The Battle for Gotham : New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs

In the 1970s, New York City hit rock bottom. Crime was at its highest, the middle class exodus was in high gear, and bankruptcy loomed. Many people credit New York's "master builder" Robert Moses with turning Gotham around, despite his brutal, undemocratic. and demolition-heavy ways. Urban critic and journalist Roberta Brandes Gratz contradicts this conventional view. New York City, Gratz argues, recovered precisely because of the waning power of Moses. His decline in the late 1960s and the drying up of big government funding for urban renewal projects allowed New York to organically regenerate according to the precepts defined by Jane Jacobs in her classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , and in contradiction to Moses's urban philosophy. As American cities face a devastating economic crisis, Jacobs's philosophy is again vital for the redevelopment of metropolitan life. Gratz who was named as one of Planetizen's Top 100 Urban Thinkers gives an on-the-ground account of urban renewal and community success. "In her critically acclaimed The Battle for Gothan, Roberta Brandes Gratz revistis the New York of the 1960s and 1970s--particullary the titanic clash of wills between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs--to tell a deeply revisionist history of the city's transformation during that period of stagnation, crime, and near-bankruptcy. And in looking at the evolution of New York, Gratz provides strategies for responding to the modern troubles afflicting American cities. Gratz, a longtime friend and colleague of Jane Jacobs, draws on hours of previously unpublished conversations with her mentor to richly illustrate the hidden sotry behind Jacob's urban vision--a vision that has been affirmed in the years since her death. Indeed, New York's strongest neighborhoods today are those untouched by Moses and his replacement-style stratietis and those most in need of help are the ones he knocked down and rebuilt to fit his 'highway and tower' vision. Gratz, one of Planetzen's top 10urban thinkers, shows that Jacob's organic approahch to urban planning is again vital to the regeneration of metropolitican life. A profoundly personal account of New York through the ages, The Battle for Gotham is an anatomy of urban renewal and community success."--Page 4 de la couverture "In her critically acclaimed The Battle for Gothan, Roberta Brandes Gratz revistis the New York of the 1960s and 1970s--particullary the titanic clash of wills between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs--to tell a deeply revisionist history of the city's transformation during that period of stagnation, crime, and near-bankruptcy. And in looking at the evolution of New York, Gratz provides strategies for responding to the modern troubles afflicting American cities. Gratz, a longtime friend and colleague of Jane Jacobs, draws on hours of previously unpublished conversations with her mentor to richly illustrate the hidden sotry behind Jacob's urban vision--a vision that has been affirmed in the years since her death. Indeed, New York's strongest neighborhoods today are those untouched by Moses and his replacement-style stratietis and those most in need of help are the ones he knocked down and rebuilt to fit his 'highway and tower' vision. Gratz, one of Planetzen's top 10urban thinkers, shows that Jacob's organic approahch to urban planning is again vital to the regeneration of metropolitican life. A profoundly personal account of New York through the ages, The Battle for Gotham is an anatomy of urban renewal and community success."--P [4] of cover Roberta Brandes Gratz Revisits The New York Of The 1960s And 1970s - Particularly The Clash Of Wills Between Robert Moses And Jane Jacobs - To Tell A Deeply Revisionist Story Of How New York City Emerged From Crisis And How That Regeneration Can Inform Our Response To The Current Crisis. --publisher Description. A Clash Of Visions: Then And Now -- The Way Things Were -- Landmarks Preservation: Precursor Of Positive Change -- Growing Up In Greenwich Village -- Soho: A Moses Defeat, A Jacobs Victory -- Reconsidering Robert Moses: What's To Reconsider? -- The Factory: The Secret Life Of New York Industry -- The Upper West Side: What Moses Couldn't Kill -- Westway: A Conversation With Jane Jacobs -- Big Things Get Done -- Conclusion: Both Shadows Are Strong. Roberta Brandes Gratz. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 331-333) And Index. In the 1970s, New York City hit rock bottom. Crime was at its highest, middleclass exodus was in high gear, and bankruptcy loomed. Many people credit New York’s “master builder,” Robert Moses, with turning Gotham around, despite his heavy-handed ways. Roberta Brandes Gratz contradicts this conventional view. She argues that New York City recovered precisely because of the waning power of Moses and the growing influence of Jane Jacobs, the pioneer of organic renewal projects.

As American cities face a new economic crisis, Jacobs’s philosophy is again vital for metropolitan life. Gratz gives an on-the-ground account of urban renewal and community success. Her writing—at once personal, political, and instructive—breaks down how the impossible was achieved.

The titanic clash of wills between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs in the 1960s and how their dueling perspectives helped to define contemporary urban life.;A clash of visions: then and now -- The way things were -- Landmarks preservation: precursor of positive change -- Growing up in Greenwich Village -- Soho: a Moses defeat, a Jacobs victory -- Reconsidering Robert Moses: what's to reconsider? -- The factory: the secret life of New York industry -- The Upper West Side: what Moses couldn't kill -- Westway: a conversation with Jane Jacobs -- Big things get done -- Conclusion: both shadows are strong.