2017 Theses Master's

Residential Development and Its Impact on School Access in New York City

Li, Patrick

Residential development in New York City has been increasing since 2010. This increase is due to both private and public players in the built urban environment, as developers try to push the limits of the luxury market, while the city has plans to increase and preserve the stock of affordable housing throughout the city. Such increases in residential development, however, have negative impacts on public amenities by adding pressure in the form of overcrowding, noise pollution, or traffic. This study seeks to explore such consequences of residential development, specifically its impact on access to schools in New York City. By looking at access as spatial accessibility, consulting publicly available data, and proposing a methodology adapted from others established in academic literature, this study reaffirms the notion that residential development has a negative impact on access to schools. The results of this study also shed light on the appropriateness of research methodologies to understand urban phenomena, as not a single method is deemed to be the best in revealing a relationship between residential development and spatial accessibility to schools. The answers found, as well as the process by which the thesis question is explored are helpful for urban planners as we seek to improve how we can better understand our built environments in order to create policies that improve people’s quality of life at various scales and contexts.