Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses

Robert Moses had a greater impact on the physical character of New York than any other individual in the city’s history. During his reign as the state’s master builder (1934 to 1968), he developed a vast program that sought to modernize the city’s infrastructure, expand the public realm with recreational facilities, and remove blight from residential districts.

Urban theorist and community organizer Jane Jacobs was sharply critical. Moses championed large-scale projects, such as highways, slum clearance, and high-rise residential towers, believing these undertakings embodied progress and made the city more efficient and dynamic. Jacobs emphasized the value of community life, advocating a series of principles that showed sensitivity toward neighborhoods, stressed the creative re-use of existing facilities rather than demolition, and involved citizen participation.

This course focuses on the alternate visions of Moses and Jacobs, drawing its readings from Robert Caro’s famous biography of Moses, The Power Broker, and Jacobs’s most famous book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Here, you’ll be introduced to the extraordinary ‘David and Goliath’ story that in many ways defined the battle for modern Gotham.

Mondays & Thursdays, 6:30-8PM (ET)
$350 (8 sessions, 90 min. each)
No class on Memorial Day

Stephen Petrus is a historian and curator at LaGuardia and Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, specializing in twentieth-century US urban and cultural history. In 2015, he curated the exhibition “Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival” at the Museum of the City of New York, and co-authored the accompanying book, published by Oxford University Press. His essays have been published in Studies in Popular Culture, New York History, and Los Angeles Review of Books, and his research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Pew Foundation. He has also curated exhibits at the Queens Museum, the Woody Guthrie Center, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum.