Not many years ago — before the miserable mayoral reign of Bill de Blasio and the troubled one of Eric Adams — the Big Apple truly was “The City of Yes.”
The wildly optimistic slogan Adams recently chose for his worthy but slow-moving struggle to generate new housing development belies how puny his vision is — compared with the Homeric transformation of the five boroughs that took place under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Many of the changes were kick-started between 2002 and 2007, when Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development, dreamed up, championed and nurtured some of Gotham’s most impressive, game-changing projects — from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Governors Island to Hudson Yards.
“I just believe in the idea of New York,” Doctoroff says in the new book “The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff and the Rise of New York” (Monacelli; out now), edited by Sophia Hollander and Marc Risks. “I believe that New York . . . really represents the best — yes, imperfectly but the best, of what the world can actually be.”
With striking imagery, the book showcases Doctoroff’s grand ambitions and achievements.
They stand in stark contrast to today’s environment- and gender-obsessed City of No, where common-sense initiatives such as speeding up office-to-residential conversion are bogged down by City Council and community board resistance. Even de Blasio, who hated most development, allowed new skyscrapers to go up near Grand Central Terminal.
Humanely-scaled apartment construction is stymied by progressive elected officials who regard any new development — including a tragically rejected proposal at West 145th Street in central Harlem — as racist, capitalist exploitation.
Instead, the Adams’ administration idea of progress is a $43 million plan, announced in January, to make us “the most woman-forward city in the US,” whatever that means.
The Bloomberg-Doctoroff team functioned as a 21st Century Robert Moses without bulldozers, passionate about New York City’s future growth. Some of their finest accomplishments grew out of Doctoroff’s rejected proposal to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics to New York — an apparent setback in 2005 that proved to be a boon for the city.
Changes they made to land-use laws — for a never-built sports stadium and other Olympics-related facilities in the West 30s — paved the way for Hudson Yards, the Hudson River greenway and spectacular new apartment buildings, hotels and restaurants west of Ninth Avenue.
Doctoroff and Bloomberg had help from others who shared their vision, especially city planning commissioner Amanda Burden. They also had advantages that Adams can only dream of. They inherited a city that was largely free of crime and squalor, thanks to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and a public eager for post-9/11 renewal.
Doctoroff, who at 65 is battering the neurodegenerative disease ALS, also spearheaded the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Moynihan Station. His impact on the city and its residents can’t be overstated.
He saved the new World Trade Center from paralysis when he brokered a deal between Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority that allowed the “Freedom Tower” to rise.
He promoted epic rezoning to unleash the potential of underused manufacturing districts — an unheralded engine of progress that brought new homes and offices to 6,000 city blocks.
Any time you marvel at Flatbush Avenue’s skyscraper boom, bicycle or stroll the High Bridge between Manhattan and The Bronx, or cheer the Nets at Barclays Center, you’re enjoying works that Doctoroff wrought or had an indispensable hand in bringing to life.
In short, as the book states, “He oversaw one of the most profound overhauls of New York’s physical environment in the city’s history.”
Have a look at six of his many achievements.
The Brooklyn Cultural District
The plaza at 300 Ashland Place in Fort Greene lies at the heart of the Brooklyn Cultural District, which is home to BAM, the recently renovated Brooklyn Paramount live music venue and dozens of other new and revived arts institutions. The district’s turbulent birth required Doctoroff to persuade squabbling real estate interests, local residents and arts venues to find common ground. It was part of his broader vision for the wider area around it. Rezoning nearby Downtown Brooklyn yielded 32 million square feet of new homes, offices, stores and cultural attractions. The city’s $2.4 billion contribution spurred more than $34 billion in private investment.
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Many minds and hands contributed to turning rough, inaccessible ground into this 1.3-mile long paradise on the East River, but Doctoroff was undeniably its father figure. A believer in the economic value of recreational land, he embraced Bloomberg’s goal to create more than 3,000 acres of parks and to invest $6 billion in them over 12 years. As vice-chairman of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp., he forged a crucial 2002 agreement with then-Gov. George Pataki to co-fund early construction. Today the park is a wonderland of art and leisure beloved by both locals and tourists.
He was instrumental, too, in reviving other East River districts. He rezoned the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront, previously a wasteland of unused factories and empty lots, to spur the construction of more than 12,500 apartments along 1.6 miles of North Brooklyn waterfront.
The Far West Side
Neither Related Companies’ 26-acre Hudson Yards complex on top of a rail yard nor the booming neighborhood around it would exist without Doctoroff’s faith in the area’s untapped potential. He oversaw the city’s 2005 master plan for a district where modern skyscrapers could rise on blocks previously dominated by tire repair shops and junk yards. Although the Related site remains unfinished, it already boasts great office towers — which are home to BlackRock, Tapestry and Wells Fargo — stores, restaurants, the soon to reopen Vessel and the Edge. The latter is the highest open-air viewing platform in the Western Hemisphere at 1,100 feet above street level.
Doctoroff made sure the complex wouldn’t only be about commerce, setting aside space for the stunning arts venue The Shed. After leaving City Hall, he became chairman and president of the nonprofit corporation to build and operate the architecturally striking facility and led the $550 million capital campaign that paid for it.
The High Line
Everyone loves the High Line Park, but few are aware that it wouldn’t exist without Doctoroff. The Giuliani administration wanted to demolish the rotted, unused train trestle, and, although Bloomberg disagreed, it appeared doomed. The city faced going broke after 9/11 and its priorities lay elsewhere. Saving the elevated relic required a herculean effort. Doctoroff had to satisfy the railroad that owned it and dozens of companies that owned property along its 1.5-mile route. The park, which saw its first segment open in 2009 and full completion in 2019, is now projected to generate $2 billion in economic development over 20 years.
The New Whitney
The Whitney Museum of American Art needed more space for its collection than it could add at its relatively compact upper Madison Avenue location. Doctoroff believed that culture could help drive economic development of the kind he envisioned for the lower West Side. Some Whitney officials bridled at his suggestion to move the museum to the foot of the as-yet unbuilt High Line. But he convinced them it was the way to ensure the institution’s future. He was right. Today, the Renzo Piano-designed masterpiece in the Meatpacking District draws over a million annual visitors compared to 400,000 uptown.
Governor’s Island
The 172-acre oasis in New York Harbor, once a military base and Coast Guard station, was off-limits to the public for 200 years when Bloomberg took office. Doctoroff saw its potential as a spectacular park easily reached by ferry from Manhattan and Brooklyn. He made a deal to buy it for $1 from the federal government in 2003. Later, as head of the island corporation’s board of directors, he set in motion today’s wealth of family-friendly attractions, which include beautifully landscaped parkland, sightseeing trails, picnic grounds, summertime sheep visits and rotating arts performances.