Der Umbau Von New York Unter Robert Moses Und Seine Mediale Resonanz
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Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen Fachbereich 04: Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften Studiengang: Geschichte und Fachjournalistik Geschichte Bachelor-Thesis Betreuer: Herr Prof. Dr. Friedrich Lenger Der Umbau von New York unter Robert Moses und seine mediale Resonanz Verfasser: Benjamin Bathke Sommersemester 2011, 6. Fachsemester Matrikelnummer: 1080575 Adolph-Kolping-Straße 5 35392 Gießen [email protected] Justus-Liebig-University Giessen Department 04: historical and cultural sciences Study course: joint degree in history and journalism Bachelor’s thesis Supervisor: Mr. Prof. Dr. Friedrich Lenger The transformation of New York under Robert Moses and its reflection in the media Author: Benjamin Bathke Summer term 2011, 6th semester at the university Matriculation number: 1080575 Adolph-Kolping-Strasse 5 35392 Giessen [email protected] CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... i Abbreviations.................................................................................................................................... i Selected officials with terms of office .............................................................................................. ii 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 2. THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK UNDER ROBERT MOSES ............ 5 2.1 Life and career of Robert Moses .............................................................................. 5 2.2 New York City in the 20th century ......................................................................... 14 2.2.1 A brief history of New York ........................................................................ 15 2.2.2 Progressivism ............................................................................................... 18 2.2.3 City Beautiful and Burnham’s Plan of Chicago .......................................... 19 2.2.4 Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne ....................................... 20 2.2.5 The Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs ...................................... 22 2.2.6 The rise of the highway and the decline of the railroad ............................... 25 2.2.7 Suburbanization and decentralization .......................................................... 31 2.2.8 Urban renewal and housing policies in 20th century New York .................. 33 2.3 How did Robert Moses transform New York? ....................................................... 38 2.3.1 Parks and beaches ........................................................................................ 38 2.3.2 Parkways, bridges, and expressways ........................................................... 42 2.3.3 Swimming pools and playgrounds .............................................................. 52 2.3.4 Public housing and urban renewal ............................................................... 58 2.4 Robert Moses and the press .................................................................................... 74 3. CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................... 83 4. APPENDIX ............................................................................................................... 89 4.1 Catalog of built work in New York City, 1924–1968 ............................................ 89 4.2 Juxtapositional and additional maps ....................................................................... 95 4.3 List of illustrations, maps, tables, and charts ........................................................ 101 4.4 Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 102 4.5 Declaration ........................................................................................................... 107 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Marina Kurz, whose patience and support were of immense help to me. It is quite possible that I would not have been able to finish this paper without her. I also would like to thank Pia Krühner for assisting me with the layout. Finally, I am indebted to Peter S. from A. Abbreviations CBD Central Business District CPC City Planning Commission CWA Civil Works Administration LISPC Long Island State Park Commission MCoSC Mayor’s Committee on Slum Clearance NYCHA New York City Housing Authority PNYA Port of New York Authority PWA Public Works Administration RCA Redevelopment Companies Act RPA Regional Plan Association RPoNYaIE Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs ST Stuyvesant Town TBTA Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority WPA Works Progress Administration i Selected officials with terms of office Table 1: New York City – Mayors New York City – Mayors John Purroy Mitchel, 1914-17 William O’Dwyer, 1946-50 John F. Hylan, 1918-25 Vincent R. Impelliteri, 1950-53 James J. Walker, 1926-32 Robert F. Wagner, Jr., 1954-65 John P. O’Brien, 1933 John V. Lindsay, 1966-73 Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-45 Source: Doig (2001), p. xii; own illustration. Table 2: New York City – Governors New York State – Governors Alfred E. Smith, 1919-20 Herbert H. Lehmann, 1933-42 Nathan L. Miller, 1921-22 Thomas E. Dewey, 1943-54 Alfred E. Smith, 1923-28 Averell Harriman, 1955-58 Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1929-32 Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1959-73 Source: Doig (2001), p. xii; own illustration. ii 1. Introduction It is almost exactly ten years ago that the September Eleven attacks claimed the lives of thousands of people and irrecoverably obliterated the World Trade Center, the iconic landmark that had dominated the skyline of New York City for almost 30 years. Designed by the Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, the Twin Towers were – for a short time – the tallest buildings in the world. Soon after their erection, they were intrinsically tied to Manhattan, New York, and the United States of America. No matter if they were despised as symbols of American capitalism, or loved for representing America‟s alleged economic preeminence, people around the world had those buildings in mind. Hated or loved, it seemed that they ineffaceably belonged to New York and this world, poised to stand in Manhattan for eternity. The destruction of the World Trade Center has shown that even the most distinctive, well-known, and durable structures will likely not stand on this planet forever. Even the measureless life expectancy of a suspension bridge can be ended abruptly by a natural disaster such as an earthquake. The monumental inheritance of Robert Moses (1888-1981) poses no exception and will eventually vanish in the remote future. In fact, his well-known Shea Stadium and the New York Coliseum have already been replaced by the Citi Field and the Time Warner Center, respectively. Similarly, his expressways may be rendered obsolete someday when the automobile is replaced by other means of transportation. Nevertheless, Moses‟ mark on New York‟s cityscape will endure at least in the foreseeable future, and his legacy will be vital as long as people drive on his roads, dwell in his buildings and walk in his parks. Like Baron Haussmann of Paris and Sir Christopher Wren of London, great city planners and architects do not merely leave behind physical works, but a heritage that is used by millions of people in their everyday life. Robert Moses‟ impact on New York City has been the subject of a multitude of books, essays, conferences, exhibitions, articles and debates since he left power at the end of the 1960s. Over the years, his legacy has received diverging assessments. Shortly after the end of Moses‟ career, Robert Caro‟s Pulitzer Prize winning book The Power Broker (1974)1 initiated a debate that continues to this day. In his book, Caro not only portrayed Moses as an 1 The Power Broker‟s appearance coincided with the so-called “urban crisis”, which was caused, among other things, by high unemployment, rising distrust in the public sector, and the belief that the three postwar measures to alleviate the city‟s problems, interstate highways, urban renewal, and public housing, actually exacerbated the crisis. Moreover, the book was published in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Moses‟ reputation hit rock bottom at that time. See chapter 2.2.1 for more details on the urban crisis. 1 omnipotent, ingenious, and larger-than-life figure who amassed an unparalleled amount of power to shape New York in an unprecedented magnitude, but also depicted him as a villain that was solely responsible for the decline of the New York. Although the Power Broker generally received good reviews by the reading public and critics, it was also disapproved of for exaggerating Moses‟ influence on American life, being historically imprecise, making Moses too much of an evil genius, and omitting crucial defeats.2 Despite these critiques, Caro‟s book was in many regards the last word on Moses for some time. Until the late 1980s, Moses was almost universally regarded as a “frightening specter haunting the metropolis which continued to suffer from his misdeeds”3, while Jane Jacobs became the city‟s savior after she published The Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961. In 1988, one hundred years after Moses‟ birth, Moses‟ life and legacy was reassessed by journalists and scholars. The majority of the accounts were “revisionist histories”, which “sought to canonize the man and to immortalize his works.”4 Moses‟ rising