The Manhattan Airport Foundation

I noticed that some outfit called the Manhattan Airport Foundation was following me on Twitter and I thought, "Oh, hmm. What's that about? There's no airport in Manhattan." But these folks want there to be. In Central Park. Replacing Central Park. This seem so completely laughable, I poked around online to see if its some kind of environmental satire that I'm just not getting. I'm not convinced they're for real, but if this is some kind of gag, they've put a lot into it.

Davenport, Iowa has an airport. Tallahassee has one. And so does Lexington, Kentucky. But New York City doesn’t. Amazingly, there is still a large, undeveloped and underutilized site in the center of New York City. In fact, this site has remained undeveloped for so long that many of us forget it even exists. It’s called Central Park. Ask most New Yorkers when was the last time they visited it. Statistically that number is fewer than one visit per person per year. But how many times did those same New Yorkers go the airport? It doesn’t take long to realize Central Park squanders 843 acres of the most valuable real estate in the world.

One day New Yorkers will move seamlessly between Midtown and Shinjuku without ever setting foot in an automobile. We will cross 59th Street and enter into a unique urban oasis, a place seemingly apart from the rest of Manhattan yet existing at it’s very core. And figuratively serving as it’s very lifeblood. A relic of our past magically transformed and reinfused with purpose. An unprecedented transportation amenity connecting us with London, Hong Kong, and the other great cultural capitals of the world. Public dollars helped create Central Park in the 1850s. And public responsibility dictates that we transform this underutilized asset into something we so desperately need today. Manhattan Airport will prove New York City no longer allows it’s vestigial prewar cityscape to languish in irrelevance but instead reinvents these spaces with a daring and inspired bravado truly befitting one of the world’s great cities. The moment is now.

So anyhoo, their site is pretty slick and mildly interesting in a "never in a million years" kind of way.