The passage and story from The Power Broker showed the beginning of people having a “voice.” While I defended Robert Moses last week, Caro’s portrayal of the mothers protesting his tyranny definitely shows a different side of urban development. The women were obviously upset, so they took a stand, and exposed Moses. Caro went on to say that this particular event caused Moses to lose his reputation. He was made to look like a villain and a ruthless developer against the mothers of Central Park. I think that in this case, there would have been more people on the side of the mothers, because of the sentimental value of Central Park itself. This shows Moses doing what was in his vision of a better city, which was his best and worst asset. But in other situations, there would be more people that could care less of what Moses was going to do.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities is obviously making a point against Robert Moses. Even though Jacobs did not explicitly mention him, or any of his projects, it’s pretty apparent. This is the part where I compare Jane Jacobs to Taylor Swift. We all know that Taylor is singing about [Styles, Swift, Kennedy, Jonas, Lautner, Mayer, etc] in whatever song she has. It’s the same case here. Jacobs didn’t like Robert Moses’ vision of the city. She even mentioned her living in New York City, so she could see and criticize first hand what was happening. Was she right? I can’t really tell just by looking at one chapter of her book. She argues in her case, how badly many “current” housing projects are constructed (Moses.) I did not really get a sense of her vision of the ideal planning of a city would be from the reading.
Reading Kenneth Jackson’s take on Robert Moses seemed like a breath of fresh air for me. It was, for the most part, positive. It’s important to see the effect of what one person can do to future generations. What was seen as a negative at its conception could be a good, or vice versa in the future. Comparing how New York is still growing, while many other cities are in decline shows that Moses had to have affected some aspect of the City’s growth. Jackson still criticized jackson for his racism and lack of care for public transportation, but as a whole, Moses was seen as a father to modern Gotham. “He’s the hero that Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” #batman
In regards to politics, Moses has affected who has control. Maybe not for the better, but now people have a bigger say in things. This can be seen with the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. From what I read, only a small number of people finally opposed the project. Allowing for people to have a say in policy making can prevent progress from being made. But people voicing their opinions is what this country is founded upon. People will always disagree with whatever’s being said, no matter what. They’re guaranteed to disagree (#watic). Someone shouldn’t have absolute authority like Moses, but at the same time, the people can be wrong. I feel that the government and the people have to work together to decide what’s best for the present and future. Furreal.
