Back in the early 20th Century, Robert Moses became *the* titan of urban planning. He was responsible for much of NYC's still extant infra.
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A number of things were happening. Cars were becoming cheaper and more accessible. NYC was growing, leading to development in Long Island.
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Moses was pro-automobile and anti-public transit. When he built bridges, he refused to add rail support, though he could have.
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He refused, for instance, to build subway connectors along the Verrazano to Staten Island.http://ny.curbed.com/2014/5/22/10096344/the-planned-subway-lines-that-never-got-built-151-and-why …
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These things seemed obvious, even at the time. His motivation for not building them was more sinister: poor people used public transit.
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In Long Island, he built low-clearance bridges over the Parkways leading to Jones Beach State Park, almost 200 in total.
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This effectively denied bus access to the destination, blocking out Black folks from Harlem.
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He could have run the Cross Bronx through East Tremont along Crotana Park, but chose instead to run it through a Jewish neighborhood.
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1500+ people were displaced and lost their homes because of this.
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He built playgrounds in rich neighborhoods, but only one in Harlem. The ironwork on the fence was adorned with monkeyspic.twitter.com/txIC7ksvcE
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Robert Moses weaponized Civil Engineering and Urban Planning to suppress marginalized communities. Engineering is always political.
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Elon Musk doesn't strike me as an innovator when he talks about building tunnels and subways. He strikes me as Robert Moses.
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Who are these tunnels going to serve? The Latino communities in LA? Or are we just running them straight to the rich neighborhoods?
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Robert Moses permanently shaped the cultural landscape of New York City. It is what it is because of him. But it is what is because of him.
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What will Elon Musk do? What centuries-long impacts on our cities will he have, and who will profit from them? Who will pay?
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By the way,
@langdonw wrote about this in "Do Artifacts have Politics" almost *40 years ago.* https://innovate.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Winner-Do-Artifacts-Have-Politics-1980.pdf … - 11 more replies
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I talk to my nerd friends about his constantly. They think people like Musk, Jobs, Cook are somehow brave progressives. For real?
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They say I have an irrational hate of Musk. Maybe. But maybe it's my disdain for someone using "green" for $$$ and not because it's the...
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...right thing to do. In addition, Musk is an egomaniac. This is about his Mark. Space travel. Hyperloop. Tesla. Monuments to himself.
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https://www.google.com/amp/reason.com/archives/2016/04/28/elon-musk-crony-capitalist/amp … Musk fits many definitions of crony capitalism. He's used government loans/subsidies/taxpayers ...
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He installed family to run first solar. He then used investors money from Tesla to basically bail out first solar.He's using Nevada taxpayer
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One of my buds raves about the hyper loop. I asked him what he really thinks will happen in capitalism with that kind of travel?
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Musk will surely want some serious $$$ related to hyperloop or whomever gets it done. Traveling from LA to NY in an hour. $$$.
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People would be priced out. Demand high. Only high earners would be getting many of the advantages. More haves and have nots.
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