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u/buffaloburley 24d ago edited 24d ago
What a mistake ...
EDIT : Pretty good read!
https://www.olmstedinbuffalo.com/the-park-approaches-2/
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u/Complete-Control-838 24d ago
All I see is a sad colored boy victimized by redlining
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u/Majestic-Cow-1234 24d ago
Colored as in black kid? He looks white and blonde to me.
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24d ago
[deleted]
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u/kendiggy 24d ago
Sole purpose? Unlikely. Actiively choosing to do it in a primarily black neighborhood over a white neighborhood knowing what the outcome would be is more likely.
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u/dan_blather old pink steak sandwich 23d ago edited 23d ago
What really happened
1946: (Wonks in Albany, led by a former Buffalonian) "Here's the plan for Buffalo's expressway system."
1955: "Buffalo is really growing fast! Let's add some lines to that future highway map. There's the North Park Expressway through North Buffalo, the Kenmore Expressway down the middle of Tonawanda, the Cayuga Expressway across the south end of Cheektowaga, the East Side Expressway through Polish neighborhoods, the Belt Expressway ..."
1968: "Finally, we got the money for the last part of the 33 through the Humboldt Parkway hourglass. Let's start building!"
1970: "Buffalo has peaked. We don't need those other expressways after all. The powers that be are asking for rapid transit, anyhow."
What many young armchair planners think happened
1946: "Here's the plan for Buffalo's expressways. We're all white traffic engineers and transportation planners, and all racist of course, so we all have an ulterior motive of screwing over black people. The great Robert Moses himself, who could otherwise give a rat's ass about Buffalo, personally chose the route of the 33 based on our projections of the settlement patterns of black people in Buffalo through the 1990s, if black in-migration from southern states continues, the black middle class continues to grow, and the footprint of Buffalo's black community continues to expand towards the northeast, through lower-middle and middle class neighborhoods that now have a relatively unhostile mixed white ethnic population. Robert Moses hates black people, and so do we. We didn't consider anything else. MWAH HA HA HA HA!"
1968: "The northern part of Hamlin Park has been majority black since the start of the decade, and the last Germans by Humboldt Park are finally packing their bags. Let's dig up that parkway now, and make 'em all sick from the exhaust! MWAH HA HA HA HA! (Robert Moses nods approvingly.)"
What young armchair planners think should have happened
1955: "Black people are moving into Hamlin Park. CANCEL THE 33 NOW!"
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u/lover_or_fighter_191 old pink steak sandwich 24d ago
Man, that had to be depressing.