Hartford | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Hartford

FfldCntyFan

Texas: Property of UConn Men's Basketball program
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Messages
11,897
Reaction Score
39,506
My dad always blamed Robert Moses, whom he also linked to Walter O'Malley, whom he blamed for the unforgivable act of moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to L.A.

So, I gotta go with that out of solidarity.
Robert Moses somehow ended up with God like power in planning the to be built highways starting in the early 1950's. All of the concrete ribbons throughout the five boroughs were from his master plan.

O'Malley originally wanted to move the Dodgers slightly further north in Brooklyn with the idea be he would buy the land and own that, the new stadium and the parking (I'll address that later). He needed the city to use eminent domain for him to get the necessary land. Moses had other ideas and used his influence to prevent the eminent domain.

Moses felt Flushing Meadows (a section he wanted developed would be an ideal location for a ballpark (and the ballpark would be beneficial to his development plans) and told O'Malley that was the only option (Shea Stadium ended up there). O'Malley complained that they couldn't remain the Brooklyn Dodgers and play in Queens. O'Malley later claimed to have received a letter from a very young girl asking him to move the team to Los Angeles. This has become the alleged story that started his investigation of LA but many believe it was made up to soften the appearance of his considering moving the team.

To add insult to injury (if you were a Giant Fan), after discussions with Minneapolis on a move, Stoneham (Giants owner) heard about the Flushing offer to the Dodgers and asked to put the Giants there. Moses (likely believing he had the Dodgers over a barrel) said no. O'Malley later called Stoneham and said he would move to LA if Stoneham would move to SF.
 

huskeynut

Leader of the Band
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
6,883
Reaction Score
27,168
It wasn't just Hartford and other CT cities that got screwed bu "urban renewal." I grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY. Not a large city but a good one in the 50's to early 60's. Then the big change came. Planners decided to run an arterial highway, 2 actually, thru the city. Main Street became a mall area with trees, brick pavers and the like. Properties were purchase, don't know if eminent domain was used, to run two lanes east to the Mid Hudson Bridge and 2 lanes west from the bridge to the Town of Poughkeepsie. Business lost their buildings, streets/ neighborhoods were cut up for the arterials. within 3 years the down town Main Street business area was done. Crime rose as kids hung out in the mall area. This also coincided the rise in the drug culture. Poughkeepsie never recovered.
 

August_West

Universal remote, put it down on docking station.
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Messages
51,030
Reaction Score
87,270
What's the goal? Low density single family homes? More high density housing? Who is moving out to restore it to a more residential neighborhood environment?
IMO, biggest problem in CT in general is the small geographic size of the size of the cities; there just isn't room to shuffle things around within city limits before you start reaching in to the first ring of suburbs.
Until regionalism is embraced or CT decides to annex suburbs (Good luck with either of those), its older cities with existing infrastructure will have a tough time making more than minor tweaks.
Boom.

I freakin hate nimbys and their 160 little fiefdoms.
 

Online statistics

Members online
548
Guests online
3,474
Total visitors
4,022

Forum statistics

Threads
155,765
Messages
4,030,863
Members
9,863
Latest member
leepaul
Top Bottom