Table of Contents
ALSO BY ROBERTA BRANDES GRATZ
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 - THE WAY THINGS WERE
THE PUSH-PULL EFFECT
PUSHED TO LEAVE
SUBURBIA IN FORMATION
DEFINING PROGRESS
THE SHOCK OF THE NEW
SUBURBS ARE DIFFERENT
BACK TO NEW YORK FOR GOOD
THE NEWSPAPER
DIVERSITY IN THE CITY ROOM
THE LUCKY BREAK
PROMOTED TO REPORTER
THE APPEAL OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION
THE 1960S
THE 1970S
FROM BAD TO WORSE
SMALL STEPS, BIG CHANGE
REBIRTH’S BEGINNINGS
Chapter 2 - LANDMARKS PRESERVATION
THE TIDE TURNED
PRESERVATION ACCELERATES CHANGE
A PROBLEM GROWS IN BROOKLYN
MOSES INCREASED MAYOR WAGNER’S PROBLEMS
A MOVEMENT GROWS
A LOT LEFT UNPROTECTED
PROTECTION CAME SLOWLY
THE MANHATTAN FOCUS
A WEST SIDE LANDMARK
THE LAW CHANGES, BUT THE COMMISSION DOESN’T
JACKIE KENNEDY ONASSIS MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
SIGNIFICANT LANDMARK BATTLES WERE MANY
TWEED COURTHOUSE: AN OLD CONTROVERSY
RAISING PRESERVATION AWARENESS AMONG STUDENTS
Chapter 3 - GREENWICH VILLAGE
THE STATE OF THE NEIGHBORHOODS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF CRIME
LITTLE ITALY TODAY
AS MUCH AS THINGS CHANGE . . .
STILL A WORLD APART
LANDMARK PROTECTION WORKS
THE PARK
THE MOSES ROAD
TRAFFIC DISAPPEARS
TIDE TURNING AGAINST CARS?
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
ENHANCING THE STREET, OR NOT
THE POE HOUSE CONTROVERSY
THE WEST VILLAGE
EIGHTH STREET
WEST VILLAGE HOUSES: KNOWN AS THE JANE JACOBS HOUSES
FARTHER WEST
JACOBS MAKES THE CASE AGAIN
THE EAST VILLAGE—ANOTHER WORLD
Chapter 4 - SOHO
THE DEATH-THREAT SYNDROME
THE EXPRESSWAY FIGHT
NEW AMENITIES PROMISED
ARREST
THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
EXPRESSWAY KILLED; SOHO EMERGED
INDUSTRIAL USES DISPLACED
CHANGING ART
JANE JACOBS VERSUS ROBERT MOSES
SOHO BROADENED THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION MOVEMENT
SOHO’S EXPORTS HELP REJUVENATE OTHER PLACES
ONE LAST STAND ON A NEW YORK CITY CONTROVERSY
Chapter 5 - RECONSIDERING ROBERT MOSES
THE PARK DEFENSE
HIS WAY OR NO WAY
THE URBAN RENEWAL BULLDOZER
THE HUMAN TOLL
LEARNING BY LISTENING
THE HUMAN TOLL
A REFORMER TO START
THE IMPACT OF THE WORLD’S FAIR
THE COUNTRY FOLLOWS MOSES
NEW ORLEANS
PORTLAND, OREGON
HARTFORD, BALTIMORE, DETROIT
PITTSBURGH
SAN FRANCISCO
MOSES LISTENED TO NO ONE
MOSES IS BUILT INTO THE SYSTEM TODAY
WHOSE URBAN VISION?
DENSITY IS NOT THE PROBLEM
THE SOCIAL AND PSYCHIC DIMENSION
THE RESURGENT CITY
Chapter 6 - THE FACTORY
MANUFACTURING: EVER CHANGING
THE CHANGING ART WORLD CHANGED US
THE INDUSTRIAL NETWORK IS COMPLEX
URBAN RENEWAL INTERFERES
TO LONG ISLAND CITY
INDUSTRIAL SPACE IS BEING NIBBLED AWAY
INDUSTRY NURTURED AND SUSTAINED NEW YORK
POSTWAR OPPORTUNITIES MISSED
FALSE GOD OF EFFICIENCY
LONG ISLAND CITY ESCAPES FOR A WHILE
THE PAST IS PAST
CREATIVE CONVERSIONS
TRUE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IS A RENEWABLE PROCESS
OFFICIAL LOGIC IS ELUSIVE
Chapter 7 - THE UPPER WEST SIDE
A NEW URBAN RENEWAL PARADIGM
THE ERA OF FEAR
URBAN RESETTLEMENT
THE WEST SIDE: THE HAPPENING PLACE
CATACLYSMIC CHANGE KICKS IN
THE LINCOLN CENTER MYTH
WEST SIDE STORY
THE REAL DRAW OF THE WEST SIDE
POSITIVE CHANGE, NEGATIVE CHANGE
DEFINING PROGRESS
Chapter 8 - WESTWAY
THE HEART OF THE ARGUMENT
FIGHTING CITY HALL
HIGHWAY AS CURE FOR DECAY
TIDE TURNING AGAINST CARS?
THE INTERNAL CONTRADICTION
PROPONENTS CHANGE THE ARGUMENT
NEW LAND PLUS PLANNED SHRINKAGE
MORE DIFFERENCES
Chapter 9 - BIG THINGS GET DONE
TRANSIT REINVESTMENT WAS HUGE
REINVESTMENT PAYS
SHOW ME THE MONEY
THE BIG DIG FACTOR
STEEL-WHEEL JOBS VERSUS RUBBER-TIRE JOBS
BEYOND TRANSIT: REGENERATION OR REPLACEMENT?
ORGANIC REGENERATION GETS A CHANCE
THE NEW PARK—BIG IS BIG
THE TRANSPORTATION DEBATE
VEHICULAR DOMINATION STILL PREVAILS
BIG PROJECTS DO GET DONE
GOVERNMENT CAN DO IT BIG AND WELL
LOW-DENSITY MISTAKES STILL HAPPEN IN A BIG WAY
MORE BIG THINGS GETTING DONE
DEFEAT WITH GOOD REASON
CONCLUSION
EPILOGUE
Appendix: - Jacobs’s Arrest in Her Own Words
Notes
Bibliography
Index
The Center for the Living City
Copyright Page
ALSO BY ROBERTA BRANDES GRATZ
The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way (1989)
Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown (1998)
A Frog, A Wooden House, A Stream and A Trail:
Ten Years of Community Revitalization in Central Europe (2001)
For Jane
Never underestimate the power of a city to regenerate.
JANE JACOBS
Acknowledgments
I have always relied on various urban thinkers and observers to inform and challenge my own observations and ideas. For this book, I am similarly indebted to a wonderfully patient and generous group who enriched the substance of this book.
Until her death, Jane Jacobs was a critical sounding board. Ron Shiffman and Richard Rabinowitz have been key in both of my earlier books as well as this one. Mary Rowe has both challenged and encouraged the details of this book in the best tradition of Jane Jacobs. Anthony Mancini has been my first reader and essential critic for this, as well as the two prior books, often saving me from myself. Thomas Schwarz, another reader of both prior works, challenged an early iteration of this one that helped me rethink its direction. Victor Navasky, as well, offered insights at an early point that clarified and changed the direction I needed to follow.
Nancy Milford, Nancy Charney, Laurie Beckelman, Stephen Goldsmith, Sandra Morris, and Margie Ziedler have been nurturing friends critical to the writing process. I am indebted to Robert Caro for opening my eyes and the world’s eyes to the overarching power of Robert Moses.
I am enormously appreciative of Hamilton Fish, president of Nation Books, for being so ready and eager to publish this book and for turnin
g me over to an extraordinary editor, Carl Bromley. Carl exemplifies the best qualities of an interested, caring, insightful, and nurturing editor whose comments and observations about all aspects of this text were most useful and constructive. I am similarly indebted to Basic Books publisher John Sherer for understanding what I planned to do and for being so interested in publishing this book. Annette Wenda, the copyeditor, Sandra Beris, the production editor, and Brent Wilcox, the compositor, artfully steered this manuscript to life.
Kent Barwick, Eddie Bautista, Marcy Benstock, Mary Beth Betts, Maya Borgenicht, John Bowles, Al Butzel, Joan Byron, Sarah Carroll, Majora Carter, Carol Clark, Joan Davidson, Mort Downey, Coco Eisman, Alexi Torres Flemming, Adam Friedman, Charles Gandee, Michael Gerrard, Francis Golden, Dennis Grubb, Bill Gratz, Isabel Hill, Abbie Hurlbutt, Lynda Kaplan, Jared Knowles, Lex Lalli, Peter Laurence, Corey Mintz, Norman Mintz, Forrest Myers, William Moody, Greg O’Connell, Marianne Percival, Bruce Rosen, Michael Rosen, David Rosencrans, Gene Russianoff, Don Rypkema, James Sanders, David Sweeny, Calvin Trillin, Joshua Velez, Mike Wallace, Anthony Wood, Elizabeth Yampierre. Others are mentioned throughout the book.
Sadly, my husband, Donald Stephen Gratz, did not live to see this publication. His ideas and influence, however, are woven throughout this text. I learned from him daily for many years and always appreciated his encouragement of my efforts. The legacy of his talent is reflected herein in the story of Gratz Industries.
My daughters—Laura Beth and Rebecca Susan—fabulous mothers, teachers, environmentalists, and preservationists—have always been most important in my life and now their children—Halina, Frank, Stella, Isaac, and Danielle—are a source of great pride and joy. I have no doubt they will all grow to be caring, productive citizens. My son-in-law, Jon Piasecki, an innovative landscape architect and committed environmentalist, is an additional source of pride.
Many people have let me know the value of my first two books and, I hope, they will find similar value here. They are the ones who will initiate the regeneration process wherever they live and work.
Preface
I was born and for the first decade of my life lived in Greenwich Village, the iconic urban neighborhood of crooked streets, historic buildings, diverse residents, and the occasional leafy, cobblestone street.
When I walked to school each day, played in Washington Square Park in the afternoon, visited my father in his dry-cleaning store, bought candy at a nearby newsstand, ran an errand for my mom, and came in from Washington Square Park for dinner when she called me from the sixth-floor window of our apartment house, my life was a page out of urbanist, author, and advocate Jane Jacobs’s Death and Life of Great American Cities.
When my father’s main store on West Third Street, where all garments were cleaned and pressed, was condemned to make way for an urban renewal housing project, when our apartment house on the south side of Washington Square also was condemned for another urban renewal project, this one for a New York University library, when my father was pushed to relocate his business and the family moved to a Connecticut suburb, my life was a page from the book of master planner and builder Robert Moses, who transformed New York City and State through the twelve appointed positions he held over forty years, from the 1930s to 1970s.
Mine was a classic city childhood of the 1940s and 1950s. New York street life was robust and vibrant, offering a feeling of total safety. I rode the double-decker bus up and down Fifth Avenue to dance class, shopping, and an occasional outing to Central Park. I took the subway to visit friends and, somewhat foolishly, went all the way to Coney Island with two friends and no adult at the age of eight. Washington Square Park was the primary arena for play, hanging out, or roller skating, with a daily stop to say hi to my grandfather on his favorite bench.
Our move to the suburbs was a distressing one. I had trouble fitting in. The difference between city and country was dramatic back then, and it was reflected in my classmates. I stood out like a sore thumb until I caught on to fitting in. The upstate girls’ college I started at was much the same, and I eagerly returned to New York midstream to complete my undergraduate studies at New York University. Even then, New York still offered a rich experience with endless choices, including city and national politics during John Kennedy’s election campaign,1 until I embarked on a newspaper career at the New York Post.
I reveled in covering city life and couldn’t believe I was getting paid to learn something new every day. Marriage, children, and brownstone living on the Upper West Side came later, and that too revealed aspects of city life that informed my reporting. This was the 1960s and 1970s: New York was changing, incrementally, I thought, but in retrospect quite dramatically. I was part of and witness to a sea change in city life. On one level, I was oblivious to the major forces driving it. With the hindsight and experience of forty years, I understand those forces now and share that understanding in the pages that follow.
I grew up in the shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. Their clashing urban visions shaped postwar New York both directly and indirectly. In turn, that clash of visions helped shape the nation.
But I knew of neither of these overarching New York figures until adulthood and then only vaguely until well into my career as a newspaper reporter. Most New Yorkers were and still are similarly oblivious to either Moses or Jacobs. Yet these two giants of urban philosophy had enormous influence on the shape of American cities in general and New York City in particular.
THE MOSES-JACOBS LENS
To look at recent New York City history through the lens of the conflicting urban views of Moses and Jacobs is to gain a new understanding of the city today. This lens provides a small measure by which to evaluate the kind of big and modest projects outlined in this book. I did not have that lens either growing up or as a reporter for the New York Post from the mid-1960s until late in the 1970s covering city development issues. Eventually, I understood that in my writing I was immersing myself in the web of challenges personified in the conflict between the urban perspectives of Moses and Jacobs.
Two things helped develop that lens for me: reading Robert Caro’s book The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York when it was published in 1974 and reading, meeting, and developing a lasting friendship with Jane Jacobs in 1978. My own urban vision had been shaped earlier during my fifteen years as a reporter, meeting and learning from people all over the city and watching positive and negative city policies unfold. But that urban vision was deepened and added to by that Moses-Jacobs lens and was expressed in my first book, The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way, first published by Simon and Schuster in 1989. Urban Husbandry was the term I coined in that book to describe a regeneration approach that reinvigorates and builds on assets already in place, adding to instead of replacing long-evolving strengths.
From the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, I reported for the New York Post on the impact of the great social and economic dislocations in the city. There were the urban renewal projects in Greenwich Village and the Upper West Side and, most dramatically, the opening of Co-op City that vacuumed out so many residents from the Grand Concourse and accelerated the decay of the South Bronx. I covered school decentralization battles in Ocean Hill and Brownsville and urban renewal on the Lower East Side, and I learned the fascinating evolution of Washington Heights while working on an in-depth series about newly appointed secretary of state Henry Kissinger, whose family settled there after fleeing Germany in 1938. There were public housing conflicts, landlord scandals in Times Square and on the Upper West Side, and middle-income apartment shortages. New urban renewal projects and battles to save landmarks all got my attention. But I had no knowledge of the role of Robert Moses in shaping urban renewal policies, locally and nationally, until Caro’s extraordinarily well-researched and thorough opus.2
I had heard a little about Jane Jacobs’s activism in Greenwich Village, particularly fighting the West Village Urban Renewal and the Lower Manhattan Expressway projects, but I had not read The
Death and Life of Great American Cities. When I finally did read it, just before I was heading to Toronto to meet her, I discovered a way of understanding the city that I could relate to, a way that I had instinctively come to believe during years of reporting on community-based stories, an understanding that Jane believed all keen observers are capable of developing on their own. Over the years she challenged me, broadened my thinking, and encouraged me to look, observe, and understand beyond what I had already learned.
This book now looks back on the city as I first experienced it growing up and then wrote about it as a reporter. By using the Moses-Jacobs lens to examine some of the issues I wrote about in the late 1960s and 1970s, I come to a different conclusion from many experts on how the city reached the ultrasuccessful and constantly adapting condition of today—even if suddenly tempered by a colossal national economic meltdown.
The perspective of time is very useful. My time as a reporter was a trying period for the city. Bankruptcy loomed. Crime hit its peak. The infrastructure was crumbling. Vast swaths of neighborhoods lay abandoned. People were leaving. Fear was pervasive.
PAST IS PROLOGUE
For many, the memory of the depth of the city’s troubles back then has dimmed over time. Through the lens of a newspaper reporter I observed this period firsthand. Many of the stories I wrote reflected both the trends of the day and hints of the future. Some directly mirrored my personal experience.
As a native New Yorker, my life and the life of the city are one. I have watched the changes in the Greenwich Village of my birth, lived the ascent of the Upper West Side with my husband and children, felt the impact of dubious city economic policies through the ups and downs of my husband’s family-owned manufacturing business. All these experiences informed my observations and reporting and add focus to today’s debates. Many of the issues I covered were of the moment—historic preservation, planning, community rebirth, the Westway fight. Most people have forgotten our recent history; some have never learned it. Looking back offers an interesting picture of the period and helps recapture that lost memory. I draw from those stories herein, in part, to look at where we were and how we evolved from that negative era, how New York City “repaired” itself, to borrow Jane Jacobs’s word.
The Battle for Gotham Page 1