Posted on 04/27/2021 11:27:06 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
A little known fact, those families who lived in the apartments that were demolished to make way for the expressway, White, Black, Latino, etc were well compensated, most of them were able to afford to live in better neighborhoods, some had the means to use that dough to put down on homes in the suburbs. It was actually a blessing in disguise for many, thanks to that "racist" monster Robert Moses.
Much of the criticism is that it made things worse for the people who went on living there. Was it really a blessing for them?
This subject sounds like a subject, in which there is no clear consensus. On the one hand, some benefited from these expressways in city neighborhoods, and other the other hand, others did not benefit.
Close the C-B, might as well close the GW as well...
This is a fairly old map of the Bronx:
http://maps.nypl.org/warper/maps/16927#Preview_Rectified_Map_tab
I got it via:
https://www.oldmapsonline.org/map/nypl/5082726
The highway was routed through neighborhoods.
I-5 was routed through a high-end Seattle neighborhood.
Except tunnels get ventilation systems, and ventilation systems can have filters. So actually yes you can greatly reduce air pollution with tunnels. If you do it right. Which is always the big question.
There is a capped expressway west of the US Capitol that ends at New York Avenue.
I’ve looked at Google maps Streetview.
It seems the highway is a mixture of dug and elevated.
This is a link to a “satellite” (aerial) view of a portion of it:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8354459,-73.8677667,569m/data=!3m1!1e3
The construction of the CBE has always been a thorny issue. But something had to be done about the increased congestion after WW2. Tremont Ave was the main thoroughfare through the center of the Bronx. Traffic was a horror show.
However the planning could have better. Moses had turned down plans that could have avoided some of the residential areas. Plus for some stupid reason they did not include breakdown shoulders(possibly for financial reasons).
Well, good luck with capping it. It won’t do much to relieve the traffic, which is gawd-awful. The CBE is maybe my least favorite stretch of road in the US, especially if you are headed toward the GWB. Every now and then, I have to use it but I avoid it if at all possible. Likewise, the Bronx is a pretty miserable place. Used to visit my grand parents there when I was younger. Hated it then and severely dislike it now. Luckily, I almost never have to go there — just pass through it on the CBE.
I drove on the cross bronx expressway once. Once.
There were two foot deep potholes every few hundred yards, big enough to KILL a normal passenger car. There could easily have been motorcyclist carcasses in them.
New York City and suburbs are a shit hole country. I turn down jobs in Connecticut and on Long Island because I simply won’t drive through NYC. ($20 for a bridge toll? Nope.)
I always thought the name “Bronx” was revolting too. It conjures up any number of distasteful images.
In 1940, the Bronx was 98.3% white according to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Bronx
“During the 1960s, the Bronx transitioned from majority Irish and Jewish to majority Puerto Rican and African American. However, since around 2000, increases in cost of living in New York and heavy immigration from Latin America and Africa, a new transition has been taking place, with Dominicans now outnumbering Puerto Ricans and African immigrants coming close in size to the African American population.”
The only people I knew from the Bronx were Italian.
It all started in 1639 when a Scandinavian, Jonas Bronck, settled in a Dutch colonial province in New Netherland.
“When he dies in 1643 at the age of 43, the only thing that remained that was named after him through the ages was Bronck’s River,” says Bronx borough historian Lloyd Ultan.
Like with many names that can be difficult to say or write, the ‘ck’ was changed to an ‘x’—and the stream of water that ran next to Jonas Bronck’s farm became the Bronx River.
But the present day borough went without a name for more than 200 years until New York City got the land from Westchester County.
“They looked right smack in the middle of a map and there is the Bronx River, so they named it after the river, the borough of the Bronx, and that’s why it’s always called The Bronx and not just plain Bronx,” Ultan says.
“The Bronx was a very fertile piece of land,” says Angel Hernandez of the Bronx County Historical Society.
“not going to reinvest”
There were about 20 years ago quite a number of dare I say ugly single-family houses built about 50 years where apartment buildings were.
“the Bronx is a pretty miserable place”
The Bronx has a lovely suburb called Fieldston. Riverdale is also said to be nice, but I was never there.
The houses around Charlotte Street (and elsewhere in “SoBro”) came much later. The period I am talking about was in the 50s when the highway was built.
The Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a treasury of Middle Ages stuff well worth a visit.
I was there about two years ago.
“New York City and suburbs are a shit hole country.”
There are some truly lovely suburban neighborhoods outside the city and a few inside the city limits.
Most of Manhattan is pretty awful.
The Bronx has a lovely suburb called Fieldston. Riverdale is also said to be nice, but I was never there.
The parts of the Bronx I am most familiar with are awful. Jerome Ava, Gun Hill Rd, etc. Luckily, I have hardly been there since 1985 or so.
I know a lot of people who went to Fordham University. The seem to like it.
My parents always had a soft spot for the Grand Concourse. I guess in the 1950s, that was the place to be. Not anymore.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.