I agree NY is better than off than SF, but the trend is worrying. Take for example landmark preservation. I think almost everyone agrees that the loss of the ol

I agree NY is better than off than SF, but the trend is worrying. Take for example landmark preservation. I think almost everyone agrees that the loss of the old Penn Station was a tragedy, but now we have significant fractions of Manhattan designated as part of a historic districts and more are coming all the time. It's a one way ratchet. On top of that, the power of the NIMBYs is significantly stronger in the outer boros than it is in Manhattan (especially Queens and Staten Island). Once you reach city limits they are all powerful (Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester). Then there's Chris Christie's killing of the ARC project and the worrying lack of new transit capacity. It's most acute over the Hudson, but the pending doom for Williamsburg highlights the mass transit system's lack of resiliency outside of core Manhattan. I don't want to get too political especially on local politics which is probably not of much interest to most HN readers, but Bloomberg left BdB use a very solid economic position and a couple of ambitious transit plans in the works or almost finished (7 extension, east side access and 2nd ave). Since BdB has become mayor he started a war with the governor and his only proposals for new transit projects are frankly dumb (the trolley down the east side of the East River and the new ferries).