Community Corner
Is Reston a Vital, Growing City?
Bob Simon sees New York Times parallels between Manhattan development, Reston development and the reasons for pushing forward.
As Reston faces constant rezoning, redevelopment and development projects as it prepares to become a more transit-oriented community, it can learn from New York City.
That is what Reston founder Bob Simon has been saying for years: That density is community that he always intended for Reston to be higher density.
Simon called my attention to this Op-Ed in the New York Times Friday. The article points out the opposition to various projects in Manhattan - including Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building.
"Had developers listened to the people who did not want density and development, there would be no Rockefeller Center," says Simon. "This is what I want the Reston anti-development people to know."
Says Columbia University professor Kenneth T. Jackson in the op-ed:
"A vital city is a growing city, and a growing city is a changing city. When Henry James returned to New York in 1904 after a long absence in Europe, he discovered that the city of his youth had “vanished from the earth.” But in its place a powerful new metropolis was emerging, with a skyline unequaled at the time."
Read the entire Op Ed here.
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