Coney Island, NY
A waterfront is often the face of a city. However, from old mill towns to former shipping ports, many urban waterfronts no longer connect to the world through their former transportation and economic functions. Without this bustle, cities are increasingly left exposed, challenged to reveal their personality and values in these unused spaces. Increasingly, waterfronts are where cities are forced to stop their treadmill of economic activity, development and transportation infrastructure, and figure out who they are.
Discovering an identity for a waterfront has not been easy for many cities. In fact, it is here where the debate over the soul of cities is perhaps most magnified. The void left on many urban waterfronts attracts the full array of claims on what a city is about and what it most needs. Some waterfronts are being privatized with one dimensional commercial activity, others with housing. Some are being limited to passive use or structured recreation, and many have been reserved for automobiles. Each of these forces is vying for these underperforming spaces, and each time one particular use is allowed to dominate it degrades a waterfront’s long-term potential. Waterfronts need to not only draw on a dynamic combination of activity to succeed, they must also become greater than the sum of their uses.