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February 11, 2007
Moses revisionism, Jane Jacobs, the BQE, and the Promenade
Atlantic Yards Report visits three Robert Moses exhibits and lives to tell the tale:
While I'm not equipped to offer definitive analyses of the Moses revisionism, on a granular level, I found myself wondering whether elements of the exhibition give Moses the benefit of the doubt. At the Queens Museum, a brief set of panels regarding the building of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway states:
The design incorporated innovative triple-decking of the roadways and the public esplanade in Brooklyn Heights, but the BQE also cut through Red Hook and Cobble Hill, demolishing blocks of historic residences...
...
That shorthand description omits the furious battle fought to achieve the esplanade (aka Brooklyn Heights Promenade) against Moses's effort to direct the highway through the neighborhood rather than around its edge. As the Project for Public Spaces (source of the photo) explains:
In the mid 1940’s, Robert Moses and the New York City Planning Commission wanted to dissect the well-to-do neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights by putting up the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway along Hicks Street. The Brooklyn Heights Association opposed the plan and won.I don't know if other elements of the exhibition contain similar lapses. (Perhaps someone wants to "mad overkill" the exhibit?) But just as Moses deserves a revisionist look, that revisionism should not be taken as gospel.
Posted by amy at February 11, 2007 1:01 PM