BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S MAYOR JOHN V. LINDSAY AND THE REINVENTION OF NEW YORK -- PART 3

Lindsay's creation of the Urban Design Group brought in dynamic young planners to look at open spaces and zoning as a way to preserve and enhance city life.

He strengthened Community Boards to give them power to review neighborhood land use issues before a decision could be made by the City Planning Commission or forwarded to the City Council for final approval.

The urban gem that is today's SOHO is a result of the Lindsay administration's work to preserve the old industrial structures and allow them the right to be adapted for residential, artist loft and other modern urban uses.

Lindsay lead a bicycle brigade to Central Park on a car-free Manhattan street -- decades before the New Urbanists and others have battled for bike lanes, wider sidewalks, better transit and other elements of the physical city unburdened from car dependency.

Though many New Yorkers labeled Lindsay as a failed dreamer, history should be much kinder in how it evaluates the soulful and energetic fighter for equality and livability.

Lindsay revolutionized urban planning and reminded us that urban cities -- even when they were on the verge of becoming unlivable from the mid 60s to mid 70s -- are places to be celebrated, enjoyed and energized.

For its fair examination of his triumphs as an unflinching urbanist -- especially to the benefit of the economically and politically disenfranchised -- America's Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York ($29.95 paperback) deserves hallowed space on the book shelf of anyone and everyone who cares about cities.

Wright is the author of 5,000 published articles on urban life, architecture, public policy, planning and design. He is active in working to make sure universal design, which provides barrier-free access to people with disabilities, is incorporated to the essential and rapidly-evolving practice of sustainability.

RESOURCES

http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15260-0/americas-mayor

http://lindsay.mcny.org

http://www.thirteen.org/lindsay/video/full-program/fun-city-revisited

BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S MAYOR JOHN V. LINDSAY AND THE REINVENTION OF NEW YORK -- PART 2

BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S MAYOR
JOHN V. LINDSAY AND THE REINVENTION OF NEW YORK

By Steve Wright

Lindsay, the consummate reformer, scored huge victories in the area of empowering blacks and Hispanics -- greatly rising the number of minorities in the upper, middle and lower ranks of New York government.

He also created mini City Halls throughout the boroughs and neighborhoods to give a voice to millions who were previously ignored by their government.

Perhaps Lindsay's most courageous act in 1968 when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. A shirt-sleeved Lindsay walked the streets of Harlem well into the night, mingling with tens of thousands of justifiable outraged people, and simply repeating the words "I'm sorry" while pleading for calm.

In an era of the 60s when Watts, Newark and dozens of other cities burned and rioted, Lindsay succeeded in keeping the most densely-populated city in America from erupting in violence -- because the people knew he cared and because it wasn't the first time the WASP mayor had walked the streets passionately listening to the protests and concerns of poor and minority neighborhoods.

While many cities responded to downtrodden neighborhoods by simply bulldozing dozens of city blocks in the misguided urban renewal programs of the times, Lindsay worked to preserve and invigorate the urban fabric of historic, yet crumbling neighborhoods far beyond the influential reaches of Manhattan.

In an era when many believed the solution to America's big cities was basically abandoning them for the suburbs, Lindsay's charisma kept alive the passion for urban living.

Though the press chided him at the time for a comment that New York was "Fun City" at a time of so much economic, labor, racial and political strife, Lindsay was one of the very few big city mayors who were visionary enough to see cities as great repositories of wealth in the form of diversity, cultural offerings, public transit, density and walkability.

While Robert Moses had spent decades tearing down affordable housing, turning parks into sterile places and pushing superhighways through livable neighborhoods -- idolized Jane Jacobs fought and defeated the Power Broker over his plans to destroy parts of Greenwich Village with freeways -- Wagner put the brakes on wholesale block clearing of New York's neighborhoods rich and poor.

TOMORROW PART 3 -- LINDSAY THE URBAN VISIONARY

Wright is the author of 5,000 published articles on urban life, architecture, public policy, planning and design. He is active in working to make sure universal design, which provides barrier-free access to people with disabilities, is incorporated to the essential and rapidly-evolving practice of sustainability.

RESOURCES

http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15260-0/americas-mayor

http://lindsay.mcny.org

http://www.thirteen.org/lindsay/video/full-program/fun-city-revisited

BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S MAYOR JOHN V. LINDSAY AND THE REINVENTION OF NEW YORK

BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S MAYOR
JOHN V. LINDSAY AND THE REINVENTION OF NEW YORK

By Steve Wright

Poor John V. Lindsay.

He came into office as the 103rd Mayor of New York City as a youthful, fresh and tireless leader -- ready to empower the disenfranchised in America's biggest city.

A patrician of privilege, he was bound and determined to show a Republican could be a progressive, liberal leader.

While now Republican on U.S. soil in the year 2010 would want to be labeled a liberal, times were different in 1965 and Lindsay felt his calling was to be a champion of civil, Hispanic, black, gay and women's rights.

The two-term mayor, riding a wave of antiwar sentiment, even took a shot at being president of the United States. But sadly, by the time Lindsay left office, he was a saddened, aged and somewhat broken man.

His idealism and enthusiasm couldn't withstand a turbulent era every bit as brutal and barbaric as today's recession-impacted political climate.

America's Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York examines Lindsay's legacy through 224 pages of individual essays from journalists, insiders, activists, staffers and others who witnessed Lindsay's work in what has been called "The Second Toughest Job in America."

Edited by Sam Roberts, the urban affairs correspondent of The New York Times, the Columbia University Press book gives an unvarnished look at the triumphs and failures of Lindsay, who died in 2000.

While the book will be cherished by anyone who loves urban issues and is intrigued by the churning good, bad and ugly that is New York, Roberts had his work cut out for him trying to sew together dozens of personal essays that don't always follow a chronological progression.

Sometimes America's Mayor fails in its attempt to sew together the strong opinions of contributors Pete Hamill, Nicholas Pileggi, Jimmy Breslin and Mario Cuomo into one flowing narrative.

While the sum of the parts could sometimes be better, the book triumphs in its capturing of the endlessly nightmarish issues that pounded away at Lindsay's ability to manage a huge, unwieldy city crushed by labor strife and challenged by a huge demographic changes that saw a huge influx of black and Puerto Rican residents while white ethnics were fleeing the city.

TOMORROW: PART TWO -- CALM IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

Wright is the author of 5,000 published articles on urban life, architecture, public policy, planning and design. He is active in working to make sure universal design, which provides barrier-free access to people with disabilities, is incorporated to the essential and rapidly-evolving practice of sustainability.

RESOURCES

http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15260-0/americas-mayor

http://lindsay.mcny.org

http://www.thirteen.org/lindsay/video/full-program/fun-city-revisited