In this issue of Spotlight on the Region:

– A Veteran of London Terror Shares his Experiences in New York

– Putting the Place in Astor Place

– Calendar

Don’t forget to register for the May 5 Regional Assembly, “Come What May: Planning in an Age of Disaster.” Register online at www.rpa.org or call Amanda Jones at 212/253-2727, ext. 317.

Planning for Disaster, From London to New York
RPA’s Annual Regional Assembly, Come What May: Planning in an Age of Disaster, will be held on Friday, May 5, at the Waldorf-Astoria. The keynote address will be delivered by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and the day’s speakers also include Rep. Anthony Weiner, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Port Authority Chairman Tony Coscia, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and many experts on preparing for and recovering from disasters. Moderating the morning plenary panel will be a man who has dealt with man-made disaster firsthand, Robert R. Kiley, former Chief of Transport for London and previously head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

When a series of human bombs exploded largely below ground in London last July, killing 56 people and injuring about 700, Kiley was among a small group of top officials that had to decide how to react in the short and long term. Recently retired as head of London’s transit system after years of intense scrimmaging over transit policy, Kiley will be in New York for the Regional Assembly. In preparation for that event, Kiley spoke this week with Spotlight editor Alex Marshall about how to prepare and respond to terrorism strikes or other disasters. It was clear that the events of last July still occupy center stage in much of Kiley’s thoughts. Some of Kiley’s conclusions – that high technology is so far of little use, that random checks are unproductive, and that the system’s openness should not be compromised – may surprise people. Whatever one concludes, it’s clear there is no one better prepared to start a conversation on how to prepare or confront disaster in this region. What follows is an edited version of Kiley’s conversation with Marshall.

Alex Marshall: How does London compare to New York, when it comes to terrorism or general disaster prevention?
Bob Kiley: London and New York are so similar on this subject, it’s hard to segregate them. What works or doesn’t work here or there is about the same. I think New York City is spending a fair amount of money on trying to find out if there are technological fixes. We are not doing as much on that here.

AM: Can you detail the ways the cities are similar?
BK: The cities are roughly the same size; London is arguably the finance capital of the world; the two together control more than half of the financial transactions in the world. In New York you have Midtown and Lower Manhattan, which are two of the three largest downtowns in the country. In London you have the so called City of London, the one mile square area that includes the financial district, and Canary Wharf, which is the new kid on the block and is growing rapidly. Both London and New York have large metro systems, although New York’s is larger than London’s. There are about 480 stations in New York, and more track mileage, as opposed to 270 stations here. In both cities, you have whole regions that revolve around mass transit.

AM: What are some of the specific defenses that have been taken on the London metro system?
BK: The London underground has been heavily relying on cameras for years. At the time the bombing occurred, there were 6,000 underground cameras surveying activity there. In addition, every single bus also has closed circuit television. The images are relayed into a central control room. The number of closed-circuit televisions on the underground is being doubled over the next few years, and the technology is being upgraded to digital.

AM: Are the cameras helpful?
BK: As an American arriving here, I was taken aback by the cameras and at first I thought they were intrusive and overbearing. But I’ve changed my view. They do help, particularly in deterring criminal activity. People are very reluctant to engage in criminal activity if they know they are being filmed. Without cameras, people could be very vulnerable walking through long passageways underground between lines where there are sometimes few other people. I would come down as an advocate of deploying cameras strategically.

But cameras, while effective against crime, cannot do much to stop someone walking in with a bomb strapped around his stomach and determined to blow himself up. The point is that there are things you can do [to stop terrorist attacks], but they are limited. If there were such a thing as taking a picture of faces and matching them with a known data base of bad guys, that would be great. But that technology doesn’t exist yet. To me, the way to do this is for intelligence organizations to be out in communities, not in a menacing or threatening way, but to be engaged in the community, to find out what’s going on. Get to know people, encourage them to come in and talk with you. That is the way to go about it. This should be in all communities, not just ethnic or minority or poor. The people who did the bombings in Britain were middle class. I believe this is a more fruitful approach than asking ourselves, “What can we do when the terrorists are actually inside the trains?” which is almost nothing. By definition, a subway is very vulnerable, because it’s completely open. That’s the definition of mass transit. What’s the defense against people with explosives wrapped around their stomachs from getting in? Not a lot. I don’t think throwing a lot of money at this problem is necessarily the solution.

AM: What do you think of the random checks on bags and packages being performed in New York’s subway system?
BK: If they are doing that on the basis of information they gave gathered from outside, I’m all for it. If they are simply doing that as a deployment strategy regardless of information, I would say it’s simply bulls**t and it won’t work.

AM: How is preparing for a natural disaster different than preparing for a terrorist attack?
BK: Defending against a hurricane or such starts with long term thinking on the odds that those things will happen. Calculating the odds of a terrorist attack is much more difficult. To prepare against a hurricane or flooding, you can erect levees like in New Orleans or the gates across the river Thames here. But when it gets to something like the Tube here, or the subway in New York, there is not a lot you can do at the gateway itself. If you want to conduct airport like security on mass transit, it won’t be mass transit anymore. It will be limited transit.

AM: Is there any general advice you can give in preparing for either natural or manmade disasters?
BK: There are things you can do to minimize casualties and respond to disasters. Those are after-event actions. On the proactive preventive side, it’s much more complicated. There is no technology solution that will catch people literally as they show up at the station. The real issue here is with suicide bombers, the normal deterrent factors are not there. They don’t care. They walk in, and they don’t plan to walk out.

This situation is not new. There were these sorts of suicide bombings going on in the 19th century and early 20th century, with the anarchists and other groups. The challenge is how can you stop something in an environment as open as the streets of Vienna or the streets of London? These systems don’t work if they are not open.

AM: What would you like to talk about when you are here in two weeks?
BK: On the fifth of May, I will talk about the events of last July, including what went well, what didn’t go well, and what lessons can we learn in the future.

To attend the Regional Assembly on Friday May 5th, register online at www.rpa.org or call Amanda Jones at 212/253-2727, ext. 317.

– Alex Marshall, Editor, Spotlight on the Region

Coming Into Being
For such a large physical space, Astor Place has a surprisingly low profile in Manhattan. It is mostly known for the Kmart, Cooper Union and, of course, Tony Rosenthal's Alamo sculpture, better known as “The Cube,” around which the intersection seems to revolve.

In other cities, a square where two subway lines meet and three major streets overlap would probably be a vibrant downtown core, with a gravitation felt for blocks around. In Manhattan however, it is an in-between space. It is devoured historically by the Bowery to the south, Greenwich Village to the west, Union Square on the north and the recently-renovated East Village to the east. It has a foot in each of these places, and has not quite managed to emerge on its own feet, as its own place.

It should be said that Astor Place is different things to different people. For some, it is essentially just a subway stop, a small traffic island within some busy streets. But for me, and I believe for many others, Astor Place is the relatively large trapezoidal-shaped area that runs from Broadway over to 3rd Avenue, and 4th Street to 9th Street.

I walk twice daily through Astor Place, on my way to Union Square and back, usually through a sea of Ipodded fellow travelers. I notice that Astor Place is changing, and quickly. As buildings rise and fall, and streets and sidewalks are re-carved, Astor Place may continue to exist as a non-space defined by the places around it, or it may coalesce into a place whose boundaries define other places, rather than being defined by them.

On my daily trips, I notice changes in and around the square the way I might notice flowers budding or leaves falling from trees. Recently the luxury condominium tower, designed by architect Charles Gwathmey, was built with a lot of hand-wringing. Its form of wrap-around mirrored glass was a mystery to locals until the water tower had been completed and covered. Back in March 2005 the Cube was removed temporarily, prompting Internet accusations of a fate similar to the Tompkins Square band shell, which was “removed for cleaning” in 1992 and never returned. In response to the cube’s absence, residents quickly, and hilariously, replaced the empty space with a PVC pipe version of the sculpture. The Cube was reinstalled late last year, prompting a sigh of relief. But just last week the statue of Peter Cooper was removed without explanation. In typical New York fashion, people take these changes in stride with a dash of resignation and humor. “Maybe he’s in the bathroom,” a friend said about Peter Cooper’s disappearance.

Around this changing square, titans of American consumerism are growing up like deep-rooted oak trees. We live among the essentials here. We have Starbucks (two! one east, one west), Barnes & Noble, Kmart, The Gap, McDonald’s and Chase all circling the Cube. We also have Cooper Union and McSorley's, Collonade Row and Grace Church and all the undeniable history that comes with them being piled on top of one another. And we also have the stretch of 8th Street known as St. Mark's Place. What we don't have is a neighborhood.

The districts that surround Astor Place are coming into their own, and this in turn can help Astor Place form its identity. Nearby St. Mark’s Place is one example of this. It is changing rapidly, even while it retains its intimate and parochial flavor in the best sense of the word. Cars travel slowly down its length, limited by the street’s narrow width and overflowing sidewalk traffic. Pedestrians cross in the middle of the street. The stores articulate themselves into the sidewalk with abandon. The old Astor of crime and punk rock has shifted itself into history. Now, new Japanese restaurants and markets open up every month. Chain stores, though, wither and die, crowded out by the local commercial foliage. Quizno’s failed because the little market right next door makes tastier sandwiches. It all adds up to a better experience.

Helped along by its vibrant neighbors like St. Mark’s, I feel a guarded optimism that Astor may actually live up to its name, and become “a place.” But it’s contingent on the city making the right public improvements to guide private investments in the area. More defined edges, more pedestrian scale, more sidewalks, more places for humans as opposed to cars, is the way to go. Helped along when it is needed, Astor Place can emerge as an invigorating hub around which equally vibrant parts of the city swirl.

–Jeff Ferzoco, Senior Graphic Designer, Regional Plan Association

April 21
Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton University and the Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania: Nationally renowned figures will discuss downtowns’ shift from commercial centers to 24-hour mixed-use communities during this colloquium titled, “New Downtowns: A Conference on the Future of Urban Centers.” Friday, April 21, 2006, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. For more info:http://region.princeton.edu/conference_21.html.

April 27 – 29
Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma. The Community Church of New York at 40 East 35th Street and the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom at 311 West 34th Street. The Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma conference will bring national and local experts together to address the topic of fuel depletion, the prediction of higher fuel prices, and ways to prepare New York City for the consequent economic impacts. To register visit http://www.energysolutionsconference.org/ or call 718 441-0246.

April 29, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Implementing the State TDR Act. Morris County Cultural Center, Morristown, N.J. ANJEC in collaboration with Regional Plan Association, Environmental Defense and New Jersey Future, will present the first of two planning workshops on New Jersey’s State Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program. The first program will focus on implementing TDR in Northern New Jersey, with a particular focus on the Highlands Region. To register or for further information email info@anjec.org or call 973-539-7547.

May 5
Come What May: Planning in an Age of Disaster. RPA’s Annual Regional Assembly at the Waldorf-Astoria in Midtown Manhattan. More information is available at http://www.rpa.org/ (link) or call 212/253-2727, ext. 317

May 6, 9:30 a.m.
The future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Bike Tour. 10-mile ride at a family pace from Newtown Creek in Greenpoint to the spectacular waterfront in Red Hook. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the foot of Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, at Newtown Creek. To register, email ride2006@brooklyngreenway.org.

May 6, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Implementing the State TDR Act. Cumberland Community College, Vineland, N.J. ANJEC in collaboration with Regional Plan Association, Environmental Defense and New Jersey Future, will present the second of two planning workshops on New Jersey’s State Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program, this time highlighting TDR programs in Southern New Jersey, the lessons learned, and how to strengthen the program. To register or for further information email info@anjec.org or call 973-539-7547.

May 9
Dialogue on Property Tax Reform, Tuesday, May 9, 6:30 p.m. The New Jersey Coalition for the Public Good in collaboration with the Regional Plan Association is presenting a Dialogue on Property Tax Reform on Tuesday, May 9th at 6:30 p.m. in the new library auditorium at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. www.njcpg.org.

May 24
Governors Island Alliance, Evening Reception honoring NYC & Company on Governors Island. This fundraising event will celebrate Governors Island, New York’s Next Great Place, and honor NYC & Company, the organization responsible for the revitalization and nurturing of the city’s dynamic tourist industry. Contact Amanda Jones at 212/253-2727 ext. 317 for more information.