Citizen Planning Academy

Session 2 Agenda •Suburbs -Post WWII •Levittown Film •History Recap •Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs •Film •Urban Renewal Roanoke •Discussion

Wayne Leftwich, AICP Senior City Planner Post WWII •Suburbanization accelerates –General prosperity –Homeownership (FHA, VA Loans) –Lack of Housing –Car ownership –Cheap oil –Cheap land –Federal highways –White Flight

•Economic activity (Retail and Industry) follows

•Urban renewal begins in cities Tectonic shift of Retail Tectonic Shift of Retail - Greenville, SC Example Rise of the •1945: 133M people with 25M cars Automobile

•2005: 295M people with 189M cars

•Personal income growth

•Middle/upper classes depopulate central cities

•Cities annex their suburbs to grow

Cars make it possible to live farther out + Cheap gas + Suburbs designed to accommodate cars

Cost per gallon Electric •Up until 1930s, efficient, Streetcars well run, and profitable

•Neighborhoods formed around lines

•1936: 40,000 streetcars in service in US

•1955: 5,000 streetcars

•Replaced with buses

Public transportation 1945: 19 billion trips

1975: 5.6 billion trips

2008: 10.7 billion trips

Public •Dispersed settlement transportation patterns break public transportation

•Requires concentrations of activity

•Collection/distribution problem

Source: The Eno Center for Transportation Photograph by Sarah Leen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKTI0wR-a7Q

THE DIVERGENT LEADERSHIP STYLES OF ROBERT MOSES AND JANE JACOBS Planning History revisited

 Defense  Economy  Street Grid  Public Health  City Beautiful Municipal Building, 1914  Towers in the Park

Equitable Building Le Corbusier 1916 Building Zone Resolution The Power Broker

 Robert Caro in his Pulitzer Prize winning biography describes Robert Moses as, “America’s greatest builder”

 One of Mose’s bitterest critics, Lewis Mumford, says: “In the twentieth century, the influence of Robert Moses on the cities of America was greater than that of any other person.” Robert Moses (1888-1981)

 Attended Yale, Oxford, and Columbia University  Began his public career as an idealist in 1914  Returned seeking power – held positions of power for 44 years from 1924 until 1968. Never elected.  At height of power, held 12 different positions.

Accomplishments- Parks

 36,000 acres of parks  658 playgrounds  17 miles of Beaches  10 swimming pools Accomplishments – Roads and Bridges

 416 miles of parkways  13 bridges, 2 tunnels, and miles of expressways

Accomplishments - Housing

 More Urban Renewal projects took place in NYC, during his reign (‘49-’60) then all other cities combined. Accomplishments - Other

 U.N. Headquarters  New York Coliseum  World’s Fair  Power Dams in Upstate New York  Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts  Shea Stadium

Leadership Strengths and Theories

 Great Man / Trait Theories  Hard Worker  Highly Intelligent  Powerful Stature & Charisma

 Transformational Theory  Recognized other’s talent  Surrounded himself with the best talent (but only those that would follow his lead) Had a VISION Weaknesses

 Too focused on his vision, Failed to listen to others.  “Those who can, build. Those who can’t, criticize.

 Believed wholeheartedly in the ends justifying the means  Can’t, “make omelets without breaking eggs” Tainted Legacy

 Despite spending billions on transportation, zero dollars were spent on transit.

 Moses’s transportation, parks, and housing projects displaced approximately 500,000 people. Wrestling with Moses

 Anthony Flint focuses on the clashes between Moses and Jane Jacobs during the ‘50s and ‘60s.

 Jane Jacobs was able to stop Moses by organizing public support and marshalling political will. Jane Jacobs (1916-2006)

 High school diploma and degree from a secretarial and stenography school.  Did research at Columbia but never graduated.  Began as a journalist for Vogue and Architectural Forum  Found her niche as an observer of the city.

Washington Square Park

 Moses wanted to put a 4-lane highway through the middle of the park, located at the center of Greenwich Village. Urban Renewal in the Village

 Moses had plans to raze 14 blocks in the heart of Greenwich Village in order to build giant housing towers. Lower Manhattan Expressway

 Moses wanted to build a 10-lane elevated superhighway, the Lower Manhattan Expressway, through SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side.  Demolish:  416 bldgs  2,200 families  365 retail stores  480 other comm. How did she stop Moses?

 She worked with other residents to create a vision for what should happen in their community.

 She voiced these ideas in order to gain political support.  Didn’t just block actions but created solutions.

Leadership Strengths and Theories

 Participative Leadership Theories  Utilized input from area residents.  Encouraged participation.

 Transformational Theory  Motivated around common VISION.

Legacy on Public Planning

 Moses  Succeeded because he understood the importance of planning and how parks, transportation, and housing were intertwined.  Represented a top-down planning method

 Jacobs  Understood the importance of the pedestrian scale and “eyes on the street”  Stressed the importance of participatory planning. THE POWER BROKER THE POWER OF… A CITIZEN CREATED VISION THE DIVERGENT LEADERSHIP STYLES OF THE END ROBERT MOSES AND JANE JACOBS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fhE9NWSbmw&t=4s Urban • Title I of the 1949 Housing Act renewal

– Improve housing

– Improve economic health of City

– Reduce segregation

• 1949-1973 official program

• More than 2,100 projects with grants totaling $51 billion (in 2007 dollars) Urban • Sites acquired through eminent Renewal in domain. Slum Clearance. Practice • Land cleared and sold to private developers, little incentive to develop affordable housing.

• Title III of the 1954 Housing Act – Civic centers, office buildings, and hotels

• Highway Act of 1956

Urban • Slums replaced with civic Renewal in facilities and industrial Practice development

• Former residents settled in adjacent neighborhoods & public housing

“The clearance of slums without • White flight – re-segregation the requirement for full replacement…forced poor people to carry an unfair share of the burden of rebuilding America’s cities.” -(1968) Paul Douglas, Chairman of the National Commission on Urban Problems.