The Changing City: 50 Years of Transformation in NYC

1. Learning PlacesThe City: 50 Years of Transformation NYCCT/Summer 2017/Phillip Adapted from multiple sources

2. Learning Outcomes • Impact of Urban Renewal • Social and economic forces that shaped NYC in the last 50 years • Social and economic impact of loss of manufacturing • Impact of containerization • New spatial organization and economic strategies for NY and other cities Key words: urban renewal, suburbanization, red lining, slum, ghetto, containerization, gentrification

3. US Cities 1960s • Older industrial US cities “blighted” • Clearance projects • Urban Renewal -- Late 1940s-1970s, government effort to revitalize aging and decaying inner cities… including massive demolition, slum clearance, and rehabilitation Robert Moses and the Cross Bronx Cross Bronx Expressway Brooklyn Heights

4. Cities 1960s • Cities Crime, riots, social unrest • Buzz words: inner city, ghetto, welfare, underclass • Positive images of cities erased

5. Definitions Ghetto– a part of a city in which members of a particular group or race live usually in poor conditions Slum – a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization Red lining denying mortgages (and financial and economic services) to neighborhoods that contained certain races, religions, and ethnic groups–eventually extended into all financial and economic services

6. Familiar?

7. Social and Economic Forces that shaped New York from 1960s-present • Suburbanization • White flight • The automobile • Loss of manufacturing jobs 1960-1970s • Reduced industrial production • Historic preservation Levittown Promotional Levittown: The Origins of Suburbia The Tragedy of Urban Renewal

8. 1970s Loss of Manufacturing in NY and the Northeast • Major Ports in NY and other cities in decline • High labor costs in NY and Northeast • Migration of businesses to the South • Cheaper production, labor and shipping abroad • Containerization

9. The Shipping Container and Economic Change How containerization shaped the modern world • “Revolutionized the flow of goods” • Increased international trade volume • Reliable, secure • Lowered the cost of shipping • Lower transport cost = lower cost and variety for consumers (Postel 2006; Levinson, 2006)

10. Before Containerization (50 years ago) • Distribution by many modes: ship, truck, train • Workers moved goods from mode to mode -- expensive (land to ship at departure port, then to truck or train on arrival at end point) • Dockworkers On the Waterfront • Organized crime • Theft, little security • Different prices regulations for various goods (Postel 2006; Levinson, 2006) Source: Levinson; Postrel

11. Containerization in New York City • Maritime economy declined (Dumbo, Gowanus, Greenpoint, Red Hook, Williamsburg ) • Dockworkers, managers, insurers and other businesses that supported maritime economies left NYC

12. Containerization=Globalization • The rapid movement of people, information, and capital • The stretching of social, political and economic activities across frontiers, regions and continents.

13. Regeneration • Response to bulldozer urban renewal of the 1960s • Urban social movements formed to stop neighbor hood destruction and preserve historic neighborhoods • The social movement resulted in the formation of Historic Districts (e.g., Brooklyn Heights; SoHo) • The social movements were not successful in preserving the industries and communities in the new Historic Districts (Judd, Fainsteins, 1999) Robert Moses v Jane Jacobs NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

14. Old Waterfront

15. Spatial Re-organization of Cities Old Waterfront • Warehouses • Industrial centers • Navy yards • Commercial boats • Working class New Waterfront • Centers for artists • Luxury hotels • High-end residences, gentrification • Cruise ships • Retail and entertainment facilities • Magnets of tourism

16. South Street Seaport, NY

17. Baltimore Harbor

18. Brooklyn Bridge Park

19. Commodification of old structures • Adaptive reuse of old structures - new uses for industrial and other old buildings Chelsea Market, former biscuit factory; the Highline • Pier A • Chelsea Piers • Chelsea market

20. Economic Strategies for Cities • Cities now spaces of service consumption • Services, like hospitality and tourism, not traditional industries, are impetus of growth • Cities transformed • New image of cities as places of leisure • Cities marketed and sold • Cities gentrified

21. Standardization • Standardized services • Formulaic hotels and restaurants • Boutiques • Historic structures into malls • “Bohemian” environment • Similar spatial arrangements • Leisure is “commodified” • Gentrification – Socio-cultural changes in an area resulting from wealthier people buying housing property in a less prosperous community; wealthy displacing the poor

22. Sameness and Diversity • Cities are more alike • Cities have nuances that make them different • Cities must retain their “sense of place” – history, diversity, neighborhoods, cultural traditions, arts, cuisine and attractions and events • How?

23. BQE

24. Resources Burns, R. (1999). New York, a documentary film. [Alexandria, Va.]: PBS Video. Evans, H. (2012). Harold Evans: How containerization shaped the modern world. Retrieved from http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=containerization+you+tube+ted+talk&view=detail&mid=FE00EE2031E356680374FE00EE2031E356680374&FORM=VIRE Judd, D. R. & Fainstein, S.S. The tourist city. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1999. Levinson, M. (2006) The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press Postel, V. (2006, March 23). The container that changed the world. [Review of the book The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger, by M. Levinson. New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com. ReasonTV  (2011) The tragedy of urban renewal: The destruction and survival ... Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWGwsA1V2r4

25. Additional Resources • Sheridan Boulevard • Levitttown: A case study of racial inequality • Mollen on Moses Cadman Plaza