Robert Moses

[jajogluck]

Jane Jacobs is sadly the greatest tragedy for the nyc. millions of people waste countless hours in traffic because of her opposition to the lower manhattan express way. Are you kidding me? Does anyone now doubt that this was a mistake of monstorus proportion NOT to build the LOMEX in the 60's? It's not even a question of city vs. suburb as many pundits like to frame it! It' a question of convenience for the mojortiy of people who happen to have the need to drive through lower manhattan.

[matt417]

@jajogluck Putting aside your terrible spelling mistakes, you have absolutely no concept of the intricate social networks and systems that are necessary in order for an urban city to work. Freeways and Highways have destroyed countless neighborhoods throughout the United States. We should all be thankful that some of the neighborhoods of Manhattan were spared this fate when the expressway was rejected. People > Cars.

[malika585]

@jajogluck Building another road, not to mention an expressway would only encourage people to drive their cars. So there would be one person in one car going to work. A better idea is to improve and encourage use of public transport so there is less traffic and less need for more roads and expressways to accommodate all the cars.

[RalfLippold]

Memories race back to Welwyn Garden City where our family spent one summer :-)

[RalfLippold]

#s21 ist kein Einzelfall, wie New York zeigt!!

[ohno2112]

One man responsable for putting fear into new york city .

[jenn111s]

love him.wish will be more people like him.

[CTyankee4277]

Moses did get things done, but more often than not he broke the law to do so. Anyone who's read The Power Broker will know what I'm talking about. This is the man who degraded Sunset Park, destroyed East Tremont with the Cross BX Expwy and neglected public transit. What a shyster this man was. Thank God he didn't build that Cross Manhattan EXPWY he wanted, it would have destroyed the neighborhood.

[gopconservative78]

New York would have been better if it was burned to the ground....NEW YORK SUCKS

[UptownChamps]

U obviously don't know what you talking about! By the way, where you from?

[scatman44]

While I side with most of Jacobs, her views weren't perfect, either. Jacobs argued for increased density, resulting in more activity and closer and diverse contact. One could look at how crowded and stank Chinatown is and see how her argument could have issues. Now, Main Street and Roosevelt Ave in Flushing, Queens (I call it Chinatown, Jr) is a bit more spread out, as opposed to Canal Street.

[doesurmindglow]

scatman, you should make sure to read her major work, "the death and life of american cities," or read it again if you have, focusing particularly on chapter 12: "some myths about diversity." therein she addresses your specific criticism in depth, and you might enjoy it.

[gopconservative78]

She was a communist and wanted to fuck Stalin

[datkoolbrutha]

This creep did nothing for NYC, but destroy it. And he almost destroyed Greenwich village and SoHo which has over 100 landmark buildings, to make a super highway in lower Manhattan. Thank God, that never happend. He favored super highways over public transportation. The should have buried him in Times Square on Broadway between 44th & 45th streets cuz now, it's a walking mall. That way when people walk by, they can step right on him. And some NYers will even spit on him.

[gopconservative78]

Robert Moses should have bulldozed NYC and made it all freeways

[sxr777]

robert moses was a two faced piece of crap, who forced the Dodgers to leave Brooklyn

[weedipikia]

Robert Moses built the parkways on Long Island with low overpasses so buses couldn't drive on them, thus preventing poor people from using the beaches. Robert Moses also claimed he could keep black people from using NYC pools by keeping the water colder.

[CTyankee4277]

@weedipikia -

And he also neglected Harlem. He built 255 playgrounds in Manhattan - only one was in Harlem. When he built Riverside Park, it ended at 125th street - where Morningside Heights ends and Harlem begins. Which meant those residents still had to deal with the sounds of railroads cars, the smells, etc. Nice, huh?

[bearcreme]

Robert Moses gets a bad rap and the city is in the toilet. Jane Jacobs on the other hand with her "village" mentality was just a bullshit artist.

[tintintabulations]

Jane Jacobs has gotten a bad rap too. If you read her book, Death and Life of Great American Cities, you'd find that she in no way has a village mentality.

[bearcreme]

I read it back in 1979. I also read her book, The Economics of Cities round that time.

If it wasn't for that greaseball Salvio, LOMEX would have been built. And Jane Jacobs would have ended up in the dustbin of history.

[tintintabulations]

I don't think so. Opposing LOMEX was just part of her life's work. With DLGAC she gave form to what a lot of people were thinking at the time. Plus she had a lot of support in high places (the Rockefeller Foundation, Lewis Mumford, William H. Whyte).

Did you/do you really support LOMEX? I like Jacobs's solution for traffic: ban private cars and allow only taxis and commercial vans and trucks into Manhattan below ~86th Street.

[bearcreme]

Why only up to 86th St? Whatta you, a racist. Why not go to 215 St.

Or are you just a communist.

[tintintabulations]

Nah, communism is too far to the right for me.

[agardebring]

Jane Jacobs has a "village" mentality? Seriously dude, you have not understood Death and Life of Great American Cities...

[bearcreme]

Sorry, whatever you are...Jane Jacobs castigated the way American cities were developing 50 years ago when this country was in its zenith. She retreated and dropped dead in Canada, where she belonged amongst all the other socialists. Don't you be tellin' me what I ever understood about that broad, dig?

[tintintabulations]

She castigated American cities because she foresaw what they were to become in the 1970s and 80s.  That's not a socialist critique. How ludicrous to make such a charge against a woman who spent her life fighting against government bureaucracy.

[bearcreme]

She was a freakin' housewife who got into the Daily News, and then...and only then spun her yarn of bullshit. She was totally ineffective in NY...except for LOMAX. This should deserve a 3rd thumbs down, heheh, right embryo?

[tintintabulations]

I don't think you understand her work or her place in history well enough to comment on her influence. You keep harping on LOMAX. You need to understand that that's a minor part of her work. it's a big, gigantic part of her legend, but it bears little relation to reality.

[bearcreme]

Don't you be tellin' me what I understand. If it wasn't for LOMAX, she would just be another house frau. She was an opportunist, in love with her miserable West Village tenement, someone who would have been better off plyin' a baby stroller up on Crotona Ave in da Bx. I can wipe my ass with her "history".

[tintintabulations]

LOL, you fool. She had the Rockefeller Foundation on her side, she didn't need no goddamned freeway controversy. That's your stupid historiographical cliche. That "hausfrau" has had more influence and power in life or death than your sorry ass ever will, or even your boyfriend Robert Moses.

[colinpate10]

Highly informative. Great narrative voice. . . .

[TheEnchantressFan]

Sure could use a Robert Moses today to get the new World trade Center built that's for sure!