Category Archives: New York

Robert Stark interviews Adam Hengels about Market Urbanism

Adam Hengels, aesthetics, Architecture, Chicago, Cities, Economics, education, Environment, Historic Preservation, income inequality, Los Angeles, Market Urbanism, Mass Transit, New Urbanism, New York, Phoenix, Rabbit, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Skyscrapers, Suburbia, Urbanism, Zoning

Adam Hengels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Rabbit talk to Adam Hengels.

Adam is SVP and Director of Development of PAD, a real estate development start-up that builds communities for young professionals.  PAD’s developments will feature micro-apartments and other product innovations.

From Mega-Projects to Micro-Apartments, Adam has brought his development expertise to several high profile projects such as the $5B Barclays Center Arena and Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, New York .  Adam earned his Masters in Real Estate Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has a BS and MS in Structural Engineering.

Adam is passionate about urbanism, and is known as a pioneer in the Market Urbanism movement.  His mission is to improve the urban experience, and overcoming obstacles that prevent aspiring city dwellers from living where they want.  He considers the conventional apartment layout to be stale.  Product innovations such as micro-apartments are a key part of the next wave in urbanism.

Topics include:

Why Adam advocates for the liberalization of zoning laws
The debate between absolute private property rights vs. the argument that regulations are necessary to prevent landowners from harming their communities
Zoning laws that contribute to suburban sprawl(ex. parking requirements, limits on density in suburbs, and government subsidies of roads and highways)
Retrofitting Suburbia
How demographic and economic changes are leading to the decline of suburbia
How to attract middle class families back to cities by improving education and increasing housing supply
New Urbanism
How zoning laws can prevent bad developments, but can also lead to increases in costs of living
Whether zoning laws are necessary to preserve the aesthetic and historic character of cities
How original mixed use communities declined due to zoning regulation and the rise of the automobile
Robert Stark’s point that even though he supports historic preservation and wilderness conservation, he acknowledges that many zoning laws have negative affects on cities and encourage sprawl
How the Lack of New Housing On The Westside of LA Is Causing Gentrification Of East And South LA
Height limit restrictions in cities
Minimum lot size requirements, and how they stifle creativity in urbanism
Whether highrises can provide housing for the middle class, and Adam’s point that new highrises are expensive but over time they decline in cost and eases the overall demand for housing
Whether mass transit can function in a free market, and how New York City’s Subway System started out as private, and Tokyo’s Subway System is semi private
Transit-oriented development
Adam’s development of micro apartments and how they can address the housing crisis for young people
How zoning laws make it difficult to create micro apartments
The role that Zoning and Urban planning plays in income inequality

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Transcript of interview:

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Robert Stark interviews Thomas Rinaldi about New York Neon

aesthetics, American Culture, Architecture, Art, Art Deco, Blade Runner, Cinema, Cities, Corporations, Culture, Environment, Film, Film Noire, Futurism, Historic Preservation, History, Las Vegas, Mid-Century Modern, Neon, New York, Rabbit, San Francisco, Science, Thomas Rinaldi, Vice

NY NEON Cover_r2_Final.indd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Rabbit talk to Thomas Rinaldi. He is the author of New York Neon and blogs at  nyneon.blogspot.com

Topics include:

How Thomas got interested in Neon growing up, and how he noticed it’s decline
His project charting and photographing existing  Neon Signs before they disappear
The History of Neon, how it was invented in Victorian England in 1898, and latter made into signs by French Scientist Georges Claude
How the peak of Neon was in the late 1920’s and  30’s(Art Deco Era), but already started to see a decline in the 40’s
How Neon was originally used by Corporate chains but latter delegated to small businesses
Churches & Neon
How Neon  was originally seen as glamorous but latter became associated with seediness
Neon in Cinema, contrasting Dick Powell’s  glamorous Gold Diggers Of 1933 – The Shadow Waltz and his 1944 detective film Murder, My Sweet, which depicts Neon as seedy
The 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life which also uses Neon to depict seediness
Hotel Neon Signs and and Hotel Neon in the Film Noire Genre
Neon in future films including the utopian 1927 film Metropolis and the dystopian 1982 film BLADE RUNNER
Incandescent Bulb Signs
The history, decline and revitalization of Time Square, and how there are very few Neon Signs left
How Neon has become replaced by LED Signs
The myth that Neon signs are not eco friendly
Historic preservation issues regarding Neon Signs
New Neon Signs designed in the Vintage style
Neon in San Francisco and the book San Francisco Neon
Las Vegas, how newer casino’s have rejected Neon, and how older signs are preserved at the Neon Museum
The popularity of Neon in Asian cities
How there is a renewed interest in Neon
Artist who depict Neon in their work including Robert Stark
Neon in 1960s Pop Art
The importance of patronizing businesses that have Neon Signs

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Robert Stark interviews Ray Sawhill

1980's, aesthetics, Anarchism, Architecture, Art, Art Deco, Bill Kaufman, Bioregionalism, censorship, Cities, comedy, Conservatives, Cuisine, Culture, decentralization, Environment, Erotica, Exposed, Film, hedonism, Hipsters, Historic Preservation, Homosexuality, humor, Immigration, James Howard Kunstler, Jock Sturges, journalism, Literature, localism, New Urbanism, New York, Overpopulation, Photography, Political Correctness, Politics, Polly Frost, Pornography, Ray Sawhill, Roger Scruton, Santa Barbara, Sex and the City, Sexuality, Skyscrapers, Suburbia, Taxi Driver, Theatre, Travel

Ray Sawhill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ray Sawhill worked as an arts and culture reporter for Newsweek. He has also written for Salon.com and blogs at Uncouth Reflections as Paleo Retiree. He splits his time between New York and Santa Barbara.

Topics include:

How Robert and Ray both have personal connections to Santa Barbara and how the city is almost too idyllic
Crime Fiction Novelist Ross Macdonald who’s work captures Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara as a place with strict zoning laws that was modeled after Andalusia in Spain
The contrast between life in Santa Barbara and New York City
How New York City has changed in Ray’s time there in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s
How Cuisine is the one area that has seen increased innovation in New York
Ray’s cameo in the film Exposed set in New York in 1983 staring Nastassja Kinski
How films such as Exposed and Taxi Driver are documentaries for New York in that era
The new peculiarly shaped skyscrapers going up in New York today
“See through buildings” where wealthy Foreigners are buying up real estate in New York and leaving them empty
How Ray is drawn to architecture because it is art you can experience and changes the world in a way that regular art doesn’t
How most of the general public has little input and interest in architecture
How places without zoning laws tend to lack any aesthetic value
How the main rule in urbanism is not to do anything that harms the city
Art Deco and how it succeeds in bringing tradition and modernity into one
Architectual Revivalism which seeks to recreate older forms of architecture
Robert Stark’s Artwork
Ray’s work at Newsweek as a reporters covering art, culture, literature, film, and theatre
How Ray’s most significant interviews were with Writers Philip, Roth, and John Updike, filmmakers Francis Coppola, and Robert Altman and Architect Christopher Alexander
How conservatives tend to avoid culture and leave that domain to the left
English Philosopher Roger Scruton as a model for a cultured conservative
Front Porch Anarchist Bill Kauffman
New Urbanism
The The Retro Cocktail and Locavore movements
James Howard Kunstler
Ray’s involvement with Environmentalism and Bioregional Anarchism
How the environmental movement abandoned the overpopulation issue due to political correctness and mass immigration
The Alternative Right
How the real political divide is between globalism and decentralization
Cultural trends and how Ray views himself as a cultural radar
The trend towards a focus on muscles for young men and men are more self-conscious about their bodies
The value of pleasure and leisure
Erotica and the debate about what’s art and what’s pornography
Controversial nude photographer Jock Sturges, who Ray interviewed
How society is a taking contradictory paths towards lewdness and prudishness
Students Still Sweat, They Just Don’t Shower
How having taste and style has become equated with homosexuality
Young women moving to New York City because of Sex and the City
“Sex Scenes” which is a raunchy, satirical audio entertainment that Ray created with his wife playwright Polly Frost. Check it out.

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Robert Stark interviews Matt Forney about the NPI Conference, US Cities, Houellebecq, & the Paris Terror Attack

American Culture, Anti-Natalism, Chicago, Cities, Crime, Environment, Hipsters, Immigration, Islam, Islamization, Las Vegas, Literature, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Matt Forney, Michel Houellebecq, New York, Overpopulation, Paris, Paris Terrorist Attack, Portland, Portlandia, Sexual Revolution, Sexuality, Social Justice Warriors, Suburbia, terrorism, Travel

Matt-Forney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics include:

Matt’s experience at the recent National Policy Institute’s Conference in Washington DC
How the theme of the conference Become Who We Are was about creating a new identity
How Left-Wing Activists Tried to Shut Down This Year’s NPI Conference”
Matt take on Washington DC, and how it would be a great city if it weren’t for it’s people
How transplants tend to fulfill the obnoxious stereotypes of cities(ex. DC, NY, LA, Portland)
Obnoxious broke hipsters in Portland vs. obnoxious trust fund hipster in NYC
How NY hipster transplants benefited from the same Police enforcement and gentrification which they agitate against
How New York’s gentrification has made the city sterile and killed it’s creative energy
Kill Your Idols documentary about the punk scene in NY in the early 80’s
Matt’s life in Chicago, and how despite it’s crime it has a cohesive culture and affordable living
How Chicago shutting down it’s public housing projects such as  Cabrini–Green dispersed crime over a larger area
Matt experience living in Portland, Oregon, and how Portlandia is so accurate it’s not even funny
Why Matt favors urban living over suburban or rural living
Why Matt views the suburbs as an unfortunate social development but they developed because the left destroyed cities and forced out the middle class
How major cities such as NY once had vibrant urban middle classes
E. Michael Jones’s The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal As Ethnic Cleansing
How the further away we get  from nature the greater increase in social dysfunction we see
Matt’s trip to Las Vegas and how his friend Davis Aurini describes the city as an “honest whore”
Anti-Natalism and how it’s an interesting philosophical question but attempts to apply reason to interfere with nature
How Anti-Natalism appeals to the most thoughtful and intelligent  individuals thus removing them from the gene pool
Michel Houellebecq The Father Of The Term “Sexual Marketplace”
Houellebecq’s Whatever which is about people who lost out on the sexual revolution
Houellebecq’s Submission which is about an Islamist takeover of France and whether that scenario is likely
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The recent terrorist attack in Paris and future scenarios in Europe


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Part II: Robert Stark interviews Charles Lincoln about Cities

Charles Lincoln, Chicago, Cities, Historic Preservation, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Suburbia

San Francisco Art Deco

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics include:

Charles’s experience living in London as a child in the 1960’s and an adult in the 1980’s, and Robert’s visit in 2002
Charles’s experiences in New York in the 1980’s and that era in film
The Brownstones of  New York and Boston and how they originally started out as single family homes
Art Deco
Mass Transit systems
The demographic transformations of London, New York, and Los Angeles
How mass immigration has led to an increase in the demand for housing in cities
Robert’s recent trip to San Francisco
Chicago’s grid pattern
How Los Angeles started out as car oriented suburbia but latter became denser while not upgrading it’s transit infrastructure
Santa Monica, California and how the 1994 Earthquake transformed the city
The revitalization of downtown Los Angeles
Dallas, Texas and how it’s following the patterns of LA
How whites are moving back to cities while non-whites  are moving to suburbs
How single family homes are being replaced by apartments
Why Charles’s views the single family home as the ideal for autonomy of living
How the increase in apartment living coincides with the decline of families
Whether the key issue is density itself or the quality of architecture
The appeal of urban living and why people are willing to sacrifice living space for that lifestyle
The New Urbanist movement which seeks to recreate walkable communities

Robert Stark interviews Charles Lincoln about Las Vegas, New Orleans & Vice

Charles Lincoln, Culture, Environment, Feminism, Gambling, hedonism, Historic Preservation, History, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Morality, New Orleans, New York, overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Police State, Prostitution, sex offender laws, Sexuality, Transgender, Travel, Vice, Water

Topics include:

Contrasting the histories of Las Vegas and New Orleans
The Ecological impacts of building cities in the Desert
How both cities serve a function as a destination for escape, hedonism, and vice
How Bread and circuses distract the masses
How without the Law there would be no Vice
How when Vice becomes suppressed it becomes more cruel
How New Orleans has gentrified since Hurricane Katrina
How the culture of New Orleans is one that enjoys life because it accepts death
How in New Orleans there’s no pressure to be either moral or immoral
The European cultural influence in New Orleans
The Cult of Youth

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Artwork

Robert Stark interviews Matt Forney about Tag the Sponsor

Bill de Blasio, Depravity, Dubai, Instagram, Matt Forney, Middle East, Millennials, New York, Philippines, Police, Police Brutality, Police Corruption, Police State, Pornography, Prostitution, Sexuality, Tag the Sponsor

dubai-instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics include:

Matt’s article Tag The Sponsor Exposes The Depravity Of Modern Women about Instagram models who whore themselves out to Arab oil Sheiks in Dubai
The Depravity of Dubai and other Oil Rich Arab Gulf States
Do these women become irreparably damaged??
How Societies Sexual mores have declined
Matt’s article on Cassandra Lynn’s Death Shows Why You Should Never Wife Up Broken Girls
Matt’s review of Jared Taylor’s FACE TO FACE WITH RACE
Matt’s article The Triumph of Hope Over Experience about Mayor Bill De Blasio and New York City
How New York City’s Gentrification killed it’s created energy and how it’s symbolic of today’s decline in creativity

 


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