Robert Moses and the visual dimension of physical disorder: Efforts to demonstrate urban blight in the age of slum clearance

Chronopoulos, Themis (2014) Robert Moses and the visual dimension of physical disorder: Efforts to demonstrate urban blight in the age of slum clearance. Journal of Planning History, 13 (3). pp. 207-233. ISSN 1538-5132

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Abstract

In the 1950s, the Committee on Slum Clearance of the City of New York, headed by Robert Moses, published twenty-six site-specific slum clearance brochures. A major portion of each one of these brochures attempted to demonstrate the blighted conditions that prevailed in the area to be redeveloped. These sections included maps, statistics, descriptions, and photographs. Moses wanted to keep the texts in the brochures short and allow the photographs and the illustrations to demonstrate the shortcomings of the areas designated as slums. This article analyzes the photographs that appeared in the “Demonstration of Slum Conditions” (later renamed to “Demonstration of Blight”) section of the brochures and raises a number of questions concerning the process and the paradigm under which Moses’s slum clearance organization was operating. Both the process and the paradigm of slum clearance in New York City involved elected officials, planning commissioners, and even the judiciary.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 11 - sustainable cities and communities ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/sustainable_cities_and_communities
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of American Studies (former - to 2014)
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > American Studies
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2013 00:43
Last Modified: 24 Sep 2024 10:40
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/43402
DOI: 10.1177/1538513213487149

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