Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City

Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield

Government and industry attempted to end redlining, but instead created a moral hazard that lead to apartment destruction. Special "high risk" insurance pools were available for landlords with few questions asked. If the apartment burned down, they could pocket the money and stop worrying about the headache of maintaining the building. Arsons were rarely investigated, and eve when they were it was assumed that the low-income tenants were behind them. (Though this did not stand up well in comparison to public housing where there were no arsons.) According to the author, the landlord would often hire arsonists to burn down the buildings.

The book ended with communities fighting back against arson and then gentrification. The author did identify the root cause of "unintended consequences" leading to destruction. However, they didn't quite draw it back far enough. Why was it more valuable to burn down buildings? Were there other regulations (such as rent control or tenants rights) that made the buildings less profitable? Did the end of redlining actually make things worse? If gentrification is bad, does that mean people want to live in slums? Should we let neighborhoods get better and worse?

Knickerbocker's History of New York

Knickerbocker's History of New York by Washington Irving

This history of New York City is humorous "history" of New York City that alternates between pure commentary and biting social commentary. Manhattan was named after  "Man Hat On". The land was claimed as unoccupied. What about the people that already lived there? Well, they stood on two feet, but their sounds were not distinguished. They also didn't have the negative foibles of the Europeans so they couldn't claim it. That part even breaks out to a discussion of the what would happen if aliens would try to claim it from the current inhabitants. The commentary seems remarkably current for something written over two centuries ago.

The second half of the book focuses primarily on New Amsterdam. There are many bits of biting commentary and jokes in with what is a straightforward history. Wampum currency has some matter of fact implications. A dutch leader ends up going by "Pig" as an honor. The book also provides details of the story of Santa Claus and St. Nicholas. This seems to be one of the first documented sources of many of the Christmas traditions. This all makes for a great early "history" of New York.

New York, Phew York-A Scratch N Sniff Adventure

New York, Phew York-A Scratch N Sniff Adventure by Amber C. Jones (Author), Gabrielle Gold (Editor), Tim Probert (Illustrator)

A family explores many of the sites of New York City. Most of the pages have a "scratch and sniff" section to provide some of the odors of the city. The book stands pretty well on its own, even after the scratch and sniff items no longer provide odor. It covers a lot of the tourist sites around the city.

I Survived the Attacks of September 11th, 2001 (I Survived #6)

The I Survved books are a series of fictional stories of people that experience some calamatis events in history. In this one, they witness the planes crashing into the twin towers in New York City. The kid has family in the fire department and gets a front door view of the terrorist act as well as the response.

The Five Books of (Robert) Moses

In the Bible, the Israelites experience in Egypt had become horrible. Moses leads them out. However, they have a long trek in the wilderness before they reach the promised land. Eventually, they do reach Zion shortly after Moses dies. The author here just could not resist the putting Robert Moses in the roll, having the book end with Robert Moses dying shortly before his group of people reach Zion National Park.

The Five Books of (Robert) Moses is a very long book. It is over a thousand pages and the audiobook lasts over 60 hours. The narrative bounces around in time and place. The time from early 1900s until early 1970s is fairly historically accurate with a few embellishments. Attention is paid to the life of Robert Moses and his brother Paul. Robert creates his political fiefdom in New York and is able to push through public works projects regardless of who gets impacted. He destroys the city with his many highways. He also has a bad relationship with his brother Paul who has had investments go sour and been cut off from his inheritance. 

The other historical timeline is the story of the college civil rights movement and the Columbia University sit ins. The novel goes in depth with characters that are involved with these aspects of the civil rights movement. The particular characters may not be historical, but the details of the movement are well covered.

Then there is the hard-core fiction. A dirty bomb is set off in the city. Both Paul Moses and one of the civil rights students have some involvement. The city is gradually getting more and more dangerous to live in, with parts being evacuated. Eventually, the government creates "Rescue City" in the Nevada desert to relocate people that can't relocate themselves. This is structured to be just like New York City. Food and supplies are flown in. Officials are there to help out the residents. The military is also in place to keep order. There is the anticipation that people can go back when New York is safe again. However, for the time being, the only way in or out is via government charter. What could go wrong?

The government hires a private contractor to supply the city. They eventually use unmanned airplanes. The military moves out. Rescue City results to mob and gang rule. There are also some strange experiments done on people. Some people end up there without knowledge of why they are there. Others can experience what other people are feeling. There are various extreme methods of keeping people in line. Eventually, some groups start expeditions out of the city. However, this is a perilous operation, with many dying, and some resorting to cannibalism to survive.

The various stories gradually unfold. Many of the historical parts are told as "memories", often while one of the characters is the middle of a horrible situation. (The book is filled with various types of depravity.) It takes a while to figure out what is going on, but it all starts to fit together in the end.

The Age of Innocence

The well to do in New York run together in narrow social circles. Marriage is important. A lawyer works with people that they know. In this background, some people are getting engaged. However, another woman appears that appears more willing to go against the norms. There is also work on divorce. Feels like a Jane Austen book, set in New York in the early 1900s.

New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation

New York has experienced some significant changes in the past four decades. In the 1970s, it was a basket case. The famous headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead" says it all. I like to put a lot of the blame on the shenanigans of Robert Moses as he bulldozed the city to erect more freeways. However, that was just the beginning of the problems. New York had become a "workers paradise". Alas, this was created by dishing out abundant benefits and not expecting much work in return. (Hmmm... Does seem similar to what the US government is trying to do now.)

New York was a financial basket case. "Machine" mayors had doled out patronage and let infrastructure rot. This left the city in a bad condition. Crime was also escalating. Ed Koch ran to the right of the the establishment candidates and garnered great support, eventually getting Republican and Democratic endorsements. He tried to run a government that got things done without the heavy patronage system and wanted to restore some law and order. Alas, there were still crime issues. 

Koch was followed by David Dinkins, the first black mayor of New York. He was followed by tough-on-crime Republican Rudy Giuliani and then billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg. Each of these mayors were "outside" the conventional establishment machine. During this time, city finances were brought back in order and crime was brought under control. The wealthy were tapped to helped out by funding things such as parks. Time Square was transformed into the tourist trap it is today and New York became a desirable place to live.

The book does not have much to say about Bill de Blasio. Though what is said is not all that positive. He seems to be a return to the old machine. New York had got itself out of the rut with nonconventional Mayors over the last four decades. Now the city has chosen to go back to the "machine".

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

I had always thought of Robert Moses as the evil dictator of New York highways. I had envisioned him as somebody that wanted to destroy Manhattan and transform it into a car-friendly suburban city. He seemed to be someone who wanted cars and highways and did not care about anything else. After reading Caro's Power Broker, I found myself even more disgusted with his life. I couldn't help but feeling how much better the world would have been had this one person been knocked out of commission.

The book did provide insight into the greater complexity of Moses's life. There was still a great degree of racist, classist and "carist" behavior in his actions. However, he had to work to accumulate the power first. He worked hard and got things done. He did create a large number of parks in the city. He would use the plight of the "common tenement dweller" in order to get his parks built. (But then he would turn around and limit their access to parks, by making them remote and easily accessible only by car.) He would fight against rich landowners when he wanted a park built, but would ally with them to get park donations, and willingly move parkways to avoid their land - even at the expense of ruining viable farmland.)

He started his career as a young idealist, eager to reform the corruption in New York City politics. His civil service reforms were beaten down and he was chased out of the city. When he later returned, his focus was on accumulating power. He initially started with parks and the parkways to get people there. Building in long island he was able to be close enough to the city, but far enough away to carve out his own space. Parks were also a valuable public resource that people could not easily fight against. He became the expert and the "parks guy". He knew how to get things done. He would wine and dine those in power, give jobs and lucrative contracts to the right people, and get the press to play into his hand. Initial cost estimates would always be significantly less than the final cost, but with the project in progress, who could refuse the extra allocation to finish it? If somebody didn't want him to build somewhere, he would simply jump start the project to have it in the works before they could complain.

He had a stellar reputation with the prewar press and public and would use it to accumulate more power. He would write the laws to benefit him and his power and gradually held more and more offices in the city and state government. His parkways were an extension of his "park" responsibilities. (And to ensure there would be no rif-raf at his parks, they were built with bridges too low for buses.) Since he was an expert at parkways, bridges and other highways also became his domain. He created a public authority to manage toll bridges such as the triburough bridge. This was a stroke of genius as it allowed him access to some public funds and bonding without public scrutiny. More importantly, it provided a continuing source of revenue that allowed him to further extend his power. He had plans drawn up for other highways. He had the funds and the plans. Even if small changes would save neighborhoods, he could refuse to allow them because the cost for the city to do it on their own was beyond the ability to manage.

Moses destroyed housing in multiple ways. As a housing commissioner, he was responsible for slum clearance. However, what typically happened was that slums were merely turned over to well-connected people who made them even worse while fleecing the residents. As a highway boss, he ripped apart neighborhoods and destroyed housing by adding freeways. He also failed to provide for public transportation, thus justify construction of more freeways in a never-ending feedback loop.

Parks also did not fair well under Moses's watch. While he did build many parks, he also paved over natural areas to provide his parkways. He "improved" parks his way, which may mean more pavement and a park that is less usable for the community.

How did things go so wrong? Robert Moses had power and surrounded himself with yes men. He didn't listen to the public he was serving. In spite of being the foremost highway builder, he didn't drive himself, and would usually work in the back of his car as he was driven around. He was smart and believed he was right. He was also always on the lookout for more power. Providing contracts and construction jobs for the well connected helped him increase his power. Building infrastructure for the well-to-do helped him consolidate his power. More people in cars meant more money and power.

Today, the United States is still suffering from Moses's Power. His model of highway building helped serve as the base for the Interstate Highway system. Vast swaths of cities became inefficiently dedicated to cars. Planners attempted to reduce congestion on roads by building more roads - only to see congestion increase. Public transportation was ripped out in favor of highway building. Only after sprawling suburbs were developed were attempts made to add transit back in (in the name of reducing highway congestion!). By then it was too late. Suburbs were not developed with a transit hub and were thus not efficiently served by transit. While transit was once run profitably by private entities, it is now subsidized by the public. Highways also continue to be publicly subsidized, leaving us with huge transportation outlays, while we still suffer from congestion.

Perhaps if New York would have let Moses's civil service reforms go through, he would not have become the power hungry maniac. Perhaps if the public appropriately limited his power early on (and had him adhere to the "one-office" rules), he would have not been able to destroy so much. If he would have just listened and used his brains to support public transportation, there would have not been a need for so many highways. He could have used the ability to get things done to make the world a better place for people. Alas, he did not, and in a quest to make things better for cars, he made the New York worse for everybody.

Alas, Moses remained in his cocoon. He was able to get things done. Just not the right things. He was regularly threatening to quit his posts. It finally took a Rockefeller to have the courage to let him do it. The governor had enough power and wealth to but Moses in his place. The public had also began to see the full extent of his power and did not have the rose colored lenses they once had. Even the media began to see through the facade. However, even with his resigning his posts, he still had triborough. Here, it required some double-crossing actions to finally get him out. He was enlisted to support the merger into MTA by the promise of a "key role" in the new organization. After the election passed, his key role ended up being as a consultant with no real authority. He was finally out of power, with his last bit of destruction being the cronyism in the World's Fair. At last he was out! He still tried to piece together additional bits of power, but he was through destroying the city. If only somebody had the guts to stop him earlier.

Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal

Heaven's Ditch is a history of some of the key events in upstate New York in the early 1800s. The book interleaves a number of different events: the construction of the Erie canal, the story of Joseph Smith and the rise of Mormonism, William Miller and the adventist movement, Sam Patch and daredevil entertainers, William Morgan and the rise of the anti-Masonic movement, Charles Finney and abolitionists. It does not attempt to provide a general history of the area, but instead a history of these events that were in part enabled by the construction of the Erie canal. The book almost succeeds. It provides a nice overview of the spirit of the times. However, it loses focus, and provides both too little and too much detail. (It spends significant time wrapping up Joseph Smith's story in Missouri and Illinois, yet barely glosses over the enlargement and legacy of the Erie Canal.) The author tries to be objective in covering the events in the story. However, he does inject some of his views and color of the events. As a history, the book is week. However, it does tell an entertaining story that helps link together a number of key events that were happening in close proximity.

Green Metropolis

Green Metropolis touts New York as a great environmental success story. In spite of many large structures, New Yorkers use far less energy per capita than residents of any other American city. In environmental discussions, much time and effort is spend on small programs, like LEED building standards and improving gas mileage. However, a far larger bang for the buck can be achieved simply by increasing density. The irony is that many people would love to live in these more dense cities, yet policies actively counteract these desires. Zoning regulations and car requirements make walk-ability difficult to achieve. Even attempts at "new urbanism" still keep car availability as primary focus.

This is a must read for any environmentalist. While "going back to nature" may make a person feel good, they are not doing much to help out the overall environment. Going back to the city is the true way to sustainability. Then those suburban tracts could be used for good viable farmland.

Reading this again in 2018 reminds me that things have not improved. Seattle has one of the few growing bus systems in the US. However, they have spent countless dollars to move cars a little faster on Mercer - at the expense of pedestrians. Getting "upzones" is a huge challenge. People love their single family homes. They would like to have the benefits of a city with everything close. But, they would also like easy access to cars and a large lawn. Cities are beneficial almost entirely because of the challenges. They are not easy, but it does make things better for everyone.

Free Range Kids

The media has trained parents to be paranoid, thus depriving kids of the chance to be kids. This book presents a folksy tail of a mom who dared let her tween navigate by himself home on the subway - and live to tell about it. It is fun, entertaining ramble.

Parents do many stupid things in the name of "safety". Some of the concerns are shown to be total crocs. There has never been a case of somebody tampering with Halloween candy in an attempt to injure children. (The only "documented" cases were of family members often trying to use it as a ruse to collect insurance.) Yet, parents are still restricting Halloween activity. Ironically, they are encouraging more "junk" candy rather than healthy. The candy companies benefit by this false sense of danger and are thus in no hurry to fight it.

Other fears are more often grounded in "poor" math. There is an infinitesimal chance of a child being kidnapped on the way home from school. However, these kidnappings are sensational news stories. Even people that act rationally, knowing they are rare still justify driving their children. They could never live with themselves if their child happened to be the one in ten million that had something bad happen. Of course, the odds of being injured in a car accident are much greater than the odds of being kidnapped. And the consequences of inactivity. Hmm... Pollution... And what about the congestion and the potential harm caused to other pedestrians. The world just becomes a much worse place because of people's inability to properly judge the likelihood of rare events.

There are plenty of people who know this. However, they are still afraid to do things out of fear of what "other people may think". I have even heard that from neighbors. Sure school is only half mile away from home, and walking over a pedestrian freeway bridge makes walking not much longer than driving. But, they don't want to let the kids walk themselves because they are afraid of what other parents would think of them. Sigh. In example was given of a mother of a young child that asked the lady behind her (with two young children) to watch her child while she ran to get something. The second mother was later flabbergasted. "How could the first mother have trusted a total stranger? What if I would have kidnapped her child?" Of course she didn't kidnap the child, and she new she wasn't the type to do it, yet she judged the other mother as bad because she was trusted. Huh? Even had she been villainous, she would have had a difficult time trying to kidnap a child while managing two others. Irrationality at its best.

And sports. Instead of playing, kids spend more time in organized sports. However, in organized sports, they spend more time sitting around. And there is the matter of being driven there, and only competing for a few hours a week. Oops.

In some cases the busybodies are well meaning, but cause huge overreaction. The Danish mother who parked her infant-containing stroller outside a restaurant is a great example. The busybodies thought is was a great travesty to do it. Think of everything bad that could happen. Oh yes. Plenty of bad things could happen. Passerbys could call the police. The police could send you to chail. Child protective services could be called. Yep. Lots of bad stuff. All caused by our paranoia.

Perhaps relaxing the paranoia is the key to solving our government financial crisis. We just need to back off on the regulation and official "support" in society. Let kids run around. Close the streets off near school. Why not prevent parents from approaching the school grounds. (Hey, that would even help the paranoid - no adults getting near the kids.)

The author does, however, go schizo in a few places. She has a long rant against "formula-feeding guilt". People that are fed formula turn out fine. But, she highly favors seat belts and helmets. "you never know". However the more apt thing is that people have succeeded with the worst possible upbringing. If we worry to much about things, we wont necessarily make life better for the kids. However, we will make it miserable for ourselves, which in turn can make life worse for the kids.

It is time for society to back off!