A new administration is heading for New York City, but developer Jonathan Rose believes a plan for the next four years is not enough.
“We need to have a collective vision,” Rose said in the latest episode of TRD’s Coffee Talk. That means planning for the New York of 2050, not 2024.
“Say we want to be the best school system in the world,” Rose explained in an interview with TRD’s Hiten Samtani. “It’s a fake idea to say we’re gonna be it in [four years], but we could really, really be it in 30 years, or maybe 20 years or maybe even 15.”
Rose’s vision unites a thesis for development with ideas about climate resilience, transportation, education, equity, public safety and more. He has been honing these thoughts for years: Long before his 2016 book The Well-Tempered City was published, Rose evangelized a kind of “holistic” development that many in New York are still warming up to.
Rose cited advances from Paris to Bhutan that speak to the potential in plans like his, especially in a post-Covid world.
So, did the pandemic change his vision? “No,” Rose said. “Well… I’ll tell you what changed.”
Watch the video above to find out.