By: Kamelia Kilawan
Satow left me with the feeling that Burden has been a influential trendsetter for most of her life. “Ms. Burden, who spends her leisure time walking the city, boating or birding, argues that ‘good design is good economic development, and I know this is true.’”
As a former socialite turned urban planner—Burden seems to have her own vision of the city in mind, complete with powerful connections to push them forth.
Satow was clever in including the details about developers needing to have their projects approved to go along with Burden’s “contextual” city planning, ensuring no buildings are too high.
However as a reader and a young journalist, I was curious about her plan for the outer-boroughs. Towards the end of the piece it states that Burden believes “As the city grows and shifts, her vision is of single-family homes and more suburban spaces outside the center, while allowing for greater density to be clustered around transit hubs throughout the five boroughs — 87 percent of new housing, she notes, is within a 10-minute walk of the subway.”
This troubles me. I would have probed more to find out exactly what she thinks about housing for the outer-boroughs. Not simply creating more affordable housing which is clearly an important issue, but exactly how she would define the argument of gentrification.
What is her perspective and the design she would envision for the city’s outer-boroughs? Redesigning the stylish and hip Brooklyn for young people is one thing, but how much of each borough’s identity is kept the same and why?
