Given the symbolism, this is a powerful indicator of changing times:
NIAGARA FALLS – A half-century after Robert Moses built the Niagara Falls expressway that bears his name, New York State has finally agreed to tear it down.
Giving in to decades of local pleas to remove the Robert Moses Parkway, State Parks officials on Wednesday pledged to remove the highway from downtown Niagara Falls to its northern neighborhoods, and possibly farther. …
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The highway, which stretches along the city’s waterfront, was built by Moses, the state’s “master builder,” in the 1960s as a supplement to the Niagara Power Project. The road provided unparalleled views of the Niagara Gorge to motorists but cut off generations of city residents from the waterfront and diverted traffic outside of the central business districts of Niagara Falls.
Moses – the Power Broker – is one of the great polarizing figures of 20th-century urban planning and development. ” His decisions favoring highways over public transit helped create the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation…..”
UPDATE: Kent Lundberg sends along the coverage from DC Streetsblog – here.
Meanwhile, the debate continues about the fate of another stretch of freeway from the city’s northern neighborhoods to the suburb of Lewiston. The Buffalo News reports that environmentalists are fighting to convert that portion back into forestland while the local state senator wants to turn it into a two-lane park road, matching the one in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
