat-roofed sky garages, on which planes of the helicogyre type can be landed and stored to wait their owners' pleasure. Flats may have their own storage facilities. "Easy transit in 1965 will really be easy, not the present desperate struggle against •crowds. Tho suburban resident may choose j to live far out. If bo. does ho will find it possible to reach Manhattan by belt linos, similar to tho -trunk belt lines of the jnairi railways, which will carry liim, without need of changing cars, from a point near his home to within walking distance of his office. " In 1965 the Island of Manhattan will still be tho hub of the mighty city of New York, or rather of" the "roup of cities, 1 lying in three States, which will really make up New York, but it will bo relatively less important than it is to-day," The regional plan committee has not yet made public its architectural proposal, but tho preliminary discussions havo brought out several divergent points of view. One view favours a city shooting far higher into tho air than the New York of the present day. Doubledccked and triple-decked streets, gardened terraces, lofty footpaths, perhrtDs built of glass so as to permjt light to penetrate to the lower levels, and towers shooting a thousand frot and more into the clouds, like miniature 'mountain peaks, arc features of 1 his idea. In such buildings the residenfs might, if they choose, live out their entiro lives without setting foot on the ground. 1 Probably, however, a process of rebuilding Yvill have gone on all over Manhattan, Ihe old tenements will have disappeared, garden apartments will have taken their places/parked motor-cars will have disappeared from tho streets into sub-surface garages, or skyscraner storage buildings, tho smoke evil will have been dbno away -with, and the community will have progressed far (towards the ideal of a spotless city. P»ut perhaps none of these possibilities controverts tho principal thesis of the regional committee, which is that, no matter what surprises aro in store for us, fy.citv which has beeu planned as far as practicable- in adv-nnco will be more beautiful and more comfortable to live in than due which is left to grow at random.