Hamilton Ave in Red Hook, before-and-after the construction of the Gowanus Expressway and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in the 1940s-50s. Designed by Robert Moses and constituting part of the larger Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (I-278), construction of the Gowanus cut the Red Hook neighborhood in half along two of its central thoroughfares, Hamilton Ave. and Hicks St., requiring the demolition of dozens of blocks and the forcible displacement of thousands. Once completed, the highway divided the community from the rest of the borough with a block-wide knot of perpetually congested vehicular ramps, constantly spewing pollution into the surrounding neighborhood.

Throughout its history, Red Hook had been an integrated, working class neighborhood made up of large Italian and African-American communities, with many working jobs at the nearby docks. It should come as no surprise, then, that Robert Moses chose to route his highway—designed to connect suburban automobile commuters to Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn—through the heart of the neighborhood.

In his biography of RM, “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro outlines a late 1950s report put together by Lawrence Orton investigating the effects of Moses’ projects. By the time Orton’s report was released, over 170,000 New Yorkers had been displaced (a number that would grow to over 250,000 by the end of RM’s tenure), which the report says “was an enforced population displacement unlike any previous population movement in the city’s history.”

Caro continues, “If the number of persons evicted for public works was eye-opening, so were certain of their characteristics. Their color, for example. A remarkably high percentage of them were Negro [sic] or Puerto Rican. Remarkably few of them were white. Although the 1950 census found that only 12 percent of the city’s population was nonwhite, at least 37% of the evictees (Moses’ own figures) and probably far more were nonwhite.” (Caro, 968.)

More on Red Hook and the rest of Brooklyn to come, and more on displacements continued below:

“The manner in which he was throwing them [tenants] out was worth noting, too,” Caro continues. “Because it was so difficult for these people [the displaced] to find decent homes on their own, the government of their city—the government which had authorized their eviction from their old homes—had solemnly promised them help. Its highest legislative body had pledged that ‘tenants will not be evicted from the site of a public improvement unless and until quarters equivalent to those occupied are available.’ Moses, ostensibly the instrument of that government, had, for seven years, created the impression that he was honoring that pledge; he had stated that a ‘minimum of inconvenience’ was involved in relocation. Orton’s staffers found that a substantial number of families had been moved ‘two or more times’ to other buildings “within the site”—had been shuttled from one building about to be demolished to another, and then another, and perhaps yet another. For seven years, Moses had been giving the impression that the bulk of the low-income families displaced by his public works had been accommodated in public housing projects. In reality, [Orton] found, the percentage of displaced families that had been admitted to public housing was pathetically small. Moses had been giving the impression that he had taken great pains to insure every evictee “decent, safe, and sanitary” living quarters. When the Planning Commission staffers obtained access to files on tenants for whom relocation responsibility had been ‘discharged,’ they found that more than a third of the files—for some projects, more than half—were marked: ‘Disappeared—whereabouts unknown.” Disappeared! Moses couldn’t know that the living quarters into which his projects had forced tens of thousands of persons were ‘decent, safe, and sanitary.’ He couldn’t know what the new living quarters were like. He didn’t even know where those living quarters were. (Caro, 968.)

Caro continues, “Orton’s handful of staffers, without sufficient time to trace the individual families involved in relocation, were unable to locate those missing families. But it was all too obvious that they had moved either to other sections of the ghettos [sic], doubling up with other families, causing further overcrowding in those already intolerably overcrowded slums, or to adjoining areas, creating slums out of once decent [sic] neighborhoods. Robert Moses’ slum clearance program might be creating new slums as fast as it was clearing the old.”

“If this picture was disturbing, it paled before the picture of the future. Orton’s staffers had assembled—for the first time—‘statistics on the volume of tenant displacement we may expect in the foreseeable future.’ During the previous seven years, 170,000 persons had been evicted: a rate of about 24,000 per year. But Moses’ slum clearance program was only now [by the late 1950s] moving into high gear. During the next *three* years, 150,000 persons were now scheduled for eviction: 50,000 per year. These people were mostly low-income Negros [sic] and Puerto Ricans. If the future was carried out as past relocation had been carried out, it would increase overcrowding in existing slums, and create new ones faster than before. The city’s relocation practices should be changed—taken out of the hands of the Moses-dominated Slum Clearance Committee and Housing and Triborough authorities—in the name of common humanity, Orton’s report said. And these practices should be changed in the name of the city’s own interest. If they were not, the vast urban renewal programs, the unprecedented expenditure of public funds, which the city was undertaking to improve its future, would wreck that future instead. Orton’s statistics proved that without a doubt.” (Caro, 969).

I follow this account on instagram. The history is fascinating. There's a lot about Robert Moses on there (obviously) and they cover other cities as well

Truly sucky what Moses did here!

Yes yes, keep complaining about Robert Moses and the stuff he built. I'm going to keep using it to get around, going to places no transit system or fancy ebike will reach, getting things done.

If you lot had your way, this city would have half the population.

lolol yknow moses deleted tons of housing right?? quit being a dick and actually think about things critically before you decide to have an opinion

Even if you use what's built and don't want it removed, you can also see why some people don't want more of this. Lots of people on this sub call out for new highways to be built to make their driving experience better. Well this is what you get, think they would volunteer their home for removal?

People get their houses deleted all the fucking time for infrastructure projects. That's how cities develop and grow. Quit being a pussy about it.

ye except usually they receive suitable housing afterwards, and also these projects dont usually uproot several established neighborhoods (coincidentally black ones. wonder why…). But ill forgive u for being a moron and a jackass cuz i can tell u dont read much, since ur opinion amounts to “just take it” lmao

> going to places no transit system or fancy ebike will reach

The photo shows a transit system that was ripped out to put in a highway. Robert Moses is the reason these transit deserts exist.

>If you lot had your way, this city would have half the population.

The population of Brooklyn has decreased since the construction of the BQE. Overall population of the city has only increased by 20% since the 1940s.

What stops the city from expanding mass transit today? Why can’t they bring back the tram network, add a direct subway connection between The Bronx and Queens / Brooklyn and Staten Island.

The excuse can’t ways be NIMBYism, when eminent domain exist.

Had RM not halted mass transit improvements and expansions to free up capital for his highways, far away places that you have in mind may have benefited from public transit. Dude hated poor people and black people and sucked the soul out of Ford and GM.

Moses built basically all the public housing that exists today. Moses was one of the biggest builders of housing in the cities history.

The answer can still be NIMBYism, because a politician using eminent domain is political suicide with NIMBY’s around. Also, eminent domain is generally too expensive to pull off in a major city like NYC, because you to pay “just compensation” to those evicted (which is generally fair market value).

The answer is also that it’s too expensive, involves too much red tape (in both the executive gov’t and the courts), and therefore takes too long to sustain the political will needed to make it happen.

How is any of that my problem? I don’t care how it got built. It’s here now, and I’m going to use it while you guys whine about it.

The overpass really brings out the blue in your sky tho

“NYC would be a transit utopia with fast, reliable, efficient transit covering every corner of the city if not for that evil, racist Robert Moses.” 🙄 Save it. I don’t care for your rosy “what-ifs”.

When a single city councilman/woman could stop development in its tracks, NIMBYism is still alive and well.

We need to pass laws at the state level which may override the ability for local lawmakers to have a defacto veto on any new projects in their district. It’s absolutely absurd and should not be possible.

The market desperately wants to build more housing and businesses, but politicians and stakeholders to the Ponzi scheme that is residential real estate won’t let them.

And yes, NYC DOB has too much power and the codes/regulations are choking us to death. Do away with stringent building standards and zoning laws as well as rent stabilization/control (in addition to the above neutering of NIMBYism) and there’s your solution.

Getting there is the hard part.

I realized I went off on a tangent about the housing shortage, but the lack of mass transit development has a lot of similarities.

It happens all the time for infrastructure projects. You people bitch about houses being removed for a highway, but you’d probably sing a much different tune if the same houses were to be removed for a train line, calling those homeowners NIMBYs for blocking progress. So spare me the fake sympathy for the people who lost their homes.

I'm no fan of Robert Moses but you'd have to be delusional to think any city administration could've expanded mass transit during that time.

You have to understand that Robert Moses was a special kind of asshole who despite the controversy still got shit done. He ruthlessly abused city and state powers , colluded with contractors , and ofcourse manipulated public opinion. Master builder isn't a term handed out easily yes he was an absolute tool but he did something few others could pull off in NYC of all places.

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Can we get a Fuck Robert Moses in the chat pls, ty

Way too expensive in both money and political capital. I remember the guy holding out at the old Barclay's center construction site for years until the group just paid him an insane amount of money.

If you try to claim any land as a governing body you'd get protested by any number of "Historical conservationists" groups on top of your political opponents taking the opportunity to call you. Capitalist monster who hates the working class.

On the money side absolutely none of those residents will move out unless the city pays them an unholy amount of money. They know this and the city knows this.

“Too expensive” is exactly why I don’t see cars going anywhere. The city generates a lot of money on the backs of car owners.

Straphangers already upset with fare increases and bad service. Cyclist are totally against paying for anything, but wants the city to get rid of the only commuters that actually contribute financially.

I'd also add using tried and true methods like cut and cover could easily expand subway access in Brooklyn, Queens, etc. Relatively cheap too at least compared to 2nd Ave and the LIRR access projects.

But the powers that make these decisions seem laser focused on prioritizing Manhattan centric projects. They would rather spend $10 billion on another 2nd Ave phase than extend any outer borough subway lines.

If there really is a permanent shift to WFH culture it may be time to reprioritize how much we focus on Manhattan.

Please name a recent infrastructure project that bulldozed block and blocks of buildings other than highways.

And for transit, the city can't even build an elevated train line NEXT to houses without people freaking out. Not even bulldozing them. As was the case with extending the N to LaGuardia.

Most of that was part of "slum clearance" and not greenfield developments. So he tore down housing to put up public housing. I doubt in the end it was that much new housing.

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I agree but there’s still a political calculation being made when city council members block projects. Yes they only have to worry about one re-election but it isn’t the end of the line. They’re all gunning for higher office.

I think we’re going to see member deference begin to erode in the coming years. We saw it happen once already with the UES blood center last year. KRJ is facing a primary challenge over the Harlem thing and Tiffany Caban approved Hallets North in what seemed like an acknowledgement that the rest of the council may not have backed her opposition to it

What, pray tell, are you asking cyclists to pay for that our city taxes don’t cover?

Because construction costs are out of control. And also because NIMBYs can still stop projects via elected officials.

Cyclist will have to step up financially if they think the city will prioritize them over car ownership.

Is that public transportation in Red Hook I see?

NIMBY + zoning + union sweetheart deals. It’s insanely difficult, slow, and expensive to build anything when everyone gets a day and everyone gets to wet their beak.

Fun fact, the population of Manhattan peaked in 1905.

Turns out, it’s the density stupid.

There's the entire north side of Staten Island that doesn't have rail transit. It's going to stay red and underdeveloped without mass transit.

It's still an issue that extending the train would only get you to south Brooklyn, so you still would realistically need to focus on connecting to the ferry, but there's absolutely an opportunity for transit in Staten Island. You only break the stranglehold of cars being the only option by providing other options.

So now we are onto a value juadgement between slums and public housing.

When the public housing was built the housing that was destroyed was old, small and antiquated. The public housing was bigger apartments modern and in a park like setting. Today the poor depend on the public housing that was built then.

Which would you rather have? Would you knock down the public housing today and give it back to private landlords at market prices?

I put the slum part in quotes for a reason since it was his term, not mine.

I'm not judging, simply pointing out that he built homes while also tearing them down, so in my opinion it doesn't make him one of the biggest buildings of housing.

And I also want to note that the "towers in the park" model of low income housing has also been found to not be very successful.

I just want to be able to walk around and not worry about cars

> When a single city councilman/woman could stop development in its tracks, NIMBYism is still alive and well.

> We need to pass laws at the state level which may override the ability for local lawmakers to have a defacto veto on any new projects in their district. It’s absolutely absurd and should not be possible.

No law is needed. The council member veto over projects in their district is a gentleman’s agreement, not something based in law. It’s how the city council overrode the veto for the new blood center on the UES.

Which building codes and regulations do you want to do away with?

You didn’t answer the question.

Common Robert Moses L 😒

> You only break the stranglehold of cars being the only option by providing other options.

This!!!

A lot of New Yorkers own cars because the city’s mass transit system failed them.

Okay, let’s interrogate this line of thinking a little further. What do you want cyclists to pay for and how would you collect those fees? Are you suggesting tolling bike lanes? Taxes for bicycle purchases? Bike registration? Higher taxes for people who identify as cyclists? Let’s hear some ideas.

Cyclist stepping up financially is not an answer?

The person asked for things cyclists would have to pay for. Examples of things.

Yes!

That’s exactly what I’m saying. Mention any of those suggestions to cyclist and they get mad. Failing to understand if everyone stopped driving in NYC, the city will look to get the money from somewhere and it’s going to be strap-hangers and cyclist.

All of those ideas are insane and completely ridiculous, and were proposed in jest. You can’t tax someone based on them “identifying as a cyclist” nor would tolling bike lanes work. At the end of the day, a bicycle trip taken in NYC nets the city money (it costs essentially nothing and cyclists end up spending money on those trips), car trips cost the city money. Bicycle infrastructure is astonishing cheap, bicycles are space efficient compared to cars, and bicycles don’t shed rubber dust or emissions the way cars do. Prioritizing cycling (and mass transit, can’t forget that) is a net benefit to the city. Every dollar the city spends to get people out of their cars is a benefit to the city.

Trams were replaced by buses

NIMBYism is partly why we still have cast iron buildings and a well preserved cultural and architectural history in nyc … it’s not always bad.

I’d imagine in a few years some developer would knock down the Woolworth building if no one stopped them… would definitely spin opponents as antiquated anti developmental

"I possess no empathy, therefore u suck" is an interesting take

I’m all for more subways, however trams are worse than busses in almost every way other than aesthetics. Spending probably trillions of dollars to make public transportation worse would not make sense. Really we should work on improving the existing infrastructure and reducing traffic.

Edit: I’m probably over stating how great buses are here, trams are cool too, I just don’t see it being worth it.

Ban cars and tear it down.

More posts like this

No you’re 100% right. There is literally no reason for trams to replace buses outside of liking train aesthetics. They’re vastly more expensive and completely inflexible in their service routes, and suffer from the same issues buses do with getting stuck in traffic. Reddit has convinced itself that the disappearance of trams was some vast conspiracy by Big Auto, but the truth is that most tram companies were already financially struggling or entering bankruptcy and companies like GM only slightly sped up the inevitable. New Yorkers hated how loud and uncomfortable they were, so much so that Fiorello LaGuardia promised to get rid of trams during his mayoral campaign.

We should focus on heavy rail, light rail and BRT/protected bus lanes if we want to improve public transit, not spending 20x the money for a service that reduces the comprehensiveness of NYC’s transportation needs

Huge W- this highway has promoted endless commerce and economic growth- at the cost of some random shit building in Red Hook. Big deal.

The windshield perspective coming from this guy is absolutely bonkers.

At the cost of thousands of lower income immigrant and black neighborhoods, the BQE tore down mass transit systems that made it much easier for anyone to commute through Brooklyn. Your whole "Fuck the poors" act isn't giving what you think its giving

Just go collect your downvotes like you normally do

This could be posted in urban hell

Here’s just one example of how Amsterdam taxes it’s cyclist…

> Park it right: make sure to park your bike in a designated bike parking section, rack or indoor parking facility as bikes that are not parked in the right areas may be removed and stored in the Bicycle Depot. And to avoid theft, lock your bike to something secure and immovable. > If you have lost your (engraved) bike, you can contact the Fietsdepot to check if it has been recovered by calling 14020 during office hours.

> If they have it, you need to pay a fee of €22.50 to reclaim your bike, or approximately €35 to have it delivered to your home. You will need to show identification and have the key to the bike lock in your possession. Check the Fietsdepot website for more information.

The same low rise buildings is exactly what the people in this sub are targeting to raize. Difference is the 20 something transient residents think they are right

Ah yes. New York was truly a city of poverty, meagerness and poor economic activity back before 1950. So starved for economic output because it didn't have low density roads running through the middle of it. All of new York was built after 1950 highways.

The stock exchange? Yep highways did that. Broadway Musicals? You guessed it: directly caused by the BQE.

The benighted city was lost and adrift. Nobody could live here, nobody could visit. No business was ever done in New York before semi trucks!!

What? That's if you lose your bike and need to reclaim it, not taxes/fees for normal use.

No! It’s actually for cyclist who illegally park their bikes in undesignated areas. Here’s a little more context from the same link.

> To avoid having your bicycle removed in the city, it is advisable to only park your bike at designated racks or a dedicated parking garage (stalling). Some locations allow you to leave your bike for up to two weeks, and some for up to six weeks. Read the City of Amsterdam's bicycle parking guidelines for further information or view the parking locations on a map.

> If a bike is found or removed due to illegal parking, it will be delivered to the Fietsdepot who can then use the engraving to inform legal owners that their bike has been found or recovered.

This is an example of what is to come, if the city prioritizes bikes over cars. Like I said, the city will start taxing cyclist to recoup the lost income it’s used to receiving from from drivers.

You do realize that not a single bridge/tunnel that is tolled in NYC sends those funds to the city itself, right? The NYC-NJ crossings (GWB, Lincoln, Holland, Goethals, Bayonne, Outerbridge) are owned by the Port Authority; the Verrazzano, Battery Tunnel, Henry Hudson Bridge, Throgs Neck, Triborough, Midtown Tunnel, Whitestone, Crossbay, and Marine Parkway crossings are owned by the MTA. Neither of those organizations are city-run. We haven’t discussed it directly but I’m positive you’re tacitly referencing Congestion Pricing, which again will be run by the MTA and funds gained from that will fund transit projects.

The city gets essentially zero money from car drivers directly. The city gets the sales tax on gasoline sales in the city, but that’s no different from me buying a Coke at Duane Reade. Registration fees and licensing fees go to the State. There is literally ONE (1) city-applied tax for car owners and it’s only for people who pay for a garage in Manhattan. If you don’t do that, the city gets $0.00 from you per year for having a car in the city outside of tickets, which are, of course, your own damn fault.

(As a final aside, I own a car in Manhattan, and in fact got an ASP ticket today.)

Fucking Robert Moses

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lol, what, you expect me to say “oh, I’m gonna stop using the BQE out of respect and consideration for all the people who sold their homes to the city in order to make it happen”? Fuck outta here. 🙄

What a difference several decades makes, LOL!!

No it didn't and if anything it was a net negative for the economy. Those neighborhoods would be providing much more economic benefit if they were still standing.

Though I guess for you fucking the economy is worth it if it fucks over black people

Not that dude, but getting rid of height restrictions would work wonders

mm thats not what i said, i said you shouldn’t have an opinion on moses if ur an asshole about it lolol. i use the bqe too boo, i just know the guy who built it did so at the cost of a lot of new yorkers and dont pretend it was good that he did so.

Oh it's completely NIMBYism. You have to understand how fanatical white New yorkers are about what they think is the wrong element (Black and Hispanic people). The area of Bellrose, next to Queens Village in Queens petitioned to change the name of the street running through it from Jamaica Ave to Jericho Turnpike because it sounded "too ethnic".

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> You do realize that not a single bridge/tunnel that is tolled in NYC sends those funds to the city itself, right? The NYC-NJ crossings (GWB, Lincoln, Holland, Goethals, Bayonne, Outerbridge) are owned by the Port Authority; the Verrazzano, Battery Tunnel, Henry Hudson Bridge, Throgs Neck, Triborough, Midtown Tunnel, Whitestone, Crossbay, and Marine Parkway crossings are owned by the MTA. Neither of those organizations are city-run. We haven’t discussed it directly but I’m positive you’re tacitly referencing Congestion Pricing, which again will be run by the MTA and funds gained from that will fund transit projects.

NYC may not receive any funds directly from the tolls. That doesn’t change the fact that the Port Authority and MTA will offload that missing income onto straphangers and cyclist who will be using all bridges. Parking lots will be converted into bike parking lots.

Congestion tolls, is another issue. The MTA is depending on that extra income. Another tax offloaded onto strap hangers, because cyclist will protest if they’re forced to pay the toll.

> The city gets essentially zero money from car drivers directly. The city gets the sales tax on gasoline sales in the city, but that’s no different from me buying a Coke at Duane Reade. Registration fees and licensing fees go to the State. There is literally ONE (1) city-applied tax for car owners and it’s only for people who pay for a garage in Manhattan. If you don’t do that, the city gets $0.00 from you per year for having a car in the city outside of tickets, which are, of course, your own damn fault.

City wide Metered Public Parking connected to the ParkNYC app?

The city would begin to designate when and where cyclist can park and store their bikes. Parking and moving violations will go into affect, which means a way to track cyclist will have to happen. Which will mean state registration.

> (As a final aside, I own a car in Manhattan, and in fact got an ASP ticket today.)

You need to create custom alarms on your phone to remind you when to move your car back and forth. ASP is needed in areas with a lot of foot traffic.

Sides there are better ways then destroying mass amounts of residential land… aka one of the best Metros in the entire nation. If only we’d had one of those!

/s for those who can’t tell.

Well, not exactly true. They used Eminent Domain to build the Brooklyn Nets stadium and to grab the neighborhood around it. Existing tenets sued and the law said that the city could use eminent domain even if the stadium wasn't going to replace those houses in that exact footprint because the stadium was "packaged" with hosing and the proposed housing would be worth more, which would generate more taxes which is a benefit for the city.

What's amusing (but at times enraging) to me having moved here from a city that is genuinely developing public transport and mass transit and deprioritising inefficient, antisocial and destructive personal transport is not only the ridiculous amount of public space and subsidies given to the latter, not only the absolutely pathetic state of public transport in most of the other 4 boroughs, but the bizarre American mentality that is terrified of improvement if it means losing any of this artificial "freedom" that the oil and motor industry have conditioned so many people to believe they have. In a city like New York. I almost feel sorry for them.

What a wonderful looking building. And, housing. It seems similar to the Flatiron building in Manhattan, just a little wider. Could've been The FatIron.

I think even just a compromise like we have on the UES. High rises on avenues only, nothing over 7 stories on the cross streets. It allows for plenty of tall building while preventing the neighborhood from ending up feeling like you’re living in Midtown.

Imagine if they had built the subway before the BQE. It's a real shame that the entire subway was built only in 1976. What could have been....

Where? A residential area in Mill Basin?

I never knew the story behind the sudden name change from Jamaica Avenue to Jericho Turnpike. Never made sense to me.

Because Hillside Avenue remains the same until it’s deep in Nassau county. Just like Merrick Blvd becomes a road once you cross over Hook Creek Blvd and travels deep into Suffolk County.

I agree, a lot of the NIMBYism is cloaked in racism. Which is one of the reasons I mentioned eminent domain. How many times have we heard it being used in our communities to build or expand, like Seneca Village.

I heard a joke once that urban renewal was passed because Americans felt left out of the Nazi bombings in Europe.

Which part of the post isn’t true based on that?

I agree the housing in a park did not necessarily work. I would agree it was probably a net even. Though I do think Moses was trying to make life better for people overall. Many if the things he did have had great benefits to society even today. There are good things he did and bad.

Mostly because it would cost a shit ton.

What exactly is the title to the biography that this excerpt is from ? I’m very interested and have always wanted to look into the cause and effect of Robert Moses.

r/fuckcars

The Power Broker. But I warn you that its a LOOOOOOOOONG book. I got it from the library, but couldn't get through it, so I am doing the audio book. That's still 39 hours long, but its such a great book that had a lot of original research.

Sounds like I’m gonna start up that audible free trial lol . Thank you I appreciate it !

If you are willing to wait, the Brooklyn Public Library does have the audiobook. Granted, there are 139 holds on 15 copies.

There's two things going on. When it goes from Queens to Nassau the name changes. But Bellerose is in Queens and they wanted to change the name to look like they're Long Island.

Before the 1950s we didn’t have most of our goods delivered by 18 wheelers either.

Not saying the highway was a good thing, but it’s more complex than you are making it out to be.

It’s an interesting point. The BQE is a pretty major part of shipping routes so I wonder how the lack of this highway would have effected this and surrounding areas.

Unrecoverable losses obviously. No possible way to change anything ever. We should continue to breath brakepads.

But if you build trams over existing roads nothing needs to be eminent domain’d

Any good book recommendations on the development of NYC in 20th century?

But think about how much more quickly Long Islanders can drive to New Jersey now

Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of anything, but went and dug up this list for you that might have some good ones. https://www.brickunderground.com/live/nyc-history-best-books

The page that I mentioned refers a lot to the "The Power Broker" which is a very long book about Robert Moses, and I've seen people recommending it for the history on why certain decisions were made affecting the city's infrastructure at the time.

I read the book years ago, I would 100% endorse the audio book over the book. He writes his books to be historical reference, i.e. each point is backed up 5 times and often repeated. If you listen to audio book and maybe miss a few because you aren't paying attention its all good.

> The excuse can’t ways be NIMBYism, when eminent domain exist.

We can also look to how eminent domain worked for the Texas HSR project, eminent domain isn't quite the magic wand like it used to be. UK has had the same issues with HSR2. Costs and lawsuits balloon the project budget massively for land acquisition. Funnily enough for the Texas HSR, did you know that the project was sued to stop eminent domain cause they argued it wasn't "actually" a rail road? No project is safe lmao

> He argued that the company did not meet the statutory definition of a “railroad company” or an “interurban electric railway.”

https://www.corsicanadailysun.com/news/texas-supreme-court-affirms-eminent-domain-for-high-speed-rail/article_dc584ae2-0a13-11ed-8a19-378eb275e30c.html

The case STARTED in 2015 and was JUST finally settled after a state SC ruling. folks come up with all sorts of impediments to transit progress

This is quite an impressive tantrum for a trigger as innocuous as "maybe don't drive everywhere."

Oh, so you're a bigot! Okay, now all this "Cyclists BAD!!" shit makes a lot more sense. Bigots gotta bigot.

"If the city prioritizes bikes over cars, the infrastructure will start to serve BIKES and not CARS!"

Well... yeah. I think you've finally got it.

Looks much nicer with the Gowanus. Nothing special, spectacular, nor significant about that 1940's block. Not even many buildings. You are a bunch of whiners trying to find another reason to say F Moses. In this case he beautified the area.