
Robert Moses wove enduring racism into New York's urban fabric - sevenless
http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/politics/216905-the-lingering-effects-of-nyc-racist-city-planning
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sevenless
"Moses's discriminatory activity wasn't limited to Long Island. As Parks
Commissioner of New York City, he imported his racist building methods to an
area dense with people of color in need of relief from overcrowded
neighborhoods. Almost all of Moses's public works projects—among them Jacob
Riis Park, Alley Pond, and Riverside Park, as well as 255 of the 256
playgrounds he built in the 1930s—were placed out of reach of the poor, and,
as Caro points out, the one pool built anywhere near a black or Hispanic
neighborhood was kept at a “deliberately icy” temperature, because “Moses was
convinced that Negroes did not like cold water.” And as Schindler points out
in her paper, Moses also went out of his way to clog Harlem with cars: He
placed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge's exit ramp there, when the sensible
location would have been the Upper East Side, as almost all traffic at that
time came from below 100th street. As a consequence, wealthier neighborhoods
remained untouched by traffic, while Harlem’s streets were overrun with
bridge-bound vehicles."

