Exterior view of City Spire apartment building where Raphael De Niro (son of actor Robert De Niro) listed an 8,000 square foot triplex penthouse apartment for $100 million on West 56 Street in 2012. The 73rd through 76th floor property is considered to be one of the most expensive apartments in the United States. (Photo: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)
At the end of the show Bill asked viewers to write in with their own stories of forces eroding the common ground. We received a great response including many people who wrote in to tell us what’s happening in their own neighborhoods.
We learned that what is happening in New York City is happening in cities and towns across the country. Alana from Ardmore, Pennsylvania, told us that in her small town a planned eight-story luxury building in the historic, low-rise downtown area will mean that a beloved community spaced will be destroyed. She told us about a petition for protecting Ardmore from outsized development.
Another audience member told us that Portland, Oregon, is undergoing extreme pressure from local developers to permit out-of-scale skyscrapers, and even eliminate height restrictions altogether in the city center. We heard that there are similar problems in Hollywood, Sacramento and San Francisco in California, as well as Sussex County in Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Athens, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; St. Petersburg, Florida; Omaha, Nebraska and many others.
We’re going to investigate these stories in 2015 and encourage you to add more local stories in the comments section below. If you missed the original report a few weeks ago on Moyers & Company, watch it now:
