robert moses: friend or fiend?

Last night, we watched by far the most eye-popping episode of New York: A Documentary Film. A few facts remain painfully clear from that era: white flight and suburbanization; colossal changes brought about by highways and urban renewal: overseen by one man: Robert Moses. The film comes to a climax with the unfathomable destruction of Penn Station (1963) for Madison Square Garden.

We demolish this:


for this:


The documentary also provides in-depth footage over the battle over the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which was never constructed, thanks in large part to an activist named Jane Jacobs. The proposed road would have effected the Lower East Side, SoHo and Greenwich Village.



Proof the power of people still have a voice.