The NY Sun reports Madison Square Garden officials will just renovate the existing arena instead of being a part of the city and state's ambitious Moynihan Station plans. An MSG spokesperson said, "Madison Square Garden has decided to move forward with our renovation previously announced in 2004. After exploring several alternatives, it has become clear that the only viable option is a renovation. Details will be available in the coming days. Madison Square Garden......

Now that the MTA has selected Tishman Speyer to develop the West Side rail yards into Hudson Yards, a new period of public scrutiny will begin. The developer's plans will need to go through the city's public review process to rezone the western section, leaving plenty of time for potential modifications and opposition. One decided opponent of the plan is NY Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. After being depressed by the five proposed designs, Ouroussoff lets......

The League of American Bicyclists has awarded New York City a bronze medal for bicycle friendliness. League representatives met with Mayor Bloomberg and DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who sometimes cycles to work, at City Hall yesterday to present the award. Though bronze is the lowest rung on the friendliness ladder, New York City is the only community in the region to be designated a Bike Friendly Community (BFC). While the total number of cycling fatalities......

Photo via Frank Lynch's Flickr. Earlier this month we tried to look at the Triborough Bridge as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge when Governor Spitzer brought the name change up for consideration. While RFK supporters toss around the obvious "he built bridges" metaphor, The NY Times would like to point out that he also burned them. They suggest that the city stop looking for big names to attach to their structures and streets, and......

While everyone knows that the proposals five development teams have offered up for the MTA's West Side rail yards are likely to change, the NY Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff made it clear that he hopes they do, with a withering review of the five plans. Noting the great opportunity that developers have, Ouroussoff says the designs "are not just a disappointment for their lack of imagination, they are also a grim referendum on......

A storefront at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street (across from Grand Central) may be a window into the future of the West Side Rail Yards. The MTA unveiled an exhibition of the five proposals to redevelop the rail yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and the public will get a chance to see the models every day (except Thanksgiving) through December 3. And what's more, the MTA wants the......

This week New York Magazine chose Eric Harvey Brown as their look book subject. We decided to ask him a few questions ourselves, and dig a little deeper - beyond the beard (just a little though). How did NY Mag approach you for the Look Book piece? They found me walking past Times Square. Why do you think they picked you? I have crazy facial hair. Where did they shoot the photo? They shot the......

-- If only David Yassky had appeared on LunchBox before the election, he might have won! The Monopoly bit is hilarious-- but only if you're into urban planning physical humor. -- Good news: the city is putting up new Class 3 bikeroutes around the city. Bad news: a Class 3 bikeroute is basically just a regular street with a biking stencil on the pavement. Bon voyage! -- Arugula has finally triumphed over it's hated......

Or at least that's what World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein promised yesterday, now that he and the Port Authority have agreed on terms that divvy up control of Ground Zero's various components. "I have instructed our construction team to mobilize into the site tomorrow so that we can begin construction of the Freedom Tower immediately," he told the media. The Port Authority says that the eastern section of the WTC site will be......

If you are interested in urban planning, architecture, or real estate, The Stamford Review is a great read. It's a scholarly journal that deals with a lot of those issues, published in NYC and Stamford, CT. We got a copy of their spring issue (available as a free download at StamfordReview.com, which contained many intriguing pieces about the limits of growth in our city, and what is going to happen next. Larry Sicular, the......

Roosevelt Island, pop. 10,000, is in the news again. The small town in the middle of the big city, one of the great urban planning "eh-steps" (not quite a misstep, but close), was last seen in the news scaring Jennifer Connely in "Dark Water." But now its got a political scandal, or the makings of one, to call its very own. Let's see if you remember all of this: The 147-acre island was leased......

Lisa Selin Davis, Author "Belly"...

Elana Levin, Community Organizer & Williamsburg Warrior...

It seems like every few months or so there’s a story in the news about how hard it is to produce a show on stage these days – hard to make it profitable, hard to get the audiences. From Broadway to off-off Broadway, it's the same story. Thankfully a few recent shows have done well enough that they’ve returned, or will be, for extended runs. The lucky recipients of this popular demand? -- All Wear......

It's Bloomberg time: Let's see...First, Mayor Bloomberg told the City Council to mind its own beeswax and stop "picking-and-choosing" which big chain stores come the town. This refers to scaring Wal-Mart out of Queens (at least for now), saying that Wal-Mart had a right to be in NYC, just as people have the right to unionize or not unionize. This comes as former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Reich wrote a NY Times editorial, "Don't......

The four finalists for developing the High Line have stage 2 of the RFP on display at the Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place. High Line officials said the design teams "met our expectations and exceeded them," with visions of suspended valleys, rotating art exhibits, clear-bottomed pools and sunflowers. Read the Friends of the High Line press release. Gothamist is sad that NY1 called the current High Line state an "eyesore" because there is beauty......

Another step closer to trying to create a new vibrant neighborhood in Manhattan, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff unveiled plans for the Far West Side, which runs from 24th Street to 42nd Street, 8th Avenue to the Hudson River. The goal is to build two platforms over the railyards, which apparently was done with Grand Central Terminal. The Post reports that other parts of the proposal include: - A park the size of Bryant Park, shops,......