New York in the Bloomberg Era

The rest of the US has stagnated in the new century, but New York City has boomed. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 37 percent of the city has been rezoned, 170,000 units of housing have been added, three new stadiums have been built, and 750,000 trees planted. Decrepit waterfront areas have become new parks or high rise developments. More than any other mayor in the country, Bloomberg has favored pedestrians and bicyclists over cars, turning several square miles of street into bike lines and walkways. The Times has a cool interactive feature showing some of the biggest changes, and before and after pictures of key locations.

Of course some people hate this, especially advocates for affordable housing and people who never want anything in their neighborhoods to change. But I think big cities can't stand still; they can either change and grow, or stagnate and decline. In some ways Bloomberg epitomizes the "nanny state" that Republicans like to complain about, with his draconian smoking bans and his failed attempt to eliminate big sodas. But when it comes to economic development, he has swept away every sort of regulatory obstacle. Jim Dwyer offers this as the epitaph of Bloomberg's administation:

Mr. Bloomberg was keen to take on the impossible.