shame-out... Why the heck am I screaming? Hello ???

It's another Shame out.  Over 5 years ago, I realized the following:
1)  We were heading into a GREAT recessions (I call it depression 2.0)
2)  Our Economy was devastated,
3)  Our school system was shot.
4)  Our tax (income tax) system is unfair.
5)  The wealth in this country is not fairly distributed
6)  We Are NOT in a fairly distributed society (unequal education).
7) The  Infrastructure in this country is shot.
What did I say we need?  
A serious look at the conditions show us that our conditions today are EXACTLY the same as just after the "Great Depression" (Depression 1.0).
How did Herbert Hoover deal with the "great crash of 1929?"  HE CUT THE DEFICIT, and made the problem MUCH MUCH worse.
What does the Tea-Baggers party (I refuse to call them the tea-party..., sorry!) want? 
TO CUT the deficit, just like HERBERT HOOVER did.
What do we REALLY NEED>?
* A works project Administration
* A new LIVING wage, as well as a renamed 'minimum wage' (to be called a TRAINING wage)
* REALLY tax the wealthy.  NO more claiming millions in income, and ZERO paid in taxes (a la G.E., and many other billionaires)..
* Fair Training,
* SINGLE PAYER GOVERNMENT Provided Universal Health Care for all (phased in over 20 years, starting with our current private system, and then gettin g to 5 or 6 nationwide provider networks.
* Educational REFORM... starting with a privately run government paid day care starting at six months ... (Think Geofery Canada in NYC)

Robert Moses -- The power broker and destroyer of New York

This is essentially a placeholder. Please note that you will need to understand the following to fully understand this post:

1. I grew up in Manhattan
2. I first read, "The Power Broker" when it was first published, in the mid-70's.
3. There is a lot of discussion in this post about physical spots in NY.
   

This post will discuss Robert Moses, and the pulitzer Prize winning book, "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro. (click HERE to buy at amazon now!)

Essentially, Caro's book is a very thorough biography and analysis of his impact on New York, and our country.

I feel that several key items regarding Moses's foibles caused a great deal of shame and problems for New York City, that remain to this day such as:

• Mr. Moses was a racist.
• Mr. Moses was an upper class slob.
• Mr. Moses was class conscious
  

These three factors totally influenced how and where our City developed in his reign of terror and power in our city.

Racist
Mr. Moses specifically designed ALL of his parks, parkways, beaches and even highways so that blacks, lower class "masses", and others need not partake of his designs.
Upper Class
All of Mr. Moses's works were designed for access to cars. His parks, his roads, and even his bridges were built with a car in mind, and were designed to NEVER allow public transportation.

• Bridges: All of Robert Moses' bridges were designed to be transit inaccessible. A specific requirement was that they NOT be adaptable to add RAIL lines on them.
• Parkways were designed by Robert Moses to be TOO SHORT for public buses. The overpasses over the highway were built too low to accommodate busses.
• The Van Wyck Expressway in Queens was built (deliberately) without a center median lane, because Robert Moses allegedly said, there will never be a rail line that could run down the median to the airport.

Imagine.... if...

1. All of the Robert Moses Highways could accommodate buses.
   
1. All people (even the poor) could have gotten into Jones Beach.
2. All of the Robert Moses roads had space (or included mass transit/Rail tracks)
1. Imagine a new commuter (subway, not commuter rail) transit system that went straight down the Long Island Expressway (L.I.E.).
1. If there was a new mass transit line down the L.I.E. ,imagine how industry and housing on Long Island might have been changed. Instead of a totally commuter based (read Property-over-Taxed) infrastructure, there might actually be substantial manufacturing up and down the entire island.
2. Reverse commuting might have brought thousands of under-employed and underpaid employees to the Long Island area.
3. The industry and problems of the tax base we currently have in the NYC metro area would not be as bad, with a commerical tax base.
2. Imagine a center median Rail line (such as Chicago has) that has a rail line from the airport directly to downtown Boston. If we had such a rail line going down the L.I.E., it could easily have met up and transfered into the Van Wyck Expressway line.
3. Imagine that ALL of New York's (MTA) bridges had a built-in Rail line. Imagine the freight possibilities of cheaper goods, and less trucks into the area.

Essentially, I say that because of Robert Moses myopias, New York has stagnated, and been unable to break out of the "5 boroughs" mode that was set in the early 1900's.

Had he had a true foresight, our entire community and area would have a thriving commercial tax base, and we wouldn't have as much problems with property taxes today.