Moses’ housing plan demanded whole-block demolition over rehabilitation

Evidence

The unifying principle behind the proposal was spelled out: only “genuine slum clearance” on the “large scale” would make a real dent in the city’s housing problem, so La Guardia’s efforts to rehabilitate old tenements should be scrapped; whole blocks of slum tenements should be razed to the ground and replaced with new housing; only genuine slum dwellers should be allowed in the projects, and, to insure this, tenants should be selected by the Welfare Commissioner. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 2601

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly contradicts the human-scale local approach the Moses parks critique developed — the ‘planning for the mass’ vs ‘specific communities’ theme from this same chapter runs through.
• XREF: connects to: Urban-renewal doctrine ignored that slums were homes to their residents. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4000; Moses would destroy a needed public work rather than let others build it — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2595; Robert Moses justified mass displacement of residents as necessary for urban renewal — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York…, 113 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Robert Moses justified mass displacement of residents as necessary for urban renewal #expands (0.80) — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 113