Examine Washington Heights and Inwood as part of a Working Group.
The community district board communicates issues and concerns to the city’s major agencies and service providers. In this it is effective.
Less well known, is its ability to produce systemic change.
The City College Architecture Center recently produced a research project for Community Board 12. A set of maps show places, but a set of database backed geographic information system images (GIS) can show how property is developing in CD12 now and into the future.
It is an evaluation tool for urban design, community planning and of course, real estate investment analysis. For the purpose of community-based planning and research this resource is use to define two crucial community values.
- The first is to discover and encourage development for economic growth and;
- The second is to provide the community with what it needs today, as it is today.
The first value is easy, let the private sector do what it does to grow, the second one on on the other hand is more difficult as business growth and our personal or community development are not as compatible as we would prefer.
So Why Plan? Why a Working Group?
- Planning produces ideas that can turn what you think is probable or possible into what is preferred.
- From these visions, an effective and timely response to a central question is made: What is important now?
- Producing public energy for planning makes solving today’s problems today possible.
A place for this and all of the information needed has begun to develop. Go to www.cd12-plan.net has all of the heavy docs. Monitor, don't download yet, and get back to us using this web resource and this blog CD12
Many subjects are possible to develop on on the change in zoning for Inwood has begun with very short descriptions of all the "Special Districts" developed in New York City over the years. Comments are sought so have a look at CD12-Special District Debate.
In closing, something that Margaret Mead said is useful now. "Never doubt that small groups of people change the world. It is the only way it ever has..."
