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| Re: May 11, 1975. . .End of the Culver shuttle (431109) | |||
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Re: May 11, 1975. . .End of the Culver shuttle |
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Posted by J trainloco on Wed May 16 20:41:39 2007, in response to Re: May 11, 1975. . .End of the Culver shuttle, posted by Edwards! on Wed May 16 18:52:34 2007. In this instance, I'm talking about Culver, which was pretty useless once the IND was connected. Even before then, all the Culver got was token service to Nassau st.The 60's brought about changes..the city was fallin apart and the transit system was suffering from neglect.. Several plans were drawn up to "replace" the OLD with the NEW..such as the remaining 3rd avenue el in the Bronx with a line over and along Park avenue[todays Metro North ROW] via a connection to the WEST FARMS LINE at 149th st,and a NEW SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY from Lower Manhattan to White Plains Road/241 st[taking over the IRT EL]. While these plans were being drawn..the city was trying to bring back Neighborhoods that were declining..by building a new type of housing development.. Model Cities was a low lying complex spread out with small 3 to 4 story stuctures..enclosing parkland..simular to the previous NYCHA...only on a smaller scale. Plan had them located in Brooklyn..Bronx..Upper Manhattan.. On a MASSIVE SCALE..the Brooklyn plans had the entire Myrtle avenue corridor from Broadway to Jay st redeveloped into a "Model Cites neighborhood"..joining the already existing NYC HOUSING units. Several were built in the Downtown/Clinton Hill area.. Plans also called for the UPGRADING of the Myrtle Avenue elevated to handle ALL STEEL subway cars..along with a new car order called the R39.. Sad to say..none of this had a good ending as we know the rest of the story... Model Cities was a terrible idea, but because of bad architecture, not bad motives. For once, political entities were down to invest large sums of money into the communities. And they did it using what was the wisdom of the day. LeCorbusier was, (and still is) one of the most important architects of all time, but it turns out his 'tower in the park' residential plan was terrible, taking life off the street and fostering a haven for crime. You can't blame people for spending money on what they thought was the best idea at the time. When It comes to Myrtle, I agree with you 100%: It should not have been demolished. It should have been hooked into Montague or Rutgers, or even the Manhattan bridge tracks. But now that it's gone, there are too many other far more important initiatives to get done (Even within Brooklyn; I'd rather see Utica Ave subway or Bay Ridge ROW service first). |
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