Details about the expansion proposal

Earlier this summer, New York Methodist Hospital announced that it was planning to expand its facilities, on the eastern portion of the block bounded by 7th and 8th Avenues and 5th and 6th Streets.  The hospital presented preliminary plans at a meeting held by Community Board 6 and the Park Slope Civic Council on July 11th (here’s coverage of that meeting via DNAinfo, as well as a more recent update).

This book explores the evolution of social and urban theory starting from the classic debate in the 19th century. Far from being a “mere” exploration of different definition of City and Urbanism, the aim of this essay is to focus on a multidimensional understanding of Urbanism as a means to see how different disciplines have faced the relationship between people and place. The conceptual starting point is Lefebvre’s idea of the urban as a universal condition not “simply” or “specifically” related to the city, as the privileged form of sociospatial settlement space. According to this perspective, urbanism cannot be considered as a self-evident object: it is the outcome of different socio-spatial processes, involving multiple levels and dimensions. After defining the conceptual categories of the theoretical field, the essay proposes a reflection on the contemporary challenges in the theoretical construction of the neighborhood concept. A particular attention is to be paid to the practices as an euristic tool to understand the relationship between this three concepts: “structure”, “human” and “practice” which constituted the idea of neighborhood.

Download here a pdf version of the book and an English book review by Federico Savini, UvA.

Here the publisher page: «Il Quartiere: il nostro campo di gioco».

This book explores the evolution of social and urban theory starting from the classic debate in the 19th century. Far from being a “mere” exploration of different definition of City and Urbanism, the aim of this essay is to focus on a multidimensional understanding of Urbanism as a means to see how different disciplines have faced the relationship between people and place. The conceptual starting point is Lefebvre’s idea of the urban as a universal condition not “simply” or “specifically” related to the city, as the privileged form of sociospatial settlement space. According to this perspective, urbanism cannot be considered as a self-evident object: it is the outcome of different socio-spatial processes, involving multiple levels and dimensions. After defining the conceptual categories of the theoretical field, the essay proposes a reflection on the contemporary challenges in the theoretical construction of the neighborhood concept. A particular attention is to be paid to the practices as an euristic tool to understand the relationship between this three concepts: “structure”, “human” and “practice” which constituted the idea of neighborhood.

Please read more here: «Il Quartiere: il nostro campo di gioco».

With its population shrinking and its property values rising, New York’s Chinatown is under siege, according to an exhaustive report released Friday.”Gentrification threatens to transform these previously neglected neighborhoods into tourist centers and destroy places were Asian immigrants have lived and worked for decades,” said Bethany Li, staff attorney with The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which authored the report.” [Crain’s NY, 6/21]

Yukie Ohta looks at the dramatic transformation of SoHo over the past 50 years, from a center for light manufacturing, to a desolate and dangerous wasteland, to one of the most affluent neighborhoods in New York.

Read more on the Urban Omnibus:

http://urbanomnibus.net/2013/06/living-lofts-the-evolution-of-the-cast-iron-district/

Many housing observers agree that Generation Y-people from 18 to 34 years of age-largely prefers downtown living, often in rental apartments with easy access to walkable neighborhoods and public transportation.

The real question is whether they’ll outgrow those tastes once they earn higher salaries and have kids.

[Wall Street Journal, 5/15]