“Why are we, the public, so often the audience and not the client?”asked the design critic Alexandra Lange on the real estate website Curbed. “Why can’t we set the agenda?” She would like to see more philanthropists “use narcissism for good,” by spreading their millions to catalyze development and investment in needier parts of the city (as the cash raised by Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project does with community parks and gardens).