| What
happened to the Rockaways? Surely you jest.
It wasn't the subway. Robert Moses comes closer to the truth. By the late
1940s the City of New York's planning commission had made the decision
to erect barracks for the poor in the Rockaways and relieve parts of Manhattan,
Queens and Brooklyn that were fast becoming slums that police and fire
could no longer manage. These "projects" preceded the IND subway
by at least ten years. Regardless, this was the end of Rockaway as a summer
tourism center and the beginning of the infamous "White Flight"
movement that totally repainted the community's cultural texture. What
is still astonishing in retrospect is the City's willingness to sacrifice
a respectable tax base in their efforts to sanitize less productive neighborhoods
in New York.
There was no mystery associated with this makeover. Rockaway's middle
class had no place to go but out.
Richard Herbst
Stevie S. Stevens's reply dated January 12, 2012
Richard,
Thanks for writing! Perhaps if you would take the time to read the book
I prepared and presented on this website several years ago -- "What
Happened To The Rockaways" -- (available in the Library Section)
you will see my position regarding the introduction of the subway system
(to the Rockaways) and its total effect on the depreciation of the peninsula.
I am not in disagreement with you . I myself do not blame the subway system
for what eventually happened in the Rockaways. And -- I have made my own
feelings regarding Robert Moses quite clear on many occasions.
If you have taken the time to read the before-mentioned book (What Happened
To..) and still feel that I blame rapid transit and cheaper fares for
the downfall of the Rockaway, then I suggest you go back and re-read what
I wrote in that tome.
Happy New Year and I wish you and yours continued good health!
Stevie S. Stevens
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