Posted on 05/04/2016 5:01:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
There are many such project which get rid of previous expressways that were poorly designed or placed or both ... some are major projects like the one in Boston. In Seoul South Korea for example they removed a huge expressway built over a river and restored the river. It is quite impressive.
I’m one who touts the private sector having built the expressways instead of the public sector, especially since state ownership of infrastructure means state control.
However, cities like Boston and NYC have been bastions of feudalist revanchism since their founding, sharing desire for government control with the socialists. It’s thanks to NYC laws against operation of steam locomotives that the railroads never crossed the Hudson and East Rivers, just for a nineteenth-century example.
Urban planning demonstrates the folly of “planning” any market based phenomenon. Might as well plan the weather.
“Jacobs herself did not use that meme”
According to the author Peter Moskowitz:
-—In the book, Jacobs argued that the preceding century of urban planning had essentially “arisen on a foundation of nonsense”—that the old, white men who advocated for highways and high-rises, wide streets and buildings set back from sidewalks by acres of grass, were not only clueless but were actively destroying American cities.-—
While that was not a direct quote in this article, it was certainly believed to be her ‘meme’ by the author, either because he already understands Jacob’s attitude, or knew of her saying as much elsewhere.
I will have to disagree with you here.
“Instead, Jacobs wrote, cities should be built with communities and street-level interaction in mind. […]”
__________
Well, we have plenty of “street level interactions” now, don’t we.
She did not say that.
That is today’s meme, not in Jacob’s time.
The author I pasting his own ideas onto Jabobs (after she is dead).
Haven’t we had enough of this already with all kinds of historical figures?
I already indicated she was not quoted as saying that - did you not read?
Do you think the author just made it up? Apparently you do.
I do not. He must have a basis for stating that, either from his own research or interviews or personal knowledge.
And holding ‘old white men’ in disrepute began with the feminist movement that began in the 1960’s, so it is more than likely this was Jacob’s thinking.
No proof either way, so we’ll just have to leave it at that.
LOL, I didn’t want you to hijack your own thread!!!
I am near Boston, and I despise the concept of people from places like Nebraska and New Mexico paying tax dollars to upgrade the highway systems in places like Boston and New York.
I like what the Big Dig did for Boston, but I would put it all back the way it was and return the money to the people who had to put money in but got no benefit from it.
Yes, I think the author just made it up (the part about old white men). That is what they do now, in case you haven’t noticed.
It’s not OK to say or imply that a historical figure said something they did not say.
1950’s Los Angeles-—a six hour trip on surface streets to cross the city.
Are you in the habit of accusing people of lying or committing libel without proof, simply because you don’t like what’s written, or is it just in this particular case?
Unless you personally know this Jane Jacobs, you have nothing to base your disagreement with the author on.
How about the author’s reputation? Does Peter Moskowitz have a tarnished journalistic record for lying or deliberately misleading his readers?
We both have different takes on the author’s clear implication, but the fact is: you don’t know if it is a valid one for certain. And neither do I.
Therefore there is no reason to continue to go back and forth on this topic.
Also, my boss is about to kill me for spending most of my break on a computer!
She did not say what he implied she said.
It’s as simple as that.
I am tired of so-called journalists making up stuff about what people said, or might have said.
Enough of “truthiness” (remember that).
Either she said it or she didn’t. If there is no proof someone said something then the honorable thing is to NOT SAY THEY DID.
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