The rest of the story...

1. Streetsblog reports that perhaps JCDecaux's complaints about the impact of vandalism on Velib are in part a negotiating ploy. See "Reports of Vélib’s Demise Greatly Exaggerated." That wouldn't surprise me, although I still think the level of vandalized bicycles, as reported, is high. On the other hand, the massive and ongoing utilization of the Velib bicycle sharing system is impressive--42 million rides in 18 months is a lot of people riding a lot of bicycles.

2. Within the last couple weeks, writing about Chinatown DC's slow death, I commented that NYC's Chinatown is thriving. Apparently, the Chinatown in Manhattan faces serious threats as well, despite its current success and expansion, according to "Lower Manhattan - Rezoning Spurs a Preservation Movement in Chinatown" from the New York Times.

A downzoning of 111 blocks in the Lower East Side and East Village, which abuts Chinatown, to reduce redevelopment pressures there, has the unintended consequence of making new construction in Chinatown more appealing--as blogreader EE often says, "developers are like sharks, if they stop moving [building] they die."

Buildings marketed primarily to non-Asian related businesses, tenants, and residents will change the character, just as how DC's Chinatown has been reproduced into "Gallery Place" with a few portions of street face blocks with a preponderance of Asian businesses (600 block of H Street, both sides; 700 block of 6th Street; a couple businesses on the 800 block of 7th Street, east side; a couple businesses around the intersection of 8th and H Street, on H Street) but mostly it is non-Asian businesses with some Chinese lettering on their business signs.

After I wrote that entry, I was thinking that you could create a special zoning overlay that would require Asian-related businesses to have a priority for retail spaces, comparable to how some communities have a zoning requiring "neighborhood (or community) serving businesses" as opposed to businesses oriented to tourists. Laguna Beach, California has such a zoning category.

But I don't know if that would really work in Gallery Place, as Asiantown has shifted, in this region, to Annandale and Fairfax County, Virginia. You can't mandate, by changing some zoning in downtown DC, that this change.