Three months ago we moved to New York, setting up shop in Greenwich Village (and big thanks to Peder Anker of New York University for making this possible!) My main task while in the city was to pursue my work on the history of Arctic science, the environmental history of salmon aquaculture, and other topics.
But I also wanted to do something about New York itself. So I decided to write posts about its environment and history. Unlike, say, Matthew Gandy's Concrete and Clay, or Ted Steinberg's new Gotham Unbound, they would not be based on original research in the archives. Instead, they would be reflections, based on reading, walking, looking and taking pictures.
We've now just left New York (sigh), so these posts are finished. And I'm marking the end of the series by providing an overview of these 11 stories about the city. They cover a few centuries, so I'll start with the most recent, and work backwards.
I was impressed by New York's environmental initiatives (love those bike lanes!) but also wondered if highly visible challenges (like Super Storm Sandy) were diverting attention from other problems, such as lead poisoning, that affect the city's less prosperous neighborhoods. Here's a post about that.
The attacks in September 2001 had consequences both local � toxic smoke and dust when the towers collapsed � and global, including the devastation caused by Bush's war of choice in Iraq. When the 9/11 museum opened this spring at the World Trade Center I wrote a post that looked back at some ideas from the time of the attacks about their implications for the environment and for civil society.
A key story of twentieth-century New York has been the transformation of its waterfront, as shipping moved elsewhere and the port closed down. In the 1970s and 80s debate about the waterfront focused on plans for a new highway. The Westway was intended to follow alongside the Hudson River � a bypass for Manhattan's west side. But it also crystallized contrasting views regarding the future of the city and how that future should be decided. And in my view, the controversy also raised interesting questions about the role of species � like the striped bass � in environmental decisions. I examined these issues in two posts, here and here.
But before the Westway came Robert Moses. His transformation of the city, and the opposition his efforts provoked, is one of the epic stories of twentieth-century New York. I touched on a few parts of this story, in three posts: here, on the battle over the Lower Manhattan Expressway; here, on the partial clearing and transformation of Greenwich Village; and here, on the widening of Houston Street. These episodes brought Jane Jacobs and other activists to the center of urban politics � an outcome often celebrated. But they also raise interesting questions: about how certain neighborhoods are chosen for protection even as others are "sacrificed" to mobility, and how ecology can help us think about the history and future of a disrupted neighborhood.
New York played a central role in the Second World War: building ships, shipping men and material, organizing the American war effort. But I also found it interesting to learn about New York's role in the Manhattan Project � the unexpectedly apt name of the effort to build the first atomic bomb. In my post I visited several of the Project's sites in the city.
Throughout the 1800s, the city grew to fill the street grid that had been extended across Manhattan. Along the way it obliterated countless natural features: streams, hills, wetlands, forests. It was fun to track down one of these: Minetta Brook, which once flowed through Greenwich Village. Minetta and other streams are long gone, but they still make their presence felt, as Jimi Hendrix and others have found. Here's a post about this episode in the human and natural history of New York.
Some of New York's original natural features have gained legendary status (at least among urban environmental history wonks). In this post I told the story of one of them. The old Collect Pond was the original freshwater lake of lower Manhattan. Filled in two centuries ago, it continued to influence the city's growth, not least by shaping Five Points, once the city's most notorious slum. I went to the site of the pond to see how things look today.
There are other stories I wanted to tell about New York's environmental history: about portaging across Manhattan, the twists and turns of park politics, and many other topics. There are an almost infinite range of environmental stories to be told about the world's greatest city. But I hope these ones have been interesting. Thanks for reading!
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