Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
America didnt give a fuck about its history back in the 50s-80s and urban renewal was rampant. Basically all of our cities were destroyed during this time and are just now recovering from the urban renewal from the 30s-80s. Luckily the highways built along the waterfront for the most part in Pittsburgh was just rail yards or industrial areas. Luckily some of this countries most well known urban areas were spared destruction like New Orleans French Quarter which some asshat during the 50s wanted to completely destroy and run a freeway through. Also, Robert Moses wanted to destroy lower Manhattan and run highways all through it. But so much was destroyed. Cities like Houston, Boston, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, etc all had huge historic neighborhoods ruined and torn down by urban renewal and highways built during the mid 1900s.
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This is all true, but it's also worth mentioning that as hard as it is to believe now, when those highways were being built, the waterfront was not considered desirable real estate. Cities grow up on the water because of its industrial uses, not because it's pretty -- so in the '50s, people thought of the waterfront as an industrial area they wanted to stay away from. That's why not only do you have highways being built, you have New York putting up housing projects along the East River.
This situation wasn't unique to the United States, either. One of Barcelona's big goals in hosting the 1992 Olympics was to "turn the city around to face the sea," the idea being that prior to that, the Mediterranean (yes, the Mediterranean!) had been considered something to avoid instead of the city's obvious showpiece. Today you have New York trying something similar, with loads of development and park construction along the Hudson River.