Downtown Frankenstein: Robert Moses and Haydon Burns

[Metro Jacksonville]

Downtown Frankenstein: Robert Moses and Haydon Burns



After the Great Progressive Era of Jacksonville faded away in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1901, and the landed aristocracy that had governed it had diminished to nothing following the Great Depression, a new group forcefully took the reins of government determined to remake the city in their image. The Good Old Boy System, helmed by Haydon Burns was itching to make downtown Modern, White, and Corporate. There was a contempt for the past, both the poverty of the years between the wars, and the proud liberal heritage of the town which had allowed racial harmony, ethnic diversity, powerful women, and respected Jewish leadership to thrive in the dusk of the 19th Century. They were the New Men, ruddy faced, scotch drinking, pug nosed would be industrialists of the New Century, and they set upon their programme of recasting Jacksonville with gusto, and full throated enthusiasm.

The didn't have to look far for a planning ethos which suited their purposes to a T.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-jul-downtown-frankenstein-robert-moses-and-haydon-burns

[CS Foltz]

stephen........great article! Explains  why certain things have been done the way they were! Vision is one thing, but a long range vision is something else completely! Point of view should be 100 years down range plus and that take a unique individual or team!

[Wacca Pilatka]

Fascinating as usual.

Question for everyone - what do you think would have been the best possible route for 95 through Jacksonville from an urban planning perspective?

[thelakelander]

Looking back, I'd say around the established and developed urban area at the time.  This would mean Edgewood Avenue to the west or the Arlington area to the east. 

While this option would have been better for the city's neighborhoods, it would have failed to meet that era's goal of separating neighborhoods along racial and economic lines and forcing through traffic into Jax's toll bridges.  

[Wacca Pilatka]

I never knew about Sugar Hill and 95's destruction of it until I read about it on here. 

Do you think it is ever a net positive for an interstate to pass through/near the downtown area of a city?  I get the impression that it's generally considered good exposure and imagery for cities, but it seems destruction, separation, or segregation of urban core neighborhoods is an inevitable consequence.

[duvaldude08]

I was just wacthing a segment on PBS about two weeks ago, and it was talking about the building of the bridges and the construction of 95 and how it literally cut through and destroyed and cut off neghiboorhoods. It is kind of sad actually. This article is truely an eye opener. I think this all lead to the great demise of our downtown as well.

[TheProfessor]

It is sad to think how much urban fabric was lost, but perhaps the city would not be as developed as it is had the skyscrapers not been built, but I don't this this many buildings had to be razed for so few skyscrapers.

[Dog Walker]

Don't anyone think that Stephen is exaggerating things in his article.  He is not and I have inside knowledge of what went on in those days.  It was worse than he has presented.

Jacksonville had the first expressway system in the South, even before Atlanta.  It was directly inspired by Mose's work in New York because we had some of the same difficulties that New York did, a need for a lot of bridges.

My mother worked for Hugh Dowling, a prominent attorney.  He was on the board of the Jacksonville Expressway Authority.  The Chairman of that board was Ferris Bryant, another local attorney, who was later governor of Florida.  Because of her outstanding skills with shorthand (trained court reporter) my mother kept the records of the meetings of the Expressway Authority.

She talked at the time of the overt placement of the expressway corridors based on separating black and white neighborhoods.  The placement of the Gilmore Street bridge, later the Fuller Warren (corrected name) bridge was specifically done so that the approaches to the bridge would divide North Riverside and Brooklyn from Riverside/Avondale.

But there was worse.  Once the routes for the expressway were established, but before they were made public, a select group of lawyers, politicians and judges were made aware of the route so that they could quietly begin buying up the houses at very low prices.

The City later used it's eminent domain powers to buy these same properties but paid much higher prices for them of course.  Easy way to reward your friends.

I was interning in the offices of the City Attorney, William Madison at the time and was frequently called over to witness the X's with which many of the black homeowners had signed their own deeds away under eminent domain for much, much less than the City had paid to the privileged white property owners.

The whole thing was amazingly blatant even for the time.

[fsujax]

^^Mathews Bridge? Isn't that the Fuller Warren?

[Dog Walker]

Thanks, FSU.  Retroactive anger and senior brain cells don't mix very well.  Went back and corrected the name.

The location of the Mathews Bridge is another story of corruption and influence by itself.  Ever wonder why there is that abrupt, dangerous right angle turn on MLK?

[Dog Walker]

Bill Cesery, Sr., among others.

[Fallen Buckeye]

It's hard to dispute the facts here. The explanation of how the one ways purposely cutting off Springfield from downtown is brilliant. So obviously we've put up several barriers to a vibrant core, but with smart policy and planning these are not insurmountable. We know that isolating downtown has been devestating to our city, so how much more important is it to facilitate connectivity in the urban core with smart transit options, reconverting to 2-way streets, etc.

[fsujax]

Stephen.....something to do with a river crossing that would have ended up on JU's property?

[Wacca Pilatka]

The gigantic ramp to the Hart that bypasses all of East Jacksonville/Fairfield might be the most blatant part of the expressway system's cutoff intentions.

[finehoe]

Once the routes for the expressway were established, but before they were made public, a select group of lawyers, politicians and judges were made aware of the route so that they could quietly begin buying up the houses at very low prices.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that similar goings-on are happening right now with the so-called outer beltway.