A common theme that has appeared through the last couple texts is exchange. Looking at Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs and now the history of community planning in New York City, there is usually some sort of agreement and exchange at hand when looking at how the city’s neighborhoods were planned, zoned and subsequently “renewed.” Robert Moses is known for all of his architectural additions to New York, but what was lost when building these developments is often skipped over. For example, Moses often used the much-contested theory of eminent domain to find space for the 627 miles of highway he helped build in the city. As a sort of “thank-you” for the seized land, Moses would build new public housing buildings. Unlike earlier public housing projects, these units were meant for those displaced by the “urban renewal.” The displaced were often of color and didn’t have many other options to find affordable housing in the city. These exchanges lead to what can only be seen as the creation of artificially segregated ghettos.

Looking past Moses’ time, we continue to see these planning exchanges. What is said to be one the most important land-use reforms since 1916 was the development of community boards and districts. This concession was supposed to be a way to provide some sort of autonomy to neighborhoods across the city, supposedly allowing residents to have a say about the future of their land. Yet, with community boards came a drawback. Community board votes actually weren’t worth much, since they were only advisory and final decisions were reserved for the City Planning Commission and the City Council. The position of board member was simply a title, since members often had to answer to borough presidents anyway and their votes basically meant nothing.

Now considering these aforementioned trades, I wonder if they were, or are, actually worth it. Could Robert Moses have found some sort of way to change the city in the ways he did without completely destroying neighborhoods and further ostracizing people of color and the poor? Was it worth surrendering your rights to lands around your neighborhood for at least getting your voice heard? Without being able to answer these questions, one can still look at the outcomes today. Community districts, I believe, have a played a pretty decent role in getting things done around the city. When you happen to be loud enough for those in charge to hear, stuff eventually gets done. Also with the vast infrastructure Moses had helped lay, New York certainly did evolve into one of the most prosperous cities in the country. There is no way to tell if the way we got to where we are today was truly the “right way.”