I went to the Rockaways the other day.

I was just thinking about the kind of vision

that it took to build a subway to this slip of sand

that you can get to with just a single MetroCard ride.

At Rockaway, I'm reminded of how much vision

it took to build this city.

Where is that vision today?

I'm Mara Gay, and I cover New York for the New York Times

editorial board.

I'm a native New Yorker from Brooklyn, where I still

live, in a fifth-floor walkup.

For the record, I am a total New York booster,

but sometimes, I worry that New York

is an empire in decline.

Let me show you what I mean.

It wasn't just the Rockaways.

Someone had the vision to build a 7 train that

went to farmland.

You come out of the subway in Flushing,

then all of a sudden you see the most opulent building

around.

Someone thought to build that library

and serve books to people in 50 different languages.

New York's public officials thought

to put in 1,700 parks —

1,700.

This is what our city created for commuters.

When you walk into Grand Central,

you feel like you are somebody.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying I'm nostalgic for the New

York of 100 years ago.

The city is safer now.

It's more diverse.

Bloomberg gave us those waterfront parks,

and DeBlasio brought us pre-K.

Lately, the vision just feels smaller.

There's an entire generation that

can't afford to buy a house.

Even our own mayor doesn't want to be here.

Our city officials are actually

entertaining plans to build a six-lane

highway on top of a park.

I don't want us to just become a playground for the rich.

I used to live really close to the Highline.

One day, someone new bought the building,

and we saw a condo going in across the street.

And slowly but surely, over the course of about a year,

the construction began.

Eventually, we moved out.

I just kept thinking to myself,

if this is happening to us, and we're

college-educated, American-born citizens,

what's happening to poor people?

What's happening to people who don't speak English

or who aren't citizens?

It was heartbreaking.

Tonight, more than 60,000 New Yorkers

are going to be sleeping in a homeless shelter.

Hundreds of luxury condos are sitting empty.

Since 2005, the number of apartments renting for $900

a month or less has fallen by 400,000.

That's nearly half a million homes where

New Yorkers used to live.

Part of the reason why the rents are so high

is because it's renters, not wealthy homeowners,

who are paying the lion's share of the city's property

taxes.

Vision on housing could mean fixing our broken property

tax system.

Vision could mean increasing train service

to close suburbs like Yonkers and White Plains.

New York car culture makes no sense.

This year alone, so far, 69 pedestrians and 19 cyclists

have been killed.

Only 16% of our bike lanes are protected in New York.

I think we can do better.

Starting in 2021, New York will finally

have a congestion tax, 18 years behind London.

Vision on infrastructure could mean roping off more streets

just for pedestrians.

It could mean building 50 miles of protected bike lane

a year, instead of just 30.

Our lack of vision is hurting future generations, too.

New York has one of the most segregated school districts

in the country.

Last year, Stuyvesant, one of our best high schools,

admitted a freshman class where only 1% of the kids

were black.

Vision on education means tossing out

an admissions test that shuts out black and Latino students

from our city's top high schools,

rethinking and reimagining admissions policies

from middle school to elementary school.

We deserve big ideas.

We deserve leaders with bold change, who are brave enough

to get it done.

We can demand more from ourselves, too.

We can vote in local elections.

We can show up to City Hall.

We can protest, maybe even run for office.

The president has called cities burning and crime-

infested.

Those of us who live in them know better.

Cities are hubs of imagination and innovation.

I want kids 100 years from now to peer out

of their Hyperloop windows or read through their VR history

books and just see all that vision that New York never

lost.