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March 13, 2007

ROBERT MOSES RECONSIDERED:
POWER AND PROCESS RIGHT NOW

CityLimits.org
By Roberta Brandes Gratz

A noted urban thinker assesses the continuing debate by city leaders and the great builder's biographer over the meanings of Moses. The second in a series of essays on an ambitious three-part museum exhibit.

Gratz begins by summarizing Robert Moses's reputation as a top-down planner, which culminated with Robert Caro's 1,163-page biography, and quickly segues into the impact of Deputy Mayor Dan "I-am-not-Robert-Moses" Doctoroff and a defense of the Koch "nothing-big-got-built-because-of-Jane-Jacobs" era:

Doctoroff went to great lengths to distance himself from the famous Moses recipe for making omelettes by breaking eggs. “I believe we have found a new model for getting things done,” he said. “I don’t believe you have to break eggs.”
...
Doctoroff’s definitions of "underutilized" and "renaissance" are in conflict with the view of many of the affected stakeholders in those neighborhoods who watch viable areas either become classified erroneously as blighted or, at the opposite extreme, watch residents and businesses pushed or priced out as new projects emerge. (How the Atlantic Yards site can be classified as “blighted” when investors are paying $600,000 for a condominium across the street has not been explained.) These local people are not necessarily averse to change, but they are averse to alien change that transforms their communities rather than strengthening them.

When stakeholders are part of the process designing the change, instead of only reacting to it after “experts” decide on the content, then the final projects have a better chance of reinforcing neighborhoods – not replacing them. Public acceptance is more likely.

This description of what's happening in Prospect Heights is striking, because it crystallizes what community activists have been calling for all along:

Atlantic Yards is moving ahead, indeed, against great public opposition. Sadly, it's a perfect example of a project that could have been a win-win if stakeholders had helped shape it. Its countless flaws could have been minimized and positive potential maximized.

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Posted by lumi at March 13, 2007 8:13 AM