Aleksandar Dekic

Compare New York and Brooklyn Urban Growth and Planning.

 

New York and Brooklyn go a great way from being the unsettled area covered with forest and grass to become one of the biggest cities in the world. With the Dutch and British as early settlers, the development of the city began. Manhattan developed much faster and bigger. Brooklyn has several things like terrain which made him lag in development.

Urban development of Manhattan and Brooklyn could not be possible without Dutch. Their purchase of Manhattan island and Brooklyn from the Native Americans set the cornerstone of today city. At first, it was set as a trading post. Dutch set the city to have easier access to the water, everything is turned toward that. At that time the best way of transportation and the easiest was by the boat. With the British taking over the city, it came the new name that we use today, New York. They live peacefully with Dutch settlers and continue to develop the city outside the borders of first Dutch settlement.

Manhattan developed faster than Brooklyn because of the docks and the ports. They were established in Manhattan because the terrain is better and easier to develop. At first, the houses and properties were turned toward water and everything was organized in a way that the city has public spaces, like parks, and to have access to the freshwater. It was John Randal Jr. that set the rectilinear grid of streets at Manhattan that we can see until today. Few houses were already built in the middle of the streets, but the city was determined to follow this plan.

In the same time, Brooklyn started to develop as a separate city with the smaller port but remain without any planning. Brooklyn starts late with urban development, the settlement was already established, and the roads were dictated with the terrain. The terrain was the major player in dictating the street grid and the housing development. Brooklyn never could create rectilinear grid-like in Manhattan because it was farmland. All this made Brooklyn struggle with several urban planning issues until this day.

With the construction of the bridges, first Brooklyn bridge and then the other bridges, these two separate cities merge to become one. Now when we talk about future urban growth and planning, we need to consider both sides of the East River to plan for further sustainable development, otherwise, everything else will bring us to the edge of collapse.