50 Ideas for the New City at Brooklyn Flea, Williamsburg

Well folks, we’re only a few days away from the Festival of Ideas for the New City. The buzz is heating up, and the poster campaign that we launched to coincide with the festival has hit the streets. And while these posters are, for us, about inserting a physical object into public spaces to encourage passersby to consider their surroundings a little differently, there’s also an online component, a distillation of some of the best ideas ever featured on Urban Omnibus and a chance to add your own ideas about what the city needs now. Check it out and spread the word.

MAYBE THE CENSUS COUNT IS RIGHT
The City’s distressed response to the 2010 census results have led to much speculation about how the numbers could have been so wrong. Well, Queens College Sociology Professor and New York Times demographer Andrew A. Beveridge offers another opinion — maybe they’re right. In a piece for Gotham Gazette, Beveridge lists four reasons to have confidence in the census count, such as a financial crisis-prompted decrease in immigration rates, a significant uptick in vacant housing after the recent building boom and the very real possibility that New York City was overcounted in the 2000 census.

Central Park | Photo by Flickr user posixeleni

HOW DO YOU USE CENTRAL PARK?
How do you use Central Park? You may have been one of the 3,300 people asked that question between July 2008 and May 2009 as part of the research for the recently-released Report on the Public Use of Central Park, an ambitious survey of park use conducted by the Central Park Conservancy. Data from thousands of exit interviews, entrance counts and observation surveys was collected, analyzed and interpreted, and the findings are available for perusal in this 96-page PDF. Some tidbits: Central Park sees 37-38 million visits annually by approximately 8-9 million different people; daily visits range from 40,000 on a winter weekday to 220,000 on a summer Sunday; 85% of users report participating in “subdued activities that generally include observation or passive enjoyment of one’s surroundings;” and a whopping 75% of visitors enter through the southern half of the Park, a discovery that has prompted the Conservancy to develop programs to increase use of the Park’s northern end.

MoMA: FORECLOSED
Following on the heels of the powerhouse 2009 exhibition “Rising Currents,” MoMA has announced the second in their series of Issues in Contemporary Architecture shows: “Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream” [PDF]. Five interdisciplinary teams of architects have been commissioned to participate in a four-month series of workshops and symposia during which they will develop projects that “challenge cultural assumptions concerning homeownership and associated settlement patterns, such as suburban sprawl, and assist the public in contemplating a potentially different future for housing and cities.” MoMA launched the series to expand the notion of what an exhibition should and can be and to encourage public dialogue and debate surrounding the selected topics. The five team leaders and their assigned cities (and related “megaregions”) are: Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of WORKac, Salem-Keizer, OR (Pacific Northwest); Michael Bell of Visible Weather, Temple Terrace, FL (Southeast); Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang, Cicero, IL (Midwest); Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith of MOS, The Oranges, NJ (Northeast); and Andrew Zago of Zago Architecture, Rialto, CA (Southern California). The workshop phase launches May 7 with a public symposium at MoMA PS1 featuring the team leaders. Open Studios at MoMA PS1 are scheduled for June 18 and September 17, and the exhibition of the resulting ideas and proposals will be on view at MoMA starting in January.

EVENTS and TO DOs
Archinect v3.0 Launch: Tonight, Friday, April 29th, 6pm. Drinks and socializing at the Samsung Experience space in the Time Warner Building (10 Columbus Circle) for a celebration of the launch of Archinect v3.0 and the announcement of a new alliance formed by Archinect, Designer Pages, OpenBuildings and Otto.

The Listening Tour: Proteus Gowanus hosts an early morning “rehabilitation of our urban-abused sense of hearing,” Sunday, May 1, 6am at the Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park.

Pantheon: A History of Art from the Streets of NYC: This is the final weekend to see the street art exhibit installed at the former Donnell Library space on W. 53rd St. between 5th and 6th Avenues.

World Science Festival: Tickets are now on sale for the 2011 World Science Festival, this year held from June 1-5. Events include “From the City to the Stars,” “Illuminating Light” and “From Dust to…” Many events sell out early, check out options soon.

…and the Festival of Ideas for the New City!!

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The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 provisional map, released in 1807 | via Wikimedia Commons

NYC GRID TURNS 200
This week marks the bicentennial of the Manhattan grid system, introducing the 90-degree, angular streetscape we know today. The grid reveals priorities of a 19th century New York, and this bicentennial offers a unique moment for urban enthusiasts to explore and understand the ideas behind 11 major avenues and 155 crosstown streets laid out in 1811.

The creation of the grid is lauded for introducing long, standardized, narrow blocks and responsible for shaping lots and blocks for facilitating real estate demands, breaking up traditionally large estate parcels. It has also been criticized for many of the pedestrian and traffic issues of Manhattan today — the narrow, pre-automobile streets gave rise to the term “gridlock.”

The significant lack of open space — only two areas included in the 1811 map, the ‘wide green’ or ‘Parade’ (Central Park came in 1850) and a future market — perhaps reflects the grid’s expected reliance on waterborne transportation and a clean, accessible riverside. In the words of William Bridges:

“It may to many be a matter of surprise that so few vacant spaces have been left, and those so small, for the benefit of fresh air and consequent preservation of health. Certainly if the City of New York was destined to stand on the side of small streams such as the Seine or the Thames, a great number of ample places might be needful. But those large arms of the sea which embrace Manhattan island render its situation in regard to health and pleasure as well to the convenience of commerce, peculiarly felicitous.”
-Remarks of the Commissioners for Laying Out Streets and Roads in the City of New York under the Act of April 3, 1807

In light of growing discussion over sea level rise and more recent attention given to developing both the built and recreational waterside ‘sixth borough’ in Vision 2020, New York City’s new Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, it is a timely comparison to note 19th century New York’s reliance on the waterfront as major open space and city government’s renewed interest in reviving New York’s waterways. To see other visual representations of the grid and Manhattan’s visual history, check out these beautiful posters on the grid’s birthday.

For in-depth coverage, see the New York Times‘ look at the grid’s birthday featuring an interactive map comparing John Randel’s 1811 map with today’s streets. Also, see Cornell Library’s original text from the Comissioners’ Plan of 1811 when the map was introduced.
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Series of screen grabs from WNYC's Interactive Map on 2010 Census Data

NEW YORK CENSUS 2010
The Census 2010 numbers were released yesterday, and according to the findings, the city grew only 2.1% since 2000 (166,855 people). Mayor Bloomberg is particularly bewildered by the results in Queens, saying yesterday “For example, the Census Bureau determined the population of Queens increased by only 1,300 people…Think about that — 1,300 people over 10 years. I’m not criticizing them, but it doesn’t make any sense.” Other city politicians are anxious about the impact of potential underreporting. Scott Stringer called the numbers “preposterous” adding that “the impact of this undercounting has severe ramifications for the city, when it comes to redistricting and the distribution of crucial social services to those most in need.” According to the Census, Brooklyn only grew by 1.6 percent (to 2,504,700 people) in the past decade while Manhattan reportedly grew by 3.2 (to 1,585,873 people).

The New York Times highlights some significant findings: the number of black New Yorkers has declined 5 percent since 2000, Non-Hispanic blacks now make up 23 percent of the population, the number of Asians increased 32 percent, passing the one million mark (now 13 percent of the population), the Hispanic population rose 8 percent and now 29 percent of the total, and Non-Hispanic whites registered a 3 percent decline, or 31,649 people (compared with a drop of nearly 362,000 during the 1990s) — the smallest decrease in a half-century of white flight. They now constitute 33 percent of the population. Manhattan and Brooklyn accounted for the only counties in the country with a million or more people where the white share of the population rose.

For a detailed report on Census numbers see here, and see WNYC’s coverage and interactive map on the Census data.
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ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE ANNOUNCES LEAGUE PRIZE WINNERS
Some in-house news: The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers 2011 winners have been announced! The League Prize (formerly known as the Young Architects Forum) is an annual competition, series of lectures, and exhibition created to recognize specific works of high quality and to encourage the exchange of ideas among young people who might otherwise not have a forum. This year’s theme is It’s Different: “Not content to wait for the hoped-for return of economic conditions favorable to conventional ideas about architectural practice, architects must ask: What is the new role of the designer? The Call for Entries addresse[d] the state of architecture as a reflection of our world: it’s different now.” For the full list of winners and more information, check out the Architectural League website and stay tuned for more updates on the upcoming lecture series and exhibition by the winners.
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CITY CONSIDERS WASTE-TO-ENERGY
Gotham Gazette reported this week that Waste-to-Energy, a process commonly understood as burning garbage to convert to energy, is currently being seriously considered by the Bloomberg administration in light of the soaring costs of exporting our city’s trash (up 62% in the past decade). A similar incinerator has been in operation in Newark for the past 20 years, and currently burns up some of the city’s refuse. Following the closure of the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, most of the city’s garbage is trucked to out-of-state landfills in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. Five years ago, the city approved a solid-waste management plan, hoping to improve the handling and moving of solid waste via barge, railroad and new waste transfer stations across the city, to distribute the garbage burden citywide, over a few neighborhoods. Waste-to-Energy has been considered before, as reported in this 2005 WNYC interview on Bloomberg’s take on garbage, and with the possibility back on the table, questions are again being raised — the burden of trash processing has fallen upon traditionally low-income and minority-based communities, and activists in Sunset Park and Hunts Point are voicing their concern. The energy conversion process is popular in Europe and has gotten cleaner in recent years, but remains a potential source of unease for many residents. See more on Waste-to-Energy technology and the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance’s platform, and map on existing waste transfer station in communities of color.
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1911 Postcard of Penn Station

EVENTS
Clean up the Gowanus Canal
Remember the community-drive clean-up efforts detailed in last year’s Canal Nest Colony feature? Now’s your chance to pitch in on the fun and help clean up the Gowanus Canal! Join the Gowanus Canal Conservancy on Sunday, March 27th to clean the 2nd Avenue Rain Garden and organize their Salt Lot for the 2011 season. See more details on the event and more to come in their Clean and Green Season series.

Historical Exhibition on Penn Station
An exhibition exploring the legacy of New York’s lost Beaux Arts landmark and ideas for the future opens today You can see “The Once and Future Pennsylvania Station” at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex and Store at Grand Central Terminal now through October 30.

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American Community Survey 2005-2009 | Household Income Distribution | screengrab from nytimes.com

CENSUS MAPS
This week, the Census Bureau released its first 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates, based on data about economic and social trends collected from 2005-2009. The ACS is an annual survey that gathers information from a sampling of US citizens to evaluate of economic and social needs in between the comprehensive, population-wide census, conducted every ten years. (Speaking of which — the first round of 2010 Census stats will be released on December 21st.) The New York Times has done a stellar job, as usual, of visualizing this data in a collection of interactive maps that chart racial distribution, income, home value and education statistics on the level of the city block. The maps expose greater, and probably predictable, demographic patterns nationwide, and let you poke around to check out who your neighbors are (at least according to their numbers). Zooming in on New York, it is interesting to note how rent control and gentrification have likely lead to the fairly jumbled distribution of income in Manhattan and, as the Times highlights in a separate piece, the migration of ethnic populations from Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Greenpoint to different pockets in the boroughs over the past decade.
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COMPETITIVE REDISTRICTING
“A fundamental part of democracy is ensuring that voters have viable choices, and that elected officials are accountable to their constituencies. High rates of uncontested elections and consistent, double digit margins of victory are anathema to these goals,” concludes a report on competitiveness of legislative elections available on the New York City government website (PDF). With redistricting in New York scheduled for 2011, after the results of this year’s census are released and before the 2012 elections, a cadre of local politicians calling themselves NY Uprising are pushing for redistricting reform. The group, led by former Mayor Ed Koch, cite the technological ease of mapping tools in drawing non-competitive districts and creating “safe” seats and recall a history of redistricting for political gain in America – perhaps explaining the 18th century federalist ring to their moniker. They suggest using an independent party to redraw district lines for the next election, implementing early voting and extending registration deadlines. Their report reminds us that competition is essential in stimulating democracy and that unseen political boundaries effect election results.
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The City Concealed: Park Slope Armory from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.

THE CITY CONCEALED
New Yorkers love to discover the city’s hidden sites. When the urban core seems so jam-packed, there is a thrill in finding the unnoticed, especially when it’s in plain sight. With this in mind, THIRTEEN/New York Public Media created The City Concealed, an online video documentary series that explores the “unseen corners of New York.” Their latest installment looks at the history of the Park Slope Armory, from its inception as the home for National Guard’s 14th regiment to its conversion into a YMCA. Be sure to check out the rest of the series — part urban exploration, part architectural and city history, The City Concealed can take you to a Washington Heights theater described as “sort of Neo-Classical Cambodian, with influences of Hindu, Mayan, and Moorish architecture. Gilded and covered in red velvet.”; the 19th century Hunterfly Road Houses of Weeksville; and the protected heron habitat of North Brother Island. “Visit the places you don’t know exist, locations you can’t get into, or maybe don’t even want to.”
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Walki, 2010 | Swoon | three-layer screenprint on handmade Indian jute paper

WALKI
By now, regular readers of Urban Omnibus are quite familiar with the artist Swoon and, among other things, the work she’s been doing with the Konbit Shelter Project to build sustainable, durable and low-cost housing in post-earthquake Haiti. This week, we received word that Swoon has teamed up with Upper Playground to release a limited edition print, all proceeds from which will go to support the Konbit project. The portrait of Walki, a boy who spent time with the Konbit Shelter team at their building site last summer, will only be available until January 1st. At $125, the screenprint is a worthy addition to any last-minute holiday gift list.
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FILM SCREENING: PEOPLE AND BUILDINGS
Need something to do in that sluggish time between Christmas and New Years? On December 27th at 7pm the Center for Urban Pedagogy is hosting a People and Building’s film screening at Anthology Film Archives. The selected films relate to welfare and complement CUP’s recently completed project on Cash Assistance. RSVP to info@anothercupdevelopment.org to attend this free event.

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Blo Puff, Bittertang

This weekend, the design competition Sukkah City will bring twelve modern-day sukkahs to Union Square for two days. The sukkah is a temporary structure constructed during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot, meant to commemorate the structures erected by Israelites during their exile from Egypt. Sukkah City asked twelve teams of designers (including 2010 Architectural League Prize recipients Bittertang), selected by jury, to re-imagine this traditional dwelling, conforming to requirements both traditional (“At night, one must be able to see the stars from within the sukkah, through the roof.”) and contemporary (any building with an area larger than 18″ x 9″ is not considered temporary by the Department of Buildings). Following their two-day appearance, you can vote for your favorite on New York Magazine’s website and even bid on them, proceeds to benefit Housing Works.

A fast-moving storm swept through New York last night, causing damage throughout Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Meterologists clocked winds as high as 109 miles-per-hour and a possible tornado was spotted. In the wake of the storm, passer-bys could be seen snapping photos of the damage, some of which the New York Times documented on their website.  To report damage and possibly qualify for disaster relief services, contact the Office of Emergency Management.

Park(ing) Day 2010, photo by Flickr user Sustainable Flatbush

As Streetsblog declares, the many downed trees in the wake of last night’s storm provide the perfect kickoff for Park(ing) Day today, which includes an installation on street tree care entitled “Alternative Side Mulching in Effect Today!” It’s just one of the many events, detailed on this handy map, being held today in celebration of alternative ways to use the city’s coveted street parking spaces. From a BYOB potluck under the BQE, to yoga in Greenpoint, to queer performance art on the street in the East Village, there are plenty of ways you can re-appropriate a parking spot for more creative uses than parking.

In more developments in auto-alternative news, it’s been just over a year since the Bicycle Access Bill directed commercial parking facilities to “provide spaces for bikes at a specific ratio relative to spaces for cars” by December of this year. Streetsblog reports on how one large chain of garages is making the economics of bike parking work (which just happens to be a pretty good deal for cyclists).

A view inside the book "Container Atlas: A Practical Guide to Container Architecture." Publisher: Gesalten

Over on We Make Money Not Art, Regine reviews a book about another kind of storage structure. If you think architectural experiments with shipping containers are soooo 2005, think again. Even (or perhaps especially) without an economy that fuels the outsize public art ambitions of artists like Gregory Colbert and Shigeru Ban (go here to see Ban’s lecture at the Architectural League from January 2008), there are other architectural applications for the shipping container, and some of them are even practical. And by practical, we mean that this book goes beyond pretty pictures to document plans, describe costs, and suggest solutions for common problems.

But let’s not forget that shipping containers’ original intended function still determines the design and management of global flows of commodities and products as well as the spatial form of the port cities (like Tianjin) that harbor them. Greg Smith and Jordan Hale describe the influence of ubiquitous computing (a topic whose relevance to architecture and urbanism we began to explore with the artists and designers of the League’s Sentient City exhibition and forthcoming book) on the global shipping trade, invoking the system as an example of the emerging internet of things.

Next Stop Atlantic, Stephen Mallon

For the last ten years, New York City has been dropping its retired subway cars, stripped of contaminants and cleaned, into the Atlantic Ocean, where they serve as marine habitats up and down the East Coast. So far, NYC has contributed over 2,500 cars to the National Artificial Reef Plan. Photographer and self-proclaimed train fanatic Stephen Mallon followed the subway-toting barges out to sea to capture the process from above water as part of his continuing series “American Reclamation,” which examines recycling processes in the US. Check out “Next Stop Atlantic” at Brooklyn’s Front Room Gallery through October 3, and in the meantime listen to WNYC’s Richard Hake talk to Mallon about his work on The Takeaway.

The results from the 2010 census are… maybe New Yorkers are not quite as hard to count after all. Or are they? The full data of this year’s census won’t be released until December, but released findings of the intial mail response show that New York’s participation grew from 57% in 2000 to 60% this year, while the national average remained unchanged at 72%. So while New York remains lagging in this number, the incremental improvement comes after the vast improvements made in the 2000 census, after some 400,000 New Yorkers went allegedly uncounted in 1990. Despite the improvements, the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods continued to have the lowest participation numbers, and are where the canvasing and imputation data will be crucial in determining the accuracy of New York’s count. Meanwhile, new census data out yesterday reported that the national poverty rate grew to 14.3%, and an even greater 15.85 in New York State.

Urban agriculture? There’s an app for that. Over at The Next American City you can find details about the latest web-based ways to get or grow your own urban agriculture. From a new online marketplace enabling buyers and growers of local food to connect, to a website that will tell you where the potatoes that turned into your bag of chips were grown, information for data-hungry local foodies is increasing sprouting all over the web.

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Now that the Times Square pedestrian plazas are a permanent fixture, the Department of Transportation has selected a temporary installation for Broadway before the site gets a major makeover in 2012. Molly Dilworth, a Brooklyn-based artist known by many for her rooftop paintings, was chosen out of 150 entries for her proposal entitled “Cool Water, Hot Island,” set to be installed in mid-July. Based off of NASA’s infrared data of Manhattan, the project brings attention to the urban heat-island effect, while hopefully lessening the impact. By using cool blues and other lighter colors for the painted river, it will absorb less heat and reflect more light than typical pavement, making the plazas a more comfortable place for tourists and workers alike this summer.

Fast Trash! captured the curiosity of many Omnibus readers, but for those of you who missed our Roosevelt Island meet-up and never made it out to see the exhibition, you can at least get a taste of the history and operation of the pneumatic trash system in the video below:

Nature Abhors a Vacuum from greg whitmore on Vimeo.

We’ve heard about SCAPE studio’s plans for oyster flupsies along the Gowanus as one of the Rising Currents proposals, but now it seems that another threatened ecosystem will experiment with the natural cleansing power of the bivalve for real: oysters just might save Jamaica Bay.

Last fall we told you about the Design Trust’s Call for Fellows for Made in Midtown, their study of the Garment District and its impact on the fashion industry. Now, to celebrate the launch of their website, there will be a series of public events in a pop-up space at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on June 3rd. And if you happen to be free and willing to help out, volunteers will get an invite to their cocktail reception.

We’ve talked about the importance of the census and the inherent difficulties of counting urban populations, but some still wonder how answering those 10 questions will really impact them and their community. Our friends at Next American City can help you out – check out this podcast interview with the Brookings Institution’s Andrew Reamer tackling those very issues.

Part of why developers refused to accede to the demands of a well-organized living wage campaign for its proposed Kingsbridge Armory Project was that retailers would simply take their business elsewhere if the living wage were only mandated in a small section of the Bronx. But now two Bronx politicians are taking the fight citywide. The proposed bill – Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act – would require all public projects that receive more than $100,000 in city funds to provide living wage jobs, or $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without.

With the next round of subway service changes starting at the end of June, the MTA has decided to update the NYC subway map (again). Changes this time include making Manhattan taller and wider, eliminating the service schedule, and improving the visual contrast. Or, if this new map still isn’t clear enough for you, take a cue from the folks at Kick Map and take the cartographic challenge that is the NYC subway system in their own hands.

The first official weekend of summer is here, and recently opened city parks — Hudson River Park, the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park, to name a few — are sure to be packed with visitors. But the Observer looks at the funding crises faced by these public spaces once  ribbons have been cut. Long-term maintenance plans are ill- or undefined, and city officials are noted as simply “betting that some unspecified solution will indeed materialize at some future date.”

If you are sticking around in the city for the holiday weekend, take your camera with you on Sunday evening for this spring’s Manhattanhenge.

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In our recent look at the 2010 census, we talked about hard-to-count (HTC) populations and how urban areas, and New York City in particular, have traditionally been undercounted (and thus potentially underfunded and underrepresented). According to the fine folks at CUNY’s Center for Urban Research, we’re not doing much better this year. The Center’s analysis of the first week of participation rates demonstrates clearly that census tracts in urban areas have much lower participation rates than those in non-urban areas.

Steve Romalewski, whom you’ll remember from both our last census post and his Omnibus feature about OASIS 2.0, has just let us know that the Center has been updating its Hard To Count mapping site with this year’s participation data as it comes in. Now you can:

• Type in a county and highlight the tracts below a certain participation rate.

• Sort the resulting list so you can see at a glance the highest and lowest performing tracts as well as their concentration.

• Compare the 2010 rate map with the 2000 rate map.

• Click on any spot on the map to display the latest participation rate for that area (state, county, or tract, depending on your desired zoom level)

Check it out.

The 2010 Census has begun – you should have already received your questionnaire. And if the 2000 census is any indication only 45% of us New Yorkers have sent it back. In the next few weeks, census workers will begin making house calls to try to gather data from non-responders and to seek out people with no fixed address or live in non-standard housing.

Steven Romalewski – familiar to Omnibus readers from his report on OASIS, the Open Accessible Space Information System, last September – is tackling the issue of undercounted populations with a new website that highlights regions that are likely to be undercounted and thus underrepresented. Hard to Count 2010 helps clarify both the logistical challenges of counting the third largest national population in the world (or about 4.5% of human beings) and shed light on who the winners and losers are under the current census system.

The map can be filtered according to various characteristics that hinder an accurate count, including prevalance of poverty, of rental units, of transient laborers and of language isolation. As his map shows, New York City’s high immigrant pool, high renter rate and high proportion of people depending on public assistance make the city’s count particularly difficult.  Perhaps as a similar measure to encourage participation, the Census Bureau is running its own live-feed interactive map highlighting the highest-response rate regions (Montana has already sent back 33% of its forms! New York’s Lyon’s Falls Village, population 591 (2000 census) already has a response rate of 70%!). What both maps show is that New York City is losing millions of dollars in funding to better counted communities.

Census workers may make up to six visits to individual homes before turning to neighbors to help fill in missing data. Through heavy regional advertising and community outreach, officials hope to fill in the holes of undercounted populations. But the measures are not always enough to combat the issues that arise in highly transient, non-English-speaking, or poorer populations that are hesitant to be counted by the government for a whole host of reasons.

Census information is completely confidential until 72 years after it’s documented, at which point it is released to the general public. As a court recently ruled, the Patriot Act cannot supersede the legal confidentiality of census data. This confidentiality, however, does have a history of being violated, such as the WW-II era use of census data to round up Japanese-Americans for internment in camps. But some question why individual data should be collected at all, and, wary of government control or surveillance, are demanding that the census return to its most literal constitutional interpretation, which directed marshals to count “the number of the inhabitants within their respective districts” with no regard to names or other data. Others are pushing for the use of statistical sampling to help estimate data for hard-to-count populations, an approach that would likely benefit dense urban areas. Census numbers, after all, determine how many seats each state holds in the House of Representatives and impact how and where some federal funding is distributed.

For more information on the census, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer is doing a series on the census called ‘Ten Questions That Count,’ examining a range of topics, including the reasons for its politicization, why New York is particularly susceptible to undercounting, myths regarding population trends and a look back at comedy pieces of censuses past. Last Wednesday’s show featured two Omnibus contributors, Steven Romalewski and Seema Agnani. Check out the podcast of Why New York Is Hard To Count on the WNYC website.

Because, don’t forget – we can’t move forward until we mail it back:

Yesterday’s protest of the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking seems to have received almost as much media attention as the groundbreaking itself – one eye-witness estimated the press-to-protester ratio outside Freddy’s bar as nearly 1 to 1. And we admit, we were so taken with the bobbleheaded masks that we failed to assess what this groundbreaking actually means in the context of a project where the meaning of each projected dollar or job is hotly contested. Thankfully, Atlantic Yards Report, as always, presents a measured and comprehensive account of the events that took place yesterday both inside and outside the tent.

This week brought news that the city is taking the reins of the Brooklyn Bridge Park project from the state after years of struggles and delays while the two sides attempted to partner on the development. The city is now considering ways to bring new funding streams in — including an idea to bring a Floating Pool back for permanent installation.

The New York Times opened its “Taking Questions” series to inquiries about the Gowanus Canal’s designation as a Superfund site. Answering is Jack S. Nyman, the director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College, CUNY, who initiated a study in 2009, to be released next month, entitled “Reconsidering Gowanus — Opportunities for the Sustainable Transformation of an Industrial Neighborhood.” Questions are closed, but the three part post of Nyman’s answers is worth a read.

The New York Times reports that the city has finally agreed to a settlement with workers whose health was damaged while cleaning up the wreckage of the World Trade Center after September 11th.  The survivors will be allowed access to a $23.4 million insurance account. The decision comes as a relief for many, but for others it was too little, too late.  One of the main witnesses is already dead from cancer tied to the toxic fumes at the site.

On Tuesday, NYCDOT submitted two projects to provide safer bike and pedestrian connections on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge. The proposals include the addition of new curbside bike routes that circumnavigate around the treacherous Delancey Street, and a raised, planted center median on Bowery between Canal and Division Streets, which would alleviate the congestion of the highly trafficked highway while providing safer crossways to pedestrians. Both proposals were approved by the CB3 committee.

As you’ve probably noticed from the ads littering the landscape of the New York streets, the census season is upon us.  This season is not quite like the others, though — this decade’s census is largely being promoted by local governments instead of the feds. As Governing magazine notes, this sets up a new dynamic and new incentive to stand up and be counted.  Local municipalities stand to gain thousands of dollars in federal funding for each additional person counted.  To paraphrase a recent Prince Street subway ad, the census will deliver better healthcare, better education and even better transportation to New Yorkers.  The census is still hiring and pay starts at $18.75/hr for census taker.  Count and be counted.

One city who the census surely has not benefitted is Detroit. Having lost 50% of its population over the past half century, what to do with the sagging city has been a hot topic of debate lately. Since Detroit became the poster child for post-industrial American city, seeing its population drop from a peak of 2 million to about 900,000 today, no one has known quite what to do with the blocks of valueless houses and factories. An article in Fortune explores a new proposal that calls for letting the city go to seed — literally.  Money manager John Hantz wants to turn broad swaths of suburban neighborhoods into the largest urban farm in the United States and possibly in the world.

At the VOLTA art fair last weekend, artist Jan Vormann showed New Yorkers how to patch up our city’s cracks. With LEGOs. Check out INHABITAT’s slideshow of his charming installations throughout the city.

Image via Inhabitat

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