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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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 … -
Moses did this in several cities, including New Orleans.
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And here in Portland
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Idk if Moses was involved but this sounds a LOT like Chicago. It's not an accident most CTA lines serve historically white hoods.
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Is there a massive biography about him? Like 800 pages or something? The guy who made bridges too low for buses to go under?
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Yep. The Power Broker is its title. It's way more than 800 pages. It's immense.
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Yes! I heard
@anildash talk about it in an interview with@debbiemillman. -
It's extremely good and illuminating. Once you get deep enough into it, you see the kind of thinking he employed everywhere

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Wow, I didn't know all this about Robert Moses. I see a lot of his work in the Buffalo/Niagara area too & I'd never really thought about it.
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Not seeing it is a true masterstroke of insipid racism
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I wonder how many other people there are whose names I know but I don't know their horrible stories. Surely lots. It feels overwhelming.
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So much history. So much.
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also: Moses was far from first to weaponize urban planning. antecedents used Howardian/Corbusian principles to contain marginal communities
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public housing projects like pruitt-igoe and regent park being two of hundreds which did just this just before and after WWII
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moses, meanwhile, operated as an autocrat laergely impervious to municipal/borough checks & balances. what he did put jane jacobs on the map
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Freeways and redlining did the same in LA. 1 thing LA needs is more density to support transit.
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How do you achieve density without development? How does smart TOD happen in a BANANA - build absolutely nothing anywhere - city?
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