A recent title from Fordham University Press
Movement: New York’s Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car
New York City has one of the most extensive public transportation systems in the world. Yet—from congestion pricing snafus to debates over how much space to allocate to parking—it can often feel like the car is king when it comes to policy decisions.
In Movement, Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor to its City Journal, and a regular columnist for the New York Post, goes beyond the mid-20th century ideological battles between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs and examines the long history of automobiles dictating the conversation around urban planning in New York.
“Starting a century ago, the automobile changed the world—and helped drive New York City (and other cities) to the brink of irrevocable urban decline,” Gelinas writes in the book’s introduction, setting the tone for the rest of the book as a battle cry of sorts for renewed investment in public transportation and a rethinking of the city’s streetscape.
Gelinas brings the conversation squarely into the present, arguing that moving away from car dependency is a key to New York’s long-term recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic toll.
“It’s time to stop blaming Moses, a man who has been dead for more than four decades,” she writes, “and look to our current generation of leaders to give us the city we need.”
