Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC4Life
New York City 
1- NYC Begins to recover after 9/11 and showed the world its resiliency.
2- Amazing decline in the crime rate.
3- Two new baseball stadiums open (Yankee Stadium & Citi Field).
4- Construction begins on the long delayed Second Avenue subway.
5- Times Square is revitalized.
6- Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island closes.
7- The boroughs all experience massive urban renewals.
8- NYC launches campaign to reduce pollution and become green.
9- The miracle on the Hudson.
10- Biggest construction boom in decades.
|
Great list! Here's my personal take on NYC's top ten achievements of the past decade (in no particular order):
1. Renewal of the transit system: multiple subway stations renovated, thousands of new subway cars added with digital displays and automated announcements; and new low-floor hybrid buses added to the network.
2. New lines and stations opened or under construction: Secaucus transfer station added, Hudson-Bergen light rail opened, Queens Boulevard to 63rd Street tunnel connection opened (an achievement no matter what you think of the V train), new South Ferry Station opened, Airtrain JFK opened and Airtrain Newark extended to a new NJT rail station. First phase of Second Avenue subway under construction, extension of the 7 train to the Javits Center under construction, LIRR extension to Grand Central under construction, and the second train tunnel under the Hudson is either already under construction or about to start.
3. Opening of new city parks: the High Line, the Hudson River Park, East River Park in Williamsburg, to name a few. Continued renovation of the landscape and buildings of Central and Prospect Parks. Major renovation of Madison Square Park and Washington Square Park. Plus numerous renovations of existing small parks throughout the city.
4. New and expanded museums: the new New Museum, the new Museum of Art and Design, the new Folk Art Museum, expansion of the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum, opening of the Dia:Beacon.
5. Lots of tall buildings added to the skyline including Bank of America, New York Times, Seven World Trade Center, Hearst Tower, etc.
6. Lots of starchitect-designed buildings, including: Richard Meier's Perry Street towers, Frank Gehry's ICA, Herzog and de Meuron's Bond Street apartments, Morphosis' Cooper Union building, etc.
7. Strong population growth for an already very large city. New York is now 6% or 471,753 people larger than it was at its previous census peak of 7.8 million in 1950 and 18% or 1,292,071 people larger than at its recent population low in 1980. The 2008 population estimate is for 8,363,710 people.
8. Continued expansion of the city's historic districts and related restoration of of NYC's architectural heritage.
9. Better retail and better food shopping options. This may seem a little strange to outsiders, but the New York of 10 years ago (to say nothing of the NY of 20 years ago) lacked necessary, neighborhood-serving retail outside a few wealthy areas. Buying edible fresh vegetables (as compared to the dusty, wilted variety sold at most bodegas and C-Towns) has gotten much easier thanks to the expansion of green markets around the city and the now ubiquitous Whole Foods. Buying electronics has gotten easier with the spread of national chain retailers. Many predicted the entrance of national chains into the city would destroy its retail character, but quite the opposite has happened as independent stores are thriving all over the city.
10. And despite the fact that it's far from finished and seems to be taking forever, I think that anything has happened at all at the World Trade Center site is a pretty big accomplishment given the extent of the devastation and incredible complexity of how the disparate elements interweave and overlap. They may build them faster and bigger in Dubai, but it's also ALOT easier to build in the open desert than on a few acres in one of the most dense places on the planet.