Contemporary Planning of the Risk City: The Case of New York City

Abstract

Risk and uncertainties that climate change poses to our cities and communities are constitutive constructs in defining the contemporary risk city. Consequently, many cities and communities around the world are now grappling with climate change through a multitude of practices aimed at responding to these uncertainties and countering the worst of them. In other words, the risk city mobilizes its various planning and institutional frameworks in an effort to determine its own future rather than leaving it to the hand of fate. This chapter interrogates the nature of a recent climate change oriented plan of New York City, PlaNYC, and examines the role of the risk stemming from climate change in shaping its future planning. PlaNYC is an inclusive plan for a big city. This chapter applies the Countering Climate Change Evaluation Method (CCCEM) to the recent plan of New York City: PlaNYC 2030. Eventually, the assessment method of the CCCEM provides us with insights regarding the nature of planning policies and measures in coping with contemporary risk cities, specifically in the aspects of climate change. The assessment reveals that PlaNYC 2030 promotes greater compactness and density, mixed land use, sustainable transportation, greening, and utilization of underused land. It offers an ambitious vision of reducing emissions by 30 %. On the down side, the PlaNYC did not make a radical shift toward planning for climate change and adaptation. It inadequately addresses social planning issues that are crucial to New York City. Like other cities, New York is “socially differentiated” in terms of communities’ capacity to address the uncertainties of climate change, and the Plan fails to address issues facing vulnerable communities. Another critical shortcoming is the lack of a systematic procedure for public participation in the planning process throughout the city’s neighborhoods and among different social groups and stakeholders.