Comments

1
I keep pushing Robert Caro's book "the Power Broker" about Moses, to everyone who'll listen. Dude may have been forward thinking, but he also made sure the bridges were kept low on the way to the beaches from New York City. So that buses couldn't travel on the roads. So that poor black people couldn't use the beaches. I know. Right?

Also: He cheated on his Yale swim team. There's another 1000 pages of this kind of thing. Given that Moses is often hailed as the father of contemporary urban planning, albeit with one or two acknowledged faults, it's intriguing to get some insights into his in-depth Machiavellian side. He makes Sam "knife-in-your-back" Adams look like a little pussycat. Burnside-Couch couplet?! Meh. Child's play! Let's DEMOLISH SOME TENEMENTS!
2
I thought that they already demolished housing when connecting HWY 30 to the 405 bridge, and that the majority of the residents in those houses were African American. Although I also thought Dick Cheney was Jewish for 8 years :)
3
Matt, I think the pure heft of that book keeps most people from reading it, but I agree with you that it's an awesome book. The person who had my copy before me used a copy of his 1981 Newsweek obit as their bookmark, so that was a cool find.
4
Caro also claims Moses set the temperature of New York City pools a degree or two lower in an attempt to dissuade black people from swimming in them. Which may explain more than a little bit why Moses seems so enchanted with 1940s Portland.

5
Umm Sarah you do know there has been tolling for the interstate bridge twice in it's history right?
6
Finnegan, asking if smirk did research of did the requisite research before writing something... well... we all know the answer to that question.
7
Continuing on Graham/Finnegan's theme:

"terrifying for modern progressive transit advocates—he envisioned two rings of freeways encircling the city—"

I-5/I-405 + I-205/OR-217/US26 = almost 2 complete freeway rings encircling the city.

Teh horror!!!1!!1!!
8
Finnegan and Graham,

I didn't know the interstate bridge (I-5) was tolled twice - I thought it was just tolled from 1960-1966. The book Vanishing Portland (which is great, btw) says "commuters faced a 20 cent toll per crossing" between those years, but the bridge debt was paid off in 66 and a toll never levied again.

When was the second time?
9
It was toll bridge when it the first span opened in 1917. The second time was in the 1960s.
10
Thank you Paul Leonard, esteemed editor of the Vancouver Business Journal.
11
Graham:

Right. ON!

Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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