Members: Tasfia, Farai, Juan, and Briana

Research question: What were the pre-existing social, economic, infrastructural, and cultural conditions around Lincoln Square pre-demolition, and how do they compare to the subsequent urban development around the site?

Annotated bibliography:

1.

Moses, Robert. “Slums and City Planning.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 1 Jan. 1945, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/01/slums-and-city-planning/306544/. 

In this article, Robert Moses expresses his thoughts on the slum clearance issue and possible solutions. He mentions how slums are developed by the ignorance of tenants, property owners, and real estate developers and lacks standards or decent living. As a result, city planners had to siphon these people out of town to prevent the central decay which was speeded up by building more railroads, roads, and other facilities. This slum clearance program was experimental and favored limited objectives and compromise. The demolished rookeries were replaced by highways, and recreation facilities that further improve the city condition and the grade between the highway and railroad were eliminated even though it impacted the community. He thinks the public housing which takes the place of slum should be subsidized within the proper limit. The difficulties that come with buying land from private ownership should be solved by eminent domain. Two other possible solutions are rehabilitation and “decay and degeneration of residential properties which are being shifted from single family to multifamily dwellings.”

This article shows us what Robert Moses considers to be a “slum”, why he thinks it should be removed, and what should replace it to make the city better. It takes us back to our site and its pre-demolition stage when the neighborhood was marked as a slum, demolished, and families were displaced even though many people were against this plan.

2.

Simon, Arthur R. “New Yorkers Without a Voice: A Tragedy of Urban Renewal.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 1 Apr. 1966, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1966/04/new-yorkers-without-a-voice-a-tragedy-of-urban-renewal/305329/.

The author, a Lutheran minister, takes part in a coordinated effort to create a dialogue between a coalition of low-income residents and community board members of the Lower East Side, and public officials involved in the Urban Renewal project in New York City. He describes how there is a disconnect between landlords and tenants, as well as public officials responsible for serving the people in the neighborhood. Low-income residents, community representatives, and advisors developed a plan that provided an alternative proposal to the one that the city was planning to implement. It included changes that would benefit the existing residence and address the issues that they were facing such as dilapidated homes and lack of building maintenance. However, the outcome of their attempt was largely ignored and demonstrated how poor people are often ignored and do not carry enough political and financial weight to influence the decisions that will affect their livelihoods.

Descriptions in this article on the state of neighborhoods before demolition are certainly useful in painting a picture of what type of culture and architecture existed in these neighborhoods before demolition. The descriptions of the ignorance of public officials and landlords towards residents in this article can also be helpful to support the idea of the disconnect between people of power and minorities in New York City during this time.

3.

Foulkes, Julia L. “The Other West Side Story: Urbanization and the Arts Meet at Lincoln Center.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 52, no. 2, 2007, pp. 227–247. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41158305. Accessed 22 Oct. 2020.

The author, Julia L. Foulkes, details the distinctions between what the city and its neighborhoods were about in the 1950s & 60s versus what Robert Moses had envisioned in his proposal for a “cultural district”. Foulkes likens the musical “West Side Story” to the development project that was Urban Renewal, a play Rockefeller attended the weeks he had sat in for the public hearings to decide funding for the proposal. Despite officials conceding that there were no “structural defects” in the area, Rockefeller insisted that famous cities were known for their arts not for political reasons. The promoters of Lincoln Center project phrased their ideas of mass over class to help drive funds for the project, in which they really meant broadening the audience for specific programs, not broadening cultural offerings. 

This article outlines many individuals and how their involvement throughout the process of proposing, fundraising, and constructing Lincoln Center was seen differently by those who inhabited the area. Posing questions such as “who’s public good was being served?” and “who’s culture was being organized?” are important themes for our research to further dig out the details of the motivations that led to such a project to pass.

4.

Columbia University Libraries. “Preliminary Report Lincoln Square Project / : New York (N.Y.). Committee on Slum Clearance: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, [New York?]: [Publisher Not Identified], 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/preliminaryrepor00newy_0/mode/2up.

This reading outlines the plan to create Lincoln Center using the Housing Act of 1949 and the Housing Act of 1954. This project was done by the City of New York and Federal financial assistance. The slum committee recommended that the site would include different centers for the arts, housing, hotels, and others that they believed would develop the area. Different maps show the site for Lincoln Center and the surrounding areas. In their report before the project was passed, it showed the different categories of building that would be affected the most.

Our project is Lincoln Center Pre-demolition. This reading explained what happened before they were able to build Lincoln Center. It shows the people who were in charge of the project and their consultants. It also has information that will help our research, such as many maps that show the outline of the area before demolition. We can also get statistics of the area, the people that were affected, dates and the plan for rebuilding. This in-depth information will broaden our knowledge of the history of the area before Lincoln Center as we now know it. The recorded facts and outline of their plan will benefit our research.