The cities in which light rail were dismantled included Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, and Salt Lake City. One irony is that Los Angeles, home of king auto, once had a public transit system that rivaled New York for convenience.
Louis Proyect wrote:
> Daniel Convissor:
>
> The Auto-Free Washington Square Park Movement: 1952-58
>
> by Daniel Convissor and Jon Orcutt Research by Daniel Convissor
>
> Auto-Free Press, November/December 1991
>
> As recently as the 1950's, Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park was
> crossed by busy roads linking 5th Avenue with LaGuardia Place [then West
> Broadway] and Thompson Street. A neighborhood-based drive which sparked the
> support of civic groups and elected officials throughout Manhattan created
> the popular park NYC knows today.
>
> The story of this successful auto-free citizen's initiative is instructive
> for Transportation Alternatives' Auto-Free parks campaigns today. Citizens
> seeking car-free public space initiated the effort, and were opposed by
> City agencies and other institutions. A trial traffic-closing period was
> crucial in proving that shutting the park to cars and buses lessened --
> rather than aggravated -- traffic congestion in the neighborhood. Finally,
> although coverage of the issue by a supportive media was extensive, the
> effort took six years and extraordinary perseverance on the part of the
> community activists.
>
> In early 1952, Robert Moses, then New York City's Parks Commissioner,
> Construction Coordinator and Planning Commission Member, finalized plans to
> rebuild the roads through Washington Square Park. Moses proposed to
> straighten the roads and convert them to one-way operation to speed
> traffic. Area residents organized under the auspices of the Greenwich
> Village Association to oppose the changes, mainly on the basis that
> increasing vehicle speeds in the park would endanger children there.
>
> Their vocal campaign against the plan paid off. Manhattan Borough President
> Robert Wagner asked the Board of Estimate to withdraw it later that year.
> But rather than disband, the empowered citizen's movement came forward with
> a plan to ban all vehicles from the park. The group quickly picked up
> endorsements from area churches, schools, real estate concerns, hotels and
> civic organizations.
>
> City vs Citizens
>
> Nonetheless, the City blocked neighborhood aspirations for a car-free park
> and persisted in linking construction of nearby Washington Square Village,
> [yet another Moses related] large-scale development, to widening the roads
> through Washington Square. In 1955, Moses and Manhattan Borough Pres. Hulan
> Jack unveiled plans for a 4-lane sunken highway through the park.
>
> Public response was swift -- community meetings and repeated calls for an
> auto-free park kept the issue before City government and the wider public.
> Groups like the Citizens Union even expanded the debate to call for dead-
> ending selected streets to reduce through traffic and enhance livability.
> Community opposition was strong enough --noted urbanists Lewis Mumford and
> Jane Jacobs as well as celebrities like Elanor Roosevelt weighed in against
> the City -- to block Moses' plan. The issue settled into a standoff, with
> the City (and NYU) arguing that a park car-ban would flood the surrounding
> area with cars.
>
> Moses' real goal, although not fully apparent at the time, was to convert a
> large swath of historic lower Manhattan into an urban highway. His proposal
> would have [built a new highway along West Broadway] linking 5th Avenue
> to... the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway... [The Lower Manhattan
> Expressway was planned to connect] the Holland Tunnel with the Manhattan
> and Williamsburg Bridges.
>
> In 1958, a two-lane roadway through Washington Square Park was approved by
> the City Planning Commission. The accompanying report warned that "closing
> Washington Square to traffic would be injurious to the surrounding
> community and to the City." The Commission's action tried to steer between
> community groups, to whose ranks had been added candidates, local
> politicians, political clubs, schools and PTA's which wanted the park
> closed to traffic, and Moses, who held out for a four-lane depressed
> expressway.
>
> Trial Traffic Closing
>
> The fight took a dramatic turn in October, 1958, when the Board of Estimate
> ordered a temporary closing of the park to test whether traffic would
> lessen or become worse. Resultant congestion levels would determine whether
> the Traffic Department could recommend a permanent closing or an expanded
> park roadway.
>
> On October 30, 1958, the park was closed to cars (though buses continued to
> cross it). The New York Times noted that, "Observation during different
> periods of the day revealed no congestion. The police reported no trouble."
> A ribbon-tying ceremony was held a few days later to mark the closing. A
> community leader there mentioned that where the park was once a potter's
> field, it had now become "a burial ground for certain individuals with
> antiquated notions of city planning."
>
> Within a month, the lack of any congestion from the trial car-ban led
> community groups to demand that the City permanently close the park to
> traffic. Now with the backing or powerful Democratic Party leader Carmine
> DeSapio, auto-free park advocates swayed the Board of Estimate before its
> April, 1959 meeting, where it instructed the traffic commissioner (who held
> that the trial results were "inconclusive") to make the car-ban permanent
> and find new routes for the bus lines still operating in the park.
>
> Throughout the struggle, the New York Times provided extensive coverage of
> hearings, rival plans for the park, and eventually, editorial support for
> the auto-free advocates. Whenever civic organizations -- such as the
> Citizens' Union, Fine Arts Federation, and the American Institute of
> Architects -- took a stand on the issue, the Times printed an article about
> it.
>
> While T.A.'s Auto-Free Central and Prospect Park Campaigns have yet to
> garner such media support (in the 1970's, the Times opposed limiting cars
> to the current summer hours), it has forced the DoT to consider the issue
> and has attracted the backing of Manhattan Borough President Ruth
> Messinger. As in Washington Square Park, securing a trial traffic-closing
> period will be vital to the ultimate removal of cars from Central and
> Prospect Parks. Although [then] Transportation Commissioner Riccio has
> rebuffed the idea, T.A. continues working toward such a test. But probably
> the most important lesson of the auto-free Washington Square campaign for
> our current efforts was its proof of the adage, "If the people lead, the
> leaders will follow."
>
> DANIEL CONVISSOR
>
> Transport Policy Analyst
>
> POB 1036, New York, NY 10009-1036 http://www.panix.com/~danielc/
> danielc at panix.com
>
> Last updated: 9 September 1997
>
> Louis Proyect
>
> (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)