Some New Yorkers are pushing to impose regulations on the city's iconic skyline

New York City has many fine museums — it isn’t one. Yet. But New York is the home of the nation’s second-dumbest urban political ecosystem (in this, if in nothing else, San Francisco excels all others), and so there is an effort afoot to impose new burdensome regulation upon, of all things, the city’s skyline. The Municipal Art Society of New York has been pressing for more stringent regulation for a decade, while academics such as Jorge Otero-Pailos of Columbia’s historic preservation program have joined the chorus. And, of course, there are eternally disgruntled New Yorkers themselves. A snarky New York Times essay recently reinvigorated the debate. The same sort of people who 100 years ago were complaining about the Empire State Building are now complaining that somebody is ruining their view of the Empire State Building.