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Manhattan's Upper West Side would top almost anyone's list of successful urban neighborhoods. The 200-square-block area mixes brownstones and boutiques, working stiffs and jet setters. Bordered by Central Park, the Hudson River, and Columbia University, the Upper West Side is also home to some of New York's most politically active types--a mark of distinction in this feisty city.
If the money comes through, construction could begin soon on Riverside South, a $2 billion, 7.9 million-square-foot mixed-use project on 56 acres of former railroad land at the neighborhood's western edge. Critics charge that the development's size, although far less than originally proposed, would overwhelm the neighborhood's streets, subways, and sewers, most of which are operating at capacity. They contend that the deep public subsidies for highway reconstruction and affordable housing could better be spent elsewhere in the city.
While proponents eagerly await groundbreaking, now scheduled for early next year, many observers are still skeptical that the long-delayed project will ever come to pass. One thing that's sure is that the project has mesmerized New York's planning and development community, both because of its long and contentious history and because it involves an unprecedented alliance between developer Donald Trump and six influential civic groups.
The players
The Riverside South plan approved by the city council and former Mayor David Dinkins in December 1992 calls for 5,700 apartments, a 1.8 million-square-foot film or television studio, space for neighborhood shops and cultural groups, and a 21.5-acre, $63 million extension of Riverside Park. Trump has asked for hundreds of millions of dollars in public financing and tax abatements, and his supporters are seeking $80 million or more in federal funds to move the elevated Miller Highway, which runs through the site.
According to the urban design plan, crafted by David Childs and Marilyn Taylor of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the eastern half of the barren site would be mapped as an extension of Manhattan's grid. The western half would be given over to the waterfront park.
And an extension of Riverside Drive would run down the middle. The plan calls for a parade of 18-to 49-story apartment buildings with contextual streetwalls and towers reminiscent of the Art Deco landmarks just blocks away on Central Park West.
Planners have long been...