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Take with a grain of salt. Especially the accusations that Moses is a racist and that his parkways have politics are not only gratuitous but also false. This ma

by mriehl 12y ago

Take with a grain of salt. Especially the accusations that Moses is a racist and that his parkways have politics are not only gratuitous but also false. This makes for a clumsy claim ("Yes, artifacts have politics!"). Robert Moses implemented parkways according to the "spec", and did not spend actual effort trying to prevent poor people from going there. His wife was also in charity, IIRC. If you read this then I refer you to "Do Politics have Artifacts"[1] which, as the name suggests, is a brilliant counterpiece. TLDR: Don't believe what you read, and don't write down what you believe without any factual corroboration. My claim is based on research done by Professor Lutz Prechelt for a course I can only recommend (slides[2]). It's in german, sadly. [1] http://www.wzb.eu/2000/met/pdf/do_politics.pdf http://www.wzb.eu/2000/met/pdf/do_politics.pdf [2] http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/inst/ag-se/teaching/V-AWS-2011/14_Techniksoziologie.pdf http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/inst/ag-se/teaching/V-AWS-2011/1...

brudgers 12y ago
The cliché comparison for Robert Moses is the urban planner Edward Logue. http://www.edlogue.org/index.html http://www.edlogue.org/index.html My mentor, the late David Crane, FAIA worked for Logue at the BRA. Crane's opinion of Moses reflected the standard criticisms. His actions over the course of the time I knew him and the portions of his career about which I am aware reflected values running opposite to those of attributed to Mr. Moses. The peers who he associated himself with and the projects he undertook later in his career did not reflect the values Mr. Moses is accused of having. None of which is to deny that politics has artefacts. Crane's work on Sadat city was halted by Sadat's assassination and Mubarek's subsequent rise to power in Egypt. Logue's work for the BRA likewise reflected political will and has its own high and low spots.

by mriehl 12y ago

brudgers 12y ago

The cliché comparison for Robert Moses is the urban planner Edward Logue. http://www.edlogue.org/index.html http://www.edlogue.org/index.html My mentor, the late David Crane, FAIA worked for Logue at the BRA. Crane's opinion of Moses reflected the standard criticisms. His actions over the course of the time I knew him and the portions of his career about which I am aware reflected values running opposite to those of attributed to Mr. Moses. The peers who he associated himself with and the projects he undertook later in his career did not reflect the values Mr. Moses is accused of having. None of which is to deny that politics has artefacts. Crane's work on Sadat city was halted by Sadat's assassination and Mubarek's subsequent rise to power in Egypt. Logue's work for the BRA likewise reflected political will and has its own high and low spots.