Interstate Displacement - The Legacy of Robert Moses - Extra History
Added 2021-02-17 18:31:48 +0000 UTCOne man's architectural hero is another man's monster of gentrification and displacement.
Comments
I really appreciate you sharing your point of view. Politics in the USA are particularly frustrating for those of us living through it so I can definitely your frustration with its influence on your homeland. Thank you, I wish you wellness in these times of sickness.
RJ Kennedy
2021-02-23 22:59:49 +0000 UTCThe white power structure failed me from first grade onward, as white kids decided my undiagnosed disabilities were too different. After 30 years' clinical depression, wishing for a terminal illness. for health reasons, I need to stick to happy, funny stories. And I already know about this one. I stick up for oppressed people, all I can, but I have to avoid seeing this one. Wish I could force clueless white people to watch it, over and over.
Bill Lemmond
2021-02-23 01:54:01 +0000 UTCAs usual, the poor suffer while the rich line their coffers. Sometimes I wish I had a time machine so I could scream in Robert Moses's face about what a racist b****** he is.
Martin Verran
2021-02-22 12:00:04 +0000 UTCThank you very much for your awnser. And I do agree it is a important and often under shown part of American history. And I think there is very much reason to show how these things worked and that these things still exist. I would never argue that these things shouldent be learned about. And i do think that to learn about true history we sometimes need to be uncomfortable. I would never try to stand in the way of that kind of learning. What my main point was is this (and excuse me for this long disortation I find it difficult to make this point short without telling my observations): During the last Trump administration the American national political two party system shown that is has a strong polarising undercurrent. Maby because i am from a country wich has a different system (this by no means makes it better) it is very visible to see and notice some things. Note: the following are opinions and anakdotal observations. It seams that every point has people for or against. (So far every thing is as most other country’s) but because there are only two party’s this means that if you agree with one statement you are pegged in that group and are more likely to speak with people from that party. If there is now a second point to talk about you are still standing in the same group. Let’s for argument sake say you believe in the same side on this point but are not very spoken out about it. This does still peg you in the same group. You might not be a very strong believer in this second point but the people around you are so he what is the problem. But here comes the magical part. Now there is a third point. You absolutely dont care about this point at al. But the party you are standing with are spoken out about it. How big are you to juist go with your group/ party. This does not mean you are no longer an individual with maby strong sertan believe’s and not caring about others. But now you have two groups that mostly move in opposite directions as a group. The reason i made you read all this (and i do apologize) is that in a climate (trump administration) where both sides are being more digging in to there positions i have seen allot of channels take one side or another. Not meaning to become political but juist because you have to take one side over the other. And here comes the difficult thing if you dont take a side both sides will dislike you for it. (Yes very machiavelie). Maby this always was so and have i never noticed. But now going back to extra credit’s. Three of the episodes in the last two weeks were: redlining, character creator in cyberpunk and interstate displacement. In these episodes important topics were racial divide and sexual preferences (sorry if i use the wrong word). These are topics wich are very high on the agenda of American politics. And that is what feels heavy handed and political to me. It is not the topics or the importance of these topics in society. But the frequency of topics that seem to support American left political views. And i feel like i need to say this very clearly that it bothers me as much when an other channel starts to bring right political topic’s. What made extra history/credits/etc so great in my opinion was the clear statement of facts from the early episodes. Like the Punic wars, admiral lee, and even more recent topics like the beast from Gevaudan and the syphilis series. If you made it this far i like to again apologize for my long windidness. I genually feel like EC is turning more political. At the same time while i am writing this I realized that maby the reason it bothers me so much is that i see that there is a movement in Europe that takes American political issues and seems to try to import those same issues without the need to. Because our local politics have different problems and importing extra one’s seems counter productive to me. So writing this is kind of therapeutic to me. In any case thank you again for your awnser and EC crew thank you for your great affords wich are a comfort in these times of sickness.
Bjorn de Echte
2021-02-20 09:50:42 +0000 UTCI really appreciate your opinion on this channel. Especially given that we are both Patreons, it shows that people of differing points of view can still find value in the same ideas, histories, and mythologies. However, as an African American, I don't see this as political, I see them as exploring the history of my people in a very sensitive and honest way. I understand that these topics can be heavy but, I do think it is important that we be brave in facing up to our history. Sometimes, there it can cheapen the true consequences of the history if we seek to "lighten it" or make it less heavy-handed. This isn't to attack you or your opinion. I really do appreciate you sharing your opinion and that you do support the channel, especially as an international subscriber. I only ask that when you are feeling that the topic is too heavy to take a step back and think of someone like me when you feel that in the future. Either way, we are Patreon family with Extra Credits and I hope it stays that way. Have a blessed day!
RJ Kennedy
2021-02-19 18:48:57 +0000 UTCAs much as I admire and agree with the majority of the episode, I find myself troubled by the conclusions. The US still is faced with the problem that our desperately needed infrastructure improvements are way more expensive and slow moving than comparable countries. Building the I-94, I-375 and Lodge corridors and maintaining them in Detroit, for example, was and remains viciously destructive. I lived in the redeveloped Black Bottom (which was nice in some ways, but only because certain residents put in some significant effort to make it work, not because of how it was designed) and now I live in a neighborhood spared the destructive inter city freeway so it retained the vibrant multiculturalism but now has the problems of gentrification and NIMBYism. The difference is telling, though each has its own aspects to love. However today we are faced with comparative costs like $2.6b to build a mile of subway in NYC but $200m per mile in Paris. Or the London Crossrail. Or the German S-bahn systems. The US needs infrastructure improvement. I am not saying the solution is heavy handed government dictation, but the infrastructure problem in the US is a deeply complicated problem. I don't think the Chinese way of building high speed rail is any better than the US interstate system in the 1950s, but the US is clearly getting core concepts wrong too. The intrinsically racist system is a ponderous aspect, and I'd agree the most heavily weighing one. This episode only had the tiniest hint of the people who have put significant effort into fixing the heavy handed interstate system in this episode. They've done some hard, quixotic work. They pulled down the Market Street freeway in San Francisco which improved the area greatly. At the same time, those efforts are controversial too. This is where history meets the present. What the US did in the Interstate era was racist central planning. This episode celebrates modern neighborhood inclusion in decision making. I agree that is good, but as we are finding in many cases like the housing issues in San Francisco, Seattle and Denver for example, this leeks into the NIMBYism problem (with connections to gentrification and racial issues). Detroit mass transit, San Francisco's inability to make new housing, etc, all of these link modern racial problems with infrastructure, red lining and other historical efforts to keep races apart and keep black and Hispanic people down. This episode needs more depth. I have faith in your ability build better, more episodes on the topic please!
Benjamin Fouty
2021-02-19 03:15:38 +0000 UTCI posted this on Youtube but not sure if it will be seen in the noise. I've long been fascinated by Robert Moses, Taylorism, and related ideologies. It's worth a series in it own right. Racism is almost a necessary byproduct of the ideology. If you want to understand Moses you need to watch https://youtu.be/sClZqfnWqmc?t=1177 where explains that running highways through slums was a feature as part of the new city in which work, play and everything was strictly separated. It took Jane Jacobs to point out how terrible this was and how much havoc it wreaked on cities. That's a topic in its own right. When I first watched this video I thought -- that would be crazy then I realized that, in fact, this is just what was implemented. Check out Taylorism and the other abuses of science in pursuit of the one true perfect. Add racism to that be it and we have a very toxic brew. Note this was just before World War II and the master race.
Bob Frankston
2021-02-19 01:53:36 +0000 UTCIs am a big fan of extra credits ever since the first extra history. I was always a reader but extra sy-fy made me a sience fiction fan. Not to talk about extra mythology which told me so much about the mindset of different peoples and cultuurs. This channel was the reason I opened a petreon account. But I have to get this of my chest. Over the last couple of months I feel the channel has become more political. I am not saying that it is not important to talk about racism, sexism and equality but please make it less heavy handed. I miss the time when every weeks the extra credits made me think about how the world is put together true game’s. When I learnd about history of the romans and middel ages of which we still feel the echo’s. As a big fan i ask you this. Pleas pleas don’t make this channel which made me rethink the world around me in another channel driven by American politics. Cincearly A humble international subscriber.
Bjorn de Echte
2021-02-18 19:51:21 +0000 UTCI'm really glad ya'll are covering this stuff that for some reason I was never taught in school. :(
Sientir
2021-02-18 08:00:55 +0000 UTCWell Done! I really appreciate these videos highlighting the often overlooked the history of African Americans and the systemic problems we've had to endure!
RJ Kennedy
2021-02-17 21:34:53 +0000 UTC
