Kerry Howley | June 14, 2005
Tom Robbins of The Village Voice has a good who's who of the faction that tried to foist an NFL stadium on Manhattan.
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An Investment Advisor/Politician, a Billionaire Pharmaceutical
Heir/NFL Owner, a TV Executive/Politician, a Union Executive, and a
City Councillor. That's who they list as the faction.
I want you all to notice, no city planners.
I want you all to notice, no city planners.
Which is why they were able to keep the price down to a reasonable
$2.4 billion. Plus, the demand that every 4th luxury box be zoned
as Section 8 housing didn't seem prudent.
No, joe, THE city planner, Robert Moses, was the guy
behind plunking a baseball stadium in Flushing Meadow, on the old
World's Fair site. Of course, the ballteams who might have played
there, the Dodgers and the Giants, fled for the Left Coast. In the
Dodgers' case, Moses continually thwarted O'Malley's attempts to
build a replacement for Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. A "Brooklyn
Dodgers" that played in Queens wasn't going to fly, but that cut no
ice with
The Power Broker.
Once that damage had been done, I have to give New Yorkers credit
for not messing things up further. I guess they could always cook
up something worse.
Kevin
Robert Moses - THOSE were the days! Planners got the respect we
deserved back then. You gave us shit - BAM! the bulldozers are at
your house the next day.
I keed, I keed. How Not To Be Like Robert Moses is the core
curriculum in planning schools these days.
No, joe, THE city planner, Robert Moses...
Shame on you. Robert Moses was NOT a city planner. First and
foremost, he was a politician - basically installing himself at the
top of several "authorities", which allowed him to amass power
without actually being accountable to anyone. My favorite Robert
Moses factoid is that, despite having destroyed countless houses
and neighborhoods with his expressways - the man never learned to
drive.
*MY* favorite Robert Moses factoid is that 76.4% of his body is covered with a birthmark.
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