Planning the Great Metropolis

List of tables. List of figures. Introduction. The making of the New York metropolitan region. Urban beginnings. Midcentury: the railroad arrives. The region emerges. The 1920s: a turning point. The emergence of a planning tradition. The legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted. The New York City improvement commission. The Brooklyn city plan. The comprehensive plan of Newark. The Jamaica Bay port scheme. The birth of zoning, 1911-1916. The port of New York authority plan. First steps towards a metropolitan regional plan. Charles Norton and the plan of Chicago, 1893-1909. The advisory committee on city plan of New York, 1914. Initiation of Russell Sage foundation support, 1917-1921. The search for scope and substance. Four surveys. Change in leadership. Sector plans for the environs. Long Island: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Wetchester-Fairfield: Thomas Adams. Hudson Valley: John Nolen. Northern New Jersey: Harland Bartholomew. Mid-new Jersey: George B Ford and E P Goodrich. Staten Island and Southern New Jersey: E H Bennett. Thomas Adams's synthesis. First architectural studies. Technical and ideological inputs. The regional population projections. The contribution of Robert Murray Haig. Zoning, traffic studies and public relations. Outlines of a plan. From survey to plan. Transportation: rails or rubber. Airports. Open space and recreation. Urban development. Synthesis: the graphic regional plan. Housing and building the city. Reactions to the plan. Contribution to planning education. Conflict amidst planning: three decisions. The aborted narrows tunnel. The Hudson River bridge controversy. Robert Moses and the northern state parkway conflict. The metropolitan political vacuum. Carrying out the plan: 1929 to 1941. Early momentum: 1929-1932. Depression and public works: 1932-1936. Diminishing impact: 1936-1941. Plan and reality: 1965. Forecasts, prophecies and plans. Differences between population projections and outcomes. Urbanized land. Trunk rail lines and surburban transit systems. Highways and parkways. Parks and open spaces. Development projects. The sifnificance of the regional plan: a summary. The regional plan as artifcat and process. Values and power: who benefitted from the plan? Conclusion: some hypotheses of reform behaviour. Bibliography.