Design & architecture
Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses and the fight over the modern city
11 min
The clash between an activist writer who championed lively neighborhoods and the master builder who wanted to run highways through them shaped how cities everywhere are designed to this day.
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Show notes
Robert Moses displaced one hundred seventy thousand people after World War Two to build car-centric infrastructure.
Jane Jacobs argued that natural surveillance from residents provides more organic safety than formal policing.
The victory at Washington Square Park shifted urban planning power from unelected experts to organized neighbors.
Old buildings provide essential low-rent spaces that allow new businesses and startups to survive.
The cancellation of the ten-lane Lower Manhattan Expressway ended the era of consequence-free highway construction.
Robert Moses controlled New York infrastructure by holding twelve different titles without ever being elected.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Master Builder's Concrete Vision2 min
- 3The Eyes on the Street2 min
- 4The Battle for Washington Square2 min
- 5LOMEX: The Final Stand3 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- The woman who saved old New York
- Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs: An Operatic Myth | On the Media | WNYC Studios
- How Jane Jacobs Fought to Save New York
- Saint Jane and the Moses Myth: Revisiting the Robert Moses-Jane Jacobs Debate - Skynomics Blog
- Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses: Urban Fight of the Century
- Robert Moses
- A Tale of Two Planners: Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses | National Trust for Historic Preservation
- NYC, Jane Jacobs, and the Fight to Save SOHO
- The Highway Fight that Changed Cities Forever - YouTube
- Opinion: Shut Up Already About Moses vs. Jacobs - City Limits
- Jane Jacobs
- Jane Jacobs’s Theories on Urban Planning—and Democracy in America - The Atlantic
- Robert Moses
- Robert Moses and the Zoning of New York (Part I): Killing the Master Plan - Building the Skyline
- Robert Moses and the Modern Park System (1929–1965) : Online Historic Tour : NYC Parks
- Robert Moses, Reconsidered
- Jane Jacobs’ NYC: The sites that inspired her work and preservation legacy - Village Preservation
- The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Robert A. Caro: 9780394720241 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
- The Planning Debate in New York (1955-75) | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
- Microsoft Word - Lower Manhattan Expressway
- Lomex — NYC Department of Records & Information Services
- Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses and the NYC That Could Have Been
- 'The Power Broker' at 50 — and what author Robert Caro is still uncovering | Ideastream Public Media
- THE POWER BROKER | Robert Caro
- Jackson Lears · Capitalism’s Capital: The Man Who Built New York
- Robert Moses and His Lasting Legacy
- Emperor of Concrete | Gore Vidal | The New York Review of Books
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