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DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
Tue Dec 9, 2014, 09:57 AM Dec 2014

Using architecture to stealthily enforce segregation

http://www.cracked.com/article_21900_5-creepy-types-mind-control-hidden-in-everyday-design_p2.html
http://www.cnu.org/cnu-salons/2012/08/urban-designer-series-robert-moses
http://untappedcities.com/2013/12/18/5-things-in-nyc-we-can-blame-on-robert-moses/

I found this and I thought it's interesting.

Robert Moses was an extremely influential architect in mid-20th-century. Before that era, cities in the US were built around pedestrians, around people. Moses built cities for cars and subsequently designed areas where you have a good life if you own a car and where you have a bad life if you don't own a car.

For example: He was responsible for New York's emphasis of expressways over subways.
Expressways transport people who can afford a car.
Public transportation transports people who can't afford a car.

For example: The Meadowbrook Parkway in Long Island.
How do you keep poor people out of Long Island? Build the bridges so low that buses don't fit under them.
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Using architecture to stealthily enforce segregation (Original Post) DetlefK Dec 2014 OP
You see this in suburbanites who don't want mass transit. Odin2005 Dec 2014 #1
There is a book about Los Angeles called 'City of Quartz' that in part talks about this sort of Bluenorthwest Dec 2014 #2
"The Power Broker" by Robert A. Caro details Moses' life and work ... eppur_se_muova Dec 2014 #3

Odin2005

(53,521 posts)
1. You see this in suburbanites who don't want mass transit.
Tue Dec 9, 2014, 10:00 AM
Dec 2014

They don't want "those gangbangers" being able to easily travel there.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
2. There is a book about Los Angeles called 'City of Quartz' that in part talks about this sort of
Tue Dec 9, 2014, 10:05 AM
Dec 2014

city planning tactic and in the whole is very interesting reading. It's by Mike Davis and pdf versions are online.

eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
3. "The Power Broker" by Robert A. Caro details Moses' life and work ...
Tue Dec 9, 2014, 11:10 AM
Dec 2014

it's an absolutely amazing read. And yes, he resorted to some pretty low tactics -- never set aside land for railroad right-of-ways when he was acquiring land for roads, and thus made it prohibitively expensive to add the trains (meaning commuter trains) later. He also kept the pool temperatures lower near Black neighborhoods (which never got their own pools), because he believed Blacks couldn't tolerate cold water. There were steps along the sidewalks to keep baby strollers out, so visitors to "his" parks wouldn't be put off by emergency diaper changes in public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker

Moses and his acolytes often consulted with planners in other cities, and thus molded the infrastructure of many cities beside NYC. I remember the fantastic knot of roadways around downtown Pittsburgh was created by Moses or one of his disciples. He's been dead for nearly 40 years, but many American cities are still shaped, directly or indirectly by his priorities -- which don't match the needs of many residents of those cities.

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