The Manhattan grid system

The Manhattan street grid was set up in 1811. The setup was such that it would include
12 avenues and 155 intertwined cross streets. The avenues and streets would take from the tiny
Greenwich Village to the Harlem farmland estates. The survey lines were laid out 29 degrees
from due north due to the island's shape. This design shaped the contemporary
"Manhattanhenge," which provides Manhattan with the impeccable sunset phenomenon
(Jennings, 2017). With the growth of New York, the imaginary Grid came to fruition. North of
Houston Street, New York retained its rectilinear design, which paved the way for New York's
retaining some of its rectilinear forms. This design was influential as it would mean that taxi
drivers could drive through the city streets with the help of coordinates that help identify concise
destinations similar to the use of longitudes and latitudes. For instance, the Empire State
Building was located on the fifth avenue on the 34th street through this structure.

In 2011, Harold Cooper, a Brooklyn software engineer, was a visionary who sought to
extend this view to encompass the entire world. He would make this extension through a
modified website similar to Google Maps called ExtendNY. The new website was centered on
the use of coordinates that could be relied on in New York and the rest of the globe. There was
much humor resting on this mapping as any point, on land or sea, was allocated a hypothetical
city block to pay the way for identification (Jennings, 2017). Following this, the Manhattan grid
system has the North Pole located in the Uzbekistan desert close to the village of Ugiz.

The design of New York has seen great contributions to its design and structure.
Although currently deceased, Robert Moses contributed to various essential landmarks within
New York. These include and are not limited to West Side Highway, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge,
Triborough Bridge, Long Island parkway system, Jones Beach State Park, and the Niagara and
St. Lawrence power projects. The surprising thing is that Robert was not equipped for this
mandate yet; he became a well-renowned New York master builder and would continue to hold
this title up until his death. His vision for New York would lead him into the office of the chief
of the state park system. Using whatever land was available for disposal, Robert contributed to
developing 658 playgrounds, 13 bridges, and a416 miles of parkway within New York
(Goldberger, 1981). The Manhattan grind system would never have been achieved without a
coherent theoretical framework. Robert contested the use of theories. He was nonetheless
recognized as a man who informed the development of New York through his innovative
theories that helped redesign New York. His model of the city helped to shape entire America in
general. Although he had commendable city planners, contemporary planners critiqued his
designs.

Henry James condemned the initial plan that Harold Cooper sought to model through the
ExtendNY. However, a critic of Henry James, Rem Koolhaas, stated that the two-dimensional
form of the plan was revolutionary and was applauded by historians as an essential document for
the development of New York City (Robberts, 2011). In 2011, the plan marked 200 years since it
received commendation and certification from the city street commissioners. The plan was
upheld for its contribution to social order as it would curtail jaywalking and promote the
establishments of entrepreneurs as they would contribute to the overall status of Manhattan
through the erected real estate.
 The Grid paved the way for integrating 11 avenues and 155 crosstown streets. Regardless
the plan has enforced debates. Success in its mandate was influenced by the model, which would
require curving out of the earth such that it could host flats of equal measurements,
approximately 25 by 100 feet which entrepreneurs could purchase (Robberts, 2011). The use of
coordinates would also allow pedestrians and motorists to understand how to navigate these
streets and avenues, comprehending their place in the Grid.

The Grid was certified on March 22, 1811. The city streets commissioners did the
certification. This certification foresaw the development that would span seven miles allowing
buildings to be erected in predictable streets where they could be accessed with the help of
coordinates. The grind was also sufficient as it provided 2000 acres of a landfill that would
ameliorate the island over the next two centuries (Robberts, 2011). In conclusion, the street
commissioner stated that the grind provided housing structures that were right-angled and
straight. In the commissioner's opinion, these housings were facile to build and proved even
more sufficient to live in.

The Manhattan Grind system integrated Central Park, added in the 19th century, while
the 20th century foresaw the Stuyvesant Town and Lincoln Center (Robberts, 2011). The 21st
century, on the other hand, allowed the extensions to take place, allowing the west to harbor
houses on Riverside Boulevard. Initially, the formulation of the plan was considered far-sighted
because most of the New York population was situated below Houston Street. The existing
farms, marshes, forests, country estates, and the available common lands would be later
converted to a 2000-block matrix that stretched 8miles to create the contemporary 155th street.

In the book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," Jane Jacobs asserts that the
problem with erecting new buildings in place of the already existing structures should not be
about the financial aspect but rather on the contributions of the new structures to social-economic
welfare of its people. She remains adamant that planners do not account for real life and how
these structures affect the lives of the people inherent, as she holds that the only way to assert the
repercussions is to conduct conclusive reports in order to understand how the principles of
planning and rebuilding affect the people therein (Jacobs, 1992). Jacobs felt that the evaluation
should not only look at structural designs. They should accommodate practices and principles
that expound on social-economic development instead of those that center majorly on the angle
inclination of the building. She held that only through proper research could leaders inform
development that eliminates the likelihood of low-income projects that heighten the chances of
crime and deviance.

Jane Jacobs insists that if the infrastructure was dependent on financial provisions,
America should have erected structures that do not contribute to delinquency and vandalism. She
asserts that funds have been available in the past, but that has, needless to say, paved room for
projects that segregate people according to class through low-income, middle-income, and
luxury housing, all of which have their own set of structural faults. These projects that were the
vision of the Manhattan grind system have not sufficed in their mandate compared to the housing
they were expected to replace. She also states that these developments bring about havoc as they
contribute to the destruction of small businesses and lead to the unemployment of others. At the
same time, no compensation is granted for the loss of income (Jacobs, 1992). Even though the
cities were supposed to act as a laboratory where city planning was supposed to garner
inspiration on innovations that promote development, Jane Jacobs feels that is far from the case.
Instead, more practitioners continue to plan for city developments that influence the development
of buildings that are neither sustainable nor do they enforce sustainability of their roles.

Instead, blame deviates to automobiles stating that automobiles are the enemy of
sustainability. However, Jacob insists that it is essential that this concern is redirected to the
cities that pose a more socio-economic concern than traffic caused by automobiles. New York's
East Harlem is an example of how development affects the people directly and indirectly. Even
though East Harlem is home to a rectangular lawn enforced under the Manhattan Grid system,
the people hate it and often indicate that it serves no purpose. They state that the developments
were erected devoid of the community's interests. The developments led to the displacement of
people and fewer establishments that cater to the community's needs. Instead, they assert that the
administrators, Rather than incorporating the insights of the community members, the city
planners and administrators projected that the people of the community needed grass. Grass, it
seems, is a core focus during new cities' planning and development phase (Jacobs, 1992).
 References
Goldberger P. 1981. Robert Moses, Master Builder, Is Dead At 92.

Jacobs J. 1992. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Jennings K. 2017. If the World Was Mapped Using the Manhattan Grid System retrieved from
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/if-the-world-was-mapped-using-the-manhattan-grid-
system#:~:text=The%20Manhattan%20street%20grid%20was,the%20farmland
%20estates%20of%20Harlem.

Roberts S. 2011. 200th Birthday for the Map That Made New York