Until just a few years ago, before the disastrous mayoral tenure of Bill de Blasio and the troubled mayoral tenure of Eric Adams, the Big Apple was very much a “Yes City.”
The ultra-optimistic slogan Mayor Adams recently chose for his worthy but slow efforts to create new housing development hides how puny his vision is compared to the Homeric transformation of the five boroughs under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Much of the change began between 2002 and 2007, when Dan Doctoroff, Mayor Bloomberg’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, conceived, promoted and nurtured some of Gotham’s most impressive and innovative projects, from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Governors Island to Hudson Yards.
“I just believe in the idea of New York,” Doctoroff writes in The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff and the Rise of New York (Monacelli, out now), a new book edited by Sophia Hollander and Mark Riskus. “I believe that New York… represents the best of what the world can actually be, imperfect as it is.”
With striking imagery, the book showcases Doctoroff’s grand ambitions and achievements.
These are in stark contrast to today’s environmentally and gender-obsessed “City of No,” where common-sense efforts like accelerating the conversion of offices to residential have been thwarted by resistance from the City Council and zoning board, and even Mayor de Blasio, who hates most development, has allowed new high-rises to go up near Grand Central Terminal.
Humane-scale apartment construction is being blocked by progressive elected officials who view all new development (including the tragically rejected proposal on West 145th Street in the heart of Harlem) as racist and capitalist exploitation.
Instead, the Adams administration’s idea of progress is a $43 million plan announced in January: to make us “the most female-positive city in the United States,” whatever that means.
The Bloomberg/Doctoroff team functioned like a 21st-century Robert Moses, without the bulldozers, passionate about the future development of New York City. Some of their greatest accomplishments came from Doctoroff’s rejected bid to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics to New York, an apparent setback in 2005 that turned out to be a boon for the city.
The changes they made Zoning changes will allow for the construction of sports stadiums and Olympic facilities that never were built on West 30th Street, and will bring Hudson Yards, the Hudson River Greenway, and impressive new apartments, hotels, and restaurants west of 9th Avenue.
Doctoroff and Bloomberg had the backing of people who shared their vision, notably City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, and they also had an advantage Adams could only dream of: They inherited a city with little crime or poverty, thanks to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a citizenry eager to rebuild after 9/11.
Doctoroff, 65, who is battling the neurodegenerative disease ALS, also spearheaded the construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Moynihan Station, and his impact on the city and its residents is immeasurable.
He brokered a deal with Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority to allow the construction of the “Freedom Tower,” saving the new World Trade Center from paralysis.
He pushed for massive rezoning to unlock the potential of an underutilized manufacturing district, an unheralded engine of progress that brought new housing and offices to 6,000 city blocks.
Every time you marvel at the burgeoning skyscrapers on Flatbush Avenue, bike or stroll across Highbridge between Manhattan and the Bronx, or cheer on the Nets at Barclays Center, you are enjoying a work by Doctoroff or in which he played an integral role.
In short, as the book puts it, “he oversaw one of the most radical reforms of New York’s physical environment in the city’s history.”
Let’s take a look at six of his many achievements.
Brooklyn Cultural District
The plaza at 300 Ashland Place in Fort Greene sits at the heart of Brooklyn’s Cultural District, home to the recently renovated Brooklyn Paramount live music venue BAM and dozens of other new or revived arts venues. The district’s tumultuous birth required Doctoroff to persuade the real estate industry, local residents and arts institutions to disagree and find compromise. It was part of his broader vision for the entire neighborhood. Rezoning near Downtown Brooklyn has created 32 million square feet of new housing, offices, retail and cultural attractions. The city’s $2.4 billion contribution has spurred more than $34 billion in private investment.
Brooklyn Bridge Park
The brains and hands of many helped transform a barren, hard-to-access patch of land into a 1.3-mile stretch of paradise along the East River. Doctoroff was undoubtedly the father of the park. A believer in the economic value of recreational land, he supported Bloomberg’s goal of building a park of more than 3,000 acres and investing $6 billion over 12 years. As vice chairman of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, he struck a key agreement with then-Governor George Pataki in 2002 to co-finance the initial construction. Today, the park is a wonderland of arts and leisure beloved by locals and tourists alike.
He also worked to revitalize other parts of the East River, rezoning the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront, previously a wasteland of abandoned factories and vacant lots, and spurring the construction of more than 12,500 apartments along a mile of northern Brooklyn’s waterfront.
Far West Side
Related Company’s 26-acre Hudson Yards complex, built above a railroad yard, and the vibrant neighborhood that surrounds it wouldn’t exist without Doctoroff’s belief in the area’s potential. He oversaw the neighborhood’s 2005 master plan, which brought modern high-rises to blocks once filled with tire repair shops and junkyards. Though the Related Company site remains unfinished, it already boasts a large office tower housing BlackRock, Tapestry, and Wells Fargo, as well as shops, restaurants, the soon-to-reopen Vessel, and Edge, which, at 1,100 feet above ground, is the highest open-air observation deck in the Western Hemisphere.
Doctoroff ensured the complex would not just be a commercial venture, reserving space for a spectacular arts venue, The Shed, and after leaving City Hall, he became chairman and president of the nonprofit corporation that built and operates the architecturally impressive facility, leading a $550 million fundraising campaign to fund it.
High Line
Everyone loves the High Line Park, but few know that it wouldn’t exist without Doctoroff. The Giuliani administration tried to demolish the decaying, unused railroad overpass, but Bloomberg opposed it, and it seemed hopeless. After 9/11, the city was on the brink of bankruptcy and priorities were elsewhere. Preserving the remains of the overpass would require a herculean effort. Doctoroff had to satisfy the railroad company that owns it, as well as dozens of businesses that own land along the 1.5-mile route. The park, which opened its first section in 2009 and was fully completed in 2019, is now projected to generate $2 billion in economic development over 20 years.
New Whitney
The Whitney Museum needed more space to fit its collection in its relatively compact upper Madison Avenue building. Doctoroff believed that culture would be the driving force behind the economic development of the Lower West Side he envisioned. Some Whitney officials bristled at his proposal to move the museum to the foot of the yet-to-be-built High Line. But he convinced them that it was a way to ensure the museum’s future. And he was right: today, this Renzo Piano-designed masterpiece in the Meatpacking District draws more than a million visitors a year, compared with 400,000 uptown.
Governors Island
The 172-acre oasis in New York Harbor was once a military base and Coast Guard station, but it had been off-limits to the public for 200 years, when Bloomberg took office. Doctoroff saw its potential as a spectacular park, easily accessible by ferry from Manhattan and Brooklyn, and in 2003 he signed a contract to buy it from the federal government for $1. Then, as chairman of the island corporation’s board of directors, he set about building it into the family-friendly attractions it is today, with beautifully manicured parkland, sightseeing trails, picnic areas, summer visiting sheep and traveling arts performances.
