Saving Cities: How New York State Reshaped New York City Since the 1950's

What do big projects like Battery Park City, the World Trade Center, Riverbank State Park, the Times Square redevelopment, the MTA, and Mitchell Lama housing projects all have in common? The crucial, if often overlooked, role played by New York State in planning, financing, developing, and managing these massive initiatives. Since the Great Depression, New York State has dramatically increased the scale and scope of its urban activity with the stated goal of counteracting central-city economic decline.

Join us for a spirited discussion with three leading urban historians on New York State’s wide-ranging role in New York City’s housing and urban redevelopment plans since the 1950s. They will consider the competitions and collaborations of the State and City, what has worked, what has not, and why.

Carol Willis of The Skyscraper Museum will moderate a conversation featuring Lizabeth Cohen, Professor of American Studies in the History Department at Harvard University, and author of Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age; Lynne Sagalyn, Professor of Real Estate at Columbia Business School, author of Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money, and the Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan; and Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, and author of How States Shaped Postwar America: State Government and Urban Power.