Perspective on 60s urban planners (suburbs, highway, downtown, transportation)

[btownboss4]

Often people deride the placement of highways in urban cores, but often they made since at the time.
for example Storrow Drive in Boston,
now, it divides Back Bay, Beacon Hill from the Charles River, a great asset to the City, with a green way and a river that you can row, sail, swim in.
In the 1960s, rather than plowing through Back Bay, the highway skirted around it, and spit back bay from a toxic cesspool that was the Charles River.
Many Cities in the Northeast/Midwest, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Buffalo Albany, NYC etc. have highways separating the city from its waterfront, while today it seems like a stupid idea, back then when they were making these highways, most places that did it at a time when those River/lakes where so disgusting and unusable, and blights to the cities, so often it was cutting a city off from a liability while destroying a little of a neighborhood as possible.

[JayCT]

Yes, back then rivers were not viewed as great natural resources. They were polluted eyesores that cities turned their backs on. Most of the poorer neighborhoods were along rivers because they were viewed as nesting grounds for bugs and smelled awful. People need to realize that there were good reasons for why things were done. Time fades the reality of the time period.

In Hartford for example, people deride the decision to tear down the old Front Street neighborhood to build Constitution Plaza. They point to photos of charming old buildings that were torn down for what today is considered to be a questionable redevelopment project. In reality those charming buildings were rat infested slums with cold water flats in which several apartments would share one bathroom and there was no running hot water. The buildings that replaced them were marvels of that generation. Gleaming skyscrapers that provided modern office space for thousands of workers. Without those buildings many of the businesses would have likely fled the center city for the suburbs which was happening in other cities. Today those buildings look dated because they are now approaching 50 years of age. The buildings are now finally being redone. A couple have been updated to today's standards. A hotel is being converted to apartments and an old insurance company training center is being taken over by a local college for downtown classroom space. Should be a nice vibrant place again real soon. Jay

[Katarina Witt]

That is not true for Pittsburgh. Of course, it has three rivers, which makes it hard to cut them all off! See map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pi...f915a15aa21b34

I-79 was opened in the late 1970s.

[pvande55]

Many mistakes were made. First is assuming that highways could meet all our transportation needs, they just need to be wide enough. Second is running them in slum areas because land was cheaper. And no attention was paid to aesthetics, except for the few "parkways" that were built.