Logistics Architecture as Urban and Social Infrastructure

New York City (NYC) must innovatively respond to the socio-spatial challenges of accelerating e-commerce growth. The city’s constrained urban grid faces substantial truck freight induced traffic congestion and pollution—a dangerous set of externalities that undermine NYC’s quality of life and economic development potential. This paper posits that the establishment of a Harlem based Multi-Sided-Platform (MSP) that supports public community alliances with the logistics sector can help NYC: (1) catalyze economic development, (2) foster sustainability, and (3) improve quality of life. Two underutilized segments of NYC’s infrastructure can be symbiotically leveraged to foster this alliance: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). A licensing agreement between 3rd-party logistics (3PL) providers and the MTA can permit relatively unobtrusive nightly freight transport through the subway in exchange for right-of-use fees. Additionally, public-private partnerships between the logistics industry and NYCHA can enable the development of disaggregated and Hyper-Local Community Distribution hubs (HCDH) throughout its reportedly underutilized land. The newly formed network of HCDHs can scale across NYCHA and link to accessible MTA subway lines to receive and consolidate small-package freight within close proximity of its destination. A private 3PL provider can operate these HCDHs and complete “The Last Mile” of delivery cheaply and ecologically by deploying e-bike and on-foot couriers. Furthermore, the proposed logistics network can serve as a vital piece of NYC urban infrastructure that doubles as a mechanism for community level socio-economic revitalization. In other words, not only can this proposed network help address NYC logistics and public health challenges but it can also provide significant local economic development opportunities on and around NYCHA sites in the form of new revenue streams, improved public amenities, and employment.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.110.75

Volume Editors
Robert Gonzalez, Milton Curry & Monica Ponce de Leon

ISBN
978-1-944214-40-1