In City Journal, Ed Glaeser takes aim at the expansion of historical preservation districts in Manhattan.
Not counting parks, southern Manhattan contains about 7,700 acres of potentially buildable area. Today, nearly 16 percent of that land is in historic districts and therefore subject to the commission’s authority. This preservation is freezing large tracts of land, rendering them unable to accommodate the thousands of people who would like to live in Manhattan but can’t afford to.
During the 1920s, Manhattan had a population well in excess of 2 million. As of the last Census, the population is slightly above 1.5 million. Some of this, of course, reflects rising affluence, but one is struck by the large number of parking lots and empty parcels of land that dot the island.
Glaeser has made the case that increasing density is a key tool for reducing pressure on the natural environment: if a large slice of the next 100 million settles in existing urban areas, retrofitted for higher density, we can preserve more land for forest cover, agricultural uses, and much else besides. By limiting development in core urban areas, preservation districts have powerfully negative environmental consequences. And I say this as someone who really likes the historical character of the neighborhood I live in now. That’s a privilege many are willing to pay for, and it is a reason we’re not likely to see reckless redevelopment in New York and other dense cities.