1989 in NYC History

If you lived during the Cold War, the idea that the Soviet Union and Communist Eastern Europe would one day cease to exist seemed impossible. The Cold War, the literal and metaphorical Berlin Wall, the great divide between East and West, between capitalism and communism, between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, was the status quo. It just ... was. It existed as a fundamental, unalterable reality of our world.

Another world seemed impossible, thinking about it pointless. For nearly 50 years, the status quo prevailed. 

Until, one day, it didn't.

Between 1989 and 1991, Communism collapsed in Europe and the Soviet Union broke up. And another monumental change, the end of apartheid in South Africa, happened at the same time and just as quickly. A world transformed indeed.

So what does this have to do with NYC? 

At the very same time, the city was transforming in ways we couldn't have imagined.

The thinking goes that the monumental changes in NYC over the last thirty years are due to the crash in the crime rate -- crime went down, the population and housing market demand went up, foreign money flooded in, gentrification ensued, etc. etc. etc. But at the same time this was happening, the city government was fundamentally changing, and this has had massive ramifications in how we live today.

How did this happen? Simple: in 1989 the US Supreme Court ruled that the Board of Estimate was unconstitutional.

What was the Board of Estimate?

It was basically like the city council (it controlled the budget, land-use, and many other great powers; the city council was more of a constituent services group) except that it was un-elected and unrepresentative -- the city-wide elected officials and borough presidents each appointed members and they literally met in back room, hashing out the city's business like mob bosses. They were deeply connected to the political machines, took bribes from contractors, and basically turned it into a racket 

Until, one day, it ceased to exist.

The Board of Estimate was older, a lot older, than the Cold War -- it came into existence after NYC consolidated into the 5 boroughs in 1898. For nearly a century it ruled the city, undercutting mayors, sidelining the council, ignoring the public. The city was basically being run in secret by a kind of Politburo (to use another Cold War example) until it didn't. Now we have a strong mayor and city council and live in a much more democratic, less corrupt city.

So how did this happen?

Read this fascinating history about the end of the Board of Estimate and how it dramatically changed the city government and life in NYC. It's a history that we live with every day but know little about. It's amazing to think how long the BOE existed, how powerful it was, and how quickly it fell into the ash-heap of history.  

 That 1989 was a hell of a year! 

The Mark of Robert Moses

Yesterday I went to the first of Robert Caro's three lectures on "The Shapers of New York" at the New-York Historical Society. This one was called "The Mark of Robert Moses." Caro talked generally about the power Moses amassed between 1924 and 1968, how his building projects and highways and bridges altered the physical landscape of New York City, and what affect he had on the lives of New Yorkers then and now. A lot of what Caro talked about, unsurprisingly, came right of his book The Power Broker.

Caro also talked about what made him want to write The Power Broker. He said that when he was a young reporter at Newsday in the 1960s, he would write about how City Parks Commissioner Moses was planning to build the Long Island Expressway. Why would the Parks Commissioner of New York City be building a highway out on Long Island? This was something Caro wanted to investigate at length and what inspired him to write about this man and his awesome power.

About the human impact of Moses on this city, Caro gave several tragic examples, particularly about how the Cross Bronx Expressway basically destroyed the only New York City borough attached to the mainland.

But there was another example Caro gave that was just as sad. When he was Mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia wanted to build street-front clinics for poor pregnant women. Every year he would propose several millions dollars to the city budget for these clinics. Yet as the Board of Estimate was reviewing the budget, about to approve them, a fleet of limousines would roar up to City Hall. Out would pop Moses and his engineers, brandishing their blueprints for some highway or another, and they would head into the Board of Estimate meeting. Moses would tell them that he could get $90 million in Federal money for his project just so long as the city could kick, oh, about $10 million or so. Moses influence was so great at the time that the Board of Estimate would relent ... and slash the money for the clinics. This went on year after year and the clinics never got built. But the highways did.

Moses' power was, as Caro said in the lecture, not only in the things he built in the city but in the priorities he set for it. Cars over people. Highways instead of public transportation. Housing projects instead of communities.

"What is a city?" Caro asked at the end of the lecture. "If Rome is power and Greece is glory, then New York City," Caro said, "is home." And he's right. New York is not only my home and the home to more than eight million people, but it's a place where anyone from anywhere can come and be accepted. New York embraces all, rejects no one, says that no matter where you come from, you can have a life here. This city can be anyone's refuge. Anyone's "home."

By destroying and warping the city's priorities, Robert Moses worked to undermine that sense of "home." He didn't destroy it completely obviously -- NYC will always be resilient and will always be "home" -- but he lessened this city's sense of community, sense of home. And we've been paying the price ever since.

They Made Our City Better

Recently three New Yorkers passed away who, in their own quiet but profound ways, made this city better.

They weren't famous (well, one was a little famous), they weren't household names, but they lived lives and had careers that left an imprint on the life of NYC.

The city government today would be a lot different if not for a man named Edward Sadowsky. A 24-year member of the city council from Queens, he pushed for reforms that eventually led to the abolition of the Board of Estimate and growth and empowerment of the council. Because of him, the city government became more democratic, more representative, more reflective of the populace. He also wrote and passed the legislation to create the cultural affairs department and the Taxi & Limousine Commission -- a lasting legacy for our city. RIP.

Then there's Helene Fortunoff. If you're old enough to remember, you might have once upon shopped at a Fortunoff jewelry store. She married a man whose family had a mom-and-pop store and she turned it into a retail giant with a flagship on Fifth Avenue and stores around the NYC region. It became a popular place for couples and high-end shoppers to buy jewelry, and the business lasted for years (because Helene retired and sold the company). She even hired Lauren Bacall to be the company's spokeswoman, giving Fortunoff some Hollywood glamour. Helene Fortunoff was a tough NYC broad who did good. RIP.

Finally, Bettina Grossman, a 50-year resident of the Chelsea Hotel, an artist who never quite made it but who dedicated her whole life to art and creation. She was a character, and eccentric, and she made her mark in the cultural life of NYC. RIP. 

Richard Ravitch RIP

Over the weekend I stumbled upon an old 1989 documentary made for the now- defunct WNYC TV about the monumental US Supreme Court decision of that year which eliminated the Board of Estimate and triggered a restructuring of how NYC government is run.

It's called Power! Who Wins, Who Loses and, given its subject matter, is a shockingly entertaining look at how this city was run for nearly a century -- before it had to change.

And seeing this doc coincided with learning that the great Richard Ravitch has died.

Who was he?

He's the man who saved NYC multiple times -- first, in 1975, he was part of the team that prevented the city from going bankrupt; second, in the early 1980s, when he was the head of the MTA and overhauled how that messy public authority was run; and third, in 2009, when he became the Lieutenant Governor and saved the state (and the city's) finances). Ravitch was never elected to anything, but as a lawyers and developer he understand the mechanics of governor better than anyone and 

While politicians, elected officials, may be the ones who make the laws and run things on a day-to-day basis, most of them sadly know little about how the government actually runs, how it works, how it finances itself. When it comes to government, most politicians are amateurs. It's people like Ravitch and Stan Brezenoff who understand this kind of thing deeply, they are the professionals who make it work.

And in a time when expertise is being trashed by the proudly ignorant, people like Ravitch should be appreciated all the more -- and their passing should be deeply mourned. RIP.