suburban dreamscapes (part VII)

I probably won't get around to reading Anthony Flint's book on Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. My lazy excuse is that I've read at least one review of the book, and concluded that I agreed with its major themes, and so I could spend time doing more productive things, like fishing. Flint makes the argument that too many people have tried to don the mantle of Jacobs, and have forgotten the lessons that Moses taught about organizing large public works projects. The mythology surrounding both people conceals the fact that neither held much stock in fantasy. They looked at the situation at hand, made observations about needs, and acted on them. Moses, for all his failings, responded to the automobile culture that was defining the United States. I maintain that if Moses had not existed, the New York metro area, and much of the U.S. would have ended up looking the same--it just would have taken longer, cost more money and had even more problems than it does now. Jacobs, whose vision of a dense, interactive and sustainable urban communities influenced several generations of planners and architects, had less of a reactive posture than Moses and far less political power. Her ideas and ideals have been embraced by the design community, but the trends of organic development in the U.S.--i.e. sprawl--continue to dominate.