This new wave is also opportunistic. But in a much hotter real estate market with lower start-up costs, it’s driven as well by a taste for “authenticity,” “character” and other buzzwords today’s tech firms love. At the same time, constructing anything new here is a major headache. The city is crippled by an obstructionist set of city planning rules — the consequence of local activism and a Talmudic bureaucracy. Legislation from the mid-’80s caps the total amount of new office space that can be built here. All this contributes to why adaptive reuse has taken hold.
—Michael Kimmelman, Urban Renewal, No Bulldozer, NYTimes.com
So is Kimmelman saying these “obstructionist” rules are a good thing? Seems the tech nerds moving in would likely pass over new buildings and offices anyway (if they did exist) for “authentic” existing spacings.