Quote:
Originally Posted by 10023
The ideal density is that which can sustain a bar on every corner, support a large variety of high quality neighborhood restaurants, coffee shops, and retail, maintain enough pedestrian traffic to have "eyes on the street" for safety (a la Jane Jacobs), make mass transit and roaming taxis practical and numerous, and create a general sense of vibrancy. If a neighborhood has all of those things, it is dense enough, and additional density can only detract from the experience of living there.
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Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. Higher density can only boost all of those factors you mention. More people means more shops and retail, more mass transit usage (and with proper system management and maintenance the NYC Subway can handle many more people), and to me vibrancy means lots of people on the street and business activity, and density only increases that. From my perspective in the Midwest, where our cities are fighting just to stay steady, New York's increasing density is something to be coveted.
And if Manhattan gets too crowded, well there are four other boroughs...