When did New York start building slowly?
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When did New York start building slowly?
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Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#2I wonder how much of this is regulations and process related? It would be curious to see lines overlayed when new regulation was passed that might affect things.
Not sure anyone would ever be able to prove causation, but it would definitely be interesting to look at. For all I know maybe it’s not a factor at all?
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#3There’s no Power Broker in the city to keep the irons hot.
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#4I wonder how much of this is regulations and process related? It would be curious to see lines overlayed when new regulation was passed that might affect things. Not sure anyone would ever be able to prove causation, but it would definitely be interesting to look at. For all I know maybe it’s not a factor at all?
It’s pretty obvious from first principles that added cost to the builder necessitates higher housing costs to justify building something.
Alternative is lower margins, but they aren’t that big in typical development projects anyway (in normal times)
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#5Short version: "New York skyscrapers are built at around 50-70% the speed of Chicago skyscrapers. This seems partially due to New York constructing many more skinny skyscrapers with very small floor plates than Chicago does, which take proportionately longer to build."
Ones like this:[1]
[1] https://www.cnn.com/style/article/steinway-tower-intl-scli/i...
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#6Speed is affected by process, and process evolves in reaction to abuse. In the beginning, it's quick to do everything, but as people take advantage - routing contracts to friends, taking safety shortcuts - rules get put into place and those rules affect the time to complete.
For New York specifically there's another factor that it's strange the article omitted: Robert Moses.
Prior to the mid-1960s, it was fairly simple: if Robert Moses wanted something built, it was built. If he wanted it blocked, it was blocked. This made the process of getting approvals a known factor. Moses chaired a wide variety of authorities including NYC Planning Commission, the Parks Department, and more. He was the sole authority to negotiate with the Federal government for NYC projects.
This kind of central oversight allows certain projects to be completed much faster than it would be in other setups, but it also allows for a number of bad outcomes - corruption, ignoring the public good, environmental destruction, and more. As such, over time more process gets added. It's easy to criticize process, but many of the rules were written in blood with the best of intentions.
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#7Short version: "New York skyscrapers are built at around 50-70% the speed of Chicago skyscrapers. This seems partially due to New York constructing many more skinny skyscrapers with very small floor plates than Chicago does, which take proportionately longer to build." Ones like this:[1] [1] https://www.cnn.com/style/article/steinway-tower-intl-scli/i...
Why is NYC building skinnier skyscrapers? Is it air rights? Or is it easier to get approval to build such things on the few remaining smaller parcels and shorter buildings (which have to be knocked down first).
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#8Speed is affected by process, and process evolves in reaction to abuse. In the beginning, it's quick to do everything, but as people take advantage - routing contracts to friends, taking safety shortcuts - rules get put into place and those rules affect the time to complete. For New York specifically there's another factor that it's strange the article omitted: Robert Moses. Prior to the mid-1960s, it was fairly simp…
This is a simplistic take. European and East Asian democracies build infrastructure far faster and cheaper than the U.S. Often with even more stringent safety regulations and higher standards of quality.
The question we are tasked with answering is: why?
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#9Speed is affected by process, and process evolves in reaction to abuse. In the beginning, it's quick to do everything, but as people take advantage - routing contracts to friends, taking safety shortcuts - rules get put into place and those rules affect the time to complete. For New York specifically there's another factor that it's strange the article omitted: Robert Moses. Prior to the mid-1960s, it was fairly simp…
This is a simplistic take. European and East Asian democracies build infrastructure far faster and cheaper than the U.S. Often with even more stringent safety regulations and higher standards of quality. The question we are tasked with answering is: why?
corruption.
Re: When did New York start building slowly?
#10I was surprised to see most construction sites only have one shift working. Sites work around 8->4, 5 days a week. Not sure if that is city regulation or union workforce.