Urban Renewal (Quiz 3)

Urban Renewal

Program in which cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the properties from private members, relocate the residents and businesses, clear the site, build new roads and utilities, and turn the land over to private developers.

1950-1970 Planners declare "war" on the city

- Start over again from ground up

Noble intentions

- Housing Act of 1949: eliminates substandard housing

-- Substandard: not up to code

- Time frame: federal investment and spending to reconstruct cities

- Federal Highway Act: government pays for interstates, etc.

- Power of Eminent Domain

Eminent Domain

Power of a government to take private property for public use.

Urban Renewal: Goals

- Eliminating substandard housing

- Revitalizing city economies

- Constructing good housing

- Reducing de facto segregation

Urban Renewal: Problems

- Slums eliminated, but low income residents not always re-housed

- Not all renewal was in place of "slums" but vibrant and functioning neighborhoods

- Neighborhoods destroyed by highways

-- Cross Bronx Expressway in NYC

-- K-Street/Whitehurst Freeway/Beltway

-- Boston's North End

Reacting Against Urban Renewal

The emergence of the historic preservation movement

- Exp. Madison Square Garden & Penn Station

Robert Moses

- Moses embodies 20th century urban planning

- From idealism to optimism to utilitarianism

- Becomes leader in urban renewal

- Dominance of automobile

Moses' Early Years 1920-1940

City Park Commissioner

- Recreation

- Reconstructed zoos

- Baseball fields, golf courses, tennis courts, waterfronts

- Jonas Beach 1929; Montauk Point, Belmont Lake, Hither Hills

- More than 500 parks/playgrounds

Enviro Conservation

- 1923 envisions NY state park system

- 1929 more than 2 M acres of parks

- 45% of all state park land in US

- Buildings "parkways" scenic drives

- Not for lower classes but for middle class

- Nature is "pleasurable scenery"

Moses's Focus on Transportation 1930s-1950s

- Chairman of Bridge of Transit Authority

- Focus on Transportation Infrastructure

- Bridges: Triborough & Verrazano

- "Ties" together the boroughs

- Consolidates power by financing projects

- Controlled $213 million/year from bridge authority, city parks

Moses's Urban Renewal 1950s-1960s

- NY City Planning Commissioner; Chair City Housing Authority

- Demolish slums, rebuild other structures

- Forced removal of 500,000

- Insensitive to lives of poor

- Killing the city to "save" the city?

The Moses Legacy

- Projects totaled > 27 billion

Positive legacy

- Save NY by making it more livable

- Recreational & automotive demands keep middle class content

Negative legacy

- Moses shattered unity of city

- No consideration for humanity or neighborhoods

- Planning the city for the car

- Authoritarian rule through authorities

- Moses did not practice democracy

- Good planning involves the interests and concerns of the neighborhood: lacking in moses