Rampant NYC development killing Second Avenues character and luxury is squashing food culture

Here’s a modest proposal that might get me laughed out of commercial real-estate journalism:If construction of a new luxury apartment tower forces out modest little restaurants at their sidewalk level — as is happening up and down Second Avenue on the Upper East Side, typical of many high-traffic Manhattan streets — the subsequent new tower must also have modest little restaurants when they’re completed.Even if it means giving rent breaks to cafe owners who couldn’t otherwise afford to be there.Otherwise, the developer will receive no zoning variance to build taller and larger (as many projects require) and no certificate of occupancy from the Buildings Department, which all require.Wait! You ask: Shouldn’t landlords have the right to rent out their retail space as they choose? Is free-market enthusiast Cuozzo suddenly calling for rent control or an unconstitutional “taking of property?”Hardly.

The zoning code is already complex enough to add a rule or two without turning the Big Apple into a Marxist re-education camp.Current zoning rules go far beyond prohibiting Ferris wheels on Madison Avenue.They’re instruments of political and social engineering — sometimes with welcome results, sometimes not.

They limit, for example, how many feet of street frontage stores may have on the Upper West Side — a provision intended to keep out bank branches and large chain stores.Large new buildings in the Theater District must reserve five percent of their space for entertainment-related uses and include lots of expensively mounted bright lights.New apartment buildings must provide large numbers of parking spaces even as the city urges people to use mass transit rather than cars.Many Garment Center properties must devote a certain percentage of space to apparel-making uses — even though there’s almost no demand for any kind of apparel-making space in Manhattan these days.But there is an immense and overwhelming demand for small restaurants of eve...