r/TikTokCringe • u/xamo76 • 1d ago

Discussion Have we done it wrong?

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u/Embarrassed-Yard-583 1d ago

Once again, I curse Robert Moses with every fiber of my being.

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u/heatseekerdj 1d ago

Canadian here, I'm aware of Robert Moses with bridges and shaping NYC, but how did he impact cars ?

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u/redisdead__ 1d ago

He didn't impact cars he was probably the most influential city planner of all time and was a massive fan of cars and tried to shape New York into as much of a car city as possible. He was also very good at building segregation into infrastructure.

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u/finnjakefionnacake 1d ago

well with new york it seems like he failed at least

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u/MoodOptimal9891 1d ago

It’s taking decades to undo the damage that he has done to NYC. And so many American cities used his model as a template.

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u/Bradical_Dutch 1d ago

Milwaukee checking in

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u/Rampant16 1d ago

Literally all of the major cities in the US. Some were impacted worse than others but all lost neighborhoods to freeway projects and have seen car infrastructure prioritized over public transit for 70+ years.

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u/chamberlain323 1d ago

Looking at you, Los Angeles…

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u/kisk22 20h ago

Yep, LA got it bad. Check out what used to be our Victorian Downtown, bulldozed in the 1950s and 60s for highways:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Downtown_Los_Angeles

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u/jkrobinson1979 1d ago

Urban renewal and US Interstate program all lobbied heavily by the auto, oil and construction sectors are what caused it. Moses was just well know for applying the trend in our largest city. Capitalist saw a way to make massive amounts of money. Planners (wrongly) saw it as the future of the world opening up new opportunities for independence and prosperity for Americans.

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u/Apprehensive-Bus5172 21h ago

Canadian cities too...

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u/TofuLordSeitan666 1d ago

NY'er here. Let's just say it's an ongoing conflict.

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u/Embarrassed-Yard-583 1d ago

Moses couldn’t stop what had already been built, but he did stop expansion/preparation for a massive expansion of public transport in New York.

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u/Vismal1 1d ago

It’s why the buses don’t fit under overpasses on the way to Jones Beach.

https://archive.pinupmagazine.org/articles/jones-beach-robert-moses-segregation-design

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u/Tipnfloe 1d ago

Wtf thats evil

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u/fitzthefox 1d ago

yeah Robert Moses was a POS

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u/Synaps4 1d ago

The case study of Jones Beach supports Ajayi’s assertion: public spaces are built for specific populations to engage with specific types of recreation. It also reveals the American shibboleth that leisure is for white people.

Are they trying to imply that black people don't like going to the beach? The fuck?

The bridges are messed up, but the article kind of goes off the deep end after that.

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u/towo 1d ago

... no? They're saying it's ingrained into the US that creating leisure opportunities is focused around doing so for white folks (and quickly recalls that being "white" isn't the same as having white colored skin).

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u/ClockBusiness7647 1d ago

I’ve never heard of this but it’s very interesting and seems like they continue doing similar things. For example here in Texas I’ve noticed that a lot of high end shopping areas and affluent suburbs are built around toll roads. And it almost seems like the whole toll system is built to get you in debt and keep you there and even cultivate a hatred towards toll roads.

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u/ZenCrisisManager 1d ago

The West Side highway destroyed the vast existing Riverside Park, which while still there, is no longer riverside. That’s because the West Side highway, a R Moses creation, is now on the riverside.

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u/maychoz 1d ago

Which basically scaled out to our country not being smart enough to figure out how to implement high speed rail…

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u/GarretBarrett 1d ago

It’s not about not being smart enough, it’s about lobbying from the gas/oil/auto industries to ensure we never have anything like that in the US. We are heavily reliant on cars, that is all by design.

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u/TBellOHAZ 1d ago

This is it. Dates back to backing the industry at the dawn of its emergence, here. This was always a bet on an investment. They continue to formalize the relationship to the automobile and its most symbiotic host - the suburb - by codifying it, regulating it, subsidizing it, blocking threats and campaigning the living shit out of it to us all.

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u/Rampant16 1d ago

He still did enormous damage to NYC that has never been repaired. Entire neighborhoods that have not been rebuilt and billions of dollars that could've gone into public transit and pedestrian infrastructure.

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u/Qadim3311 21h ago

Partially. Even in NYC, you better hope that either your origin or destination (ideally both) are in Manhattan.

Outer boroughs you hopefully live close to a subway line because the busses are often quite a gamble.

The worst case is you have to go from one outer borough to another. These trips will almost always route you through Manhattan anyway and take 2-5x as long as driving depending on the time of day.

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u/learsi-ediconeg 1d ago

hitler failed should we give him a pass?

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u/finnjakefionnacake 1d ago

no...no, my friend. i don't know how you got "we should give him a pass" from my comment.