IDs

Question 1

Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia (1934-1946: New Deal, FDR, WWII, Great Depression years)

Answer 1

Nickname: the Little Flower (he was short & it’s also a translation of his name)
He ran for mayor as a Republican, and he had the support of the City Fusion party (Republicans fused with independent Democrats) which he used to defeat the Democrats of Tammany Hall
He was the city’s first mayor of southern european descent (jewish & italian)
He was known for showing up to fires and other issues around the city, for praising civil servants, and being pro-union
He represents “working-class New York”

Question 2

Adam Clayton Powell

Answer 2

the first Black city council member in 1941
elected under the city’s ranked-choice voting system
Democrat
won in 1944 race for Congress - the 1st Black congressional Rep. from NY state

Question 3

Vito Marcantonio (the “Goodfather”)

Answer 3

born & bred New Yorker

he lived in east Harlem his entire life — born on 112th and died on 116th. living in one neighborhood allowed him to develop very close bonds with its inhabitants — each month, he personally met with people who needed help

represented east Harlem in congress 1930s to 1940s & he consistently won reelection

he was La Guardia’s protege & also the LONE person in Congress to vote against the Korean war — he was one of the most left-wing politicians EVER to be in office

Question 4

Robert Moses

Answer 4

prominent urban planner during early/mid 20th century
a civil servant & political official who amassed a great amount of power
- in the Power Broker by Robert Caro, it is said that Moses approved every single public improvement, of every type, for 7 years (1946 to 1953) — even by city agencies that he did not directly control
he commissioned large-scale public projects

his background
- an outsider from the very beginning. from a German-Jewish family that moved to NYC when he was 9 years old. he went to Yale for undergrad.
- he sought to change city policies rather than rise up through the machine

Question 5

Jones Beach 1920s

Answer 5

Robert Moses’ first major project — a public beach. it paved the way for a pattern in his work. it was designed as both expansive and exclusionary — accessible only by automobile, initially.

Question 6

Why was it significant that Moses was the chairman of the Triborough Bridge Authority?

Answer 6

he raised millions of dollars through bridge tolls
this raising of funds gave him immense power to take on projects he otherwise would not have been able to

Question 7

Jane Jacobs

Answer 7

the foil to Robert Moses — essentially his opposite
she was everything Moses disliked — she was not a professional, not a planner, and she was emotionally invested in her neighborhood
she wrote Death and Life of Great American Cities in which she shares these main ideas:
- new developments are reducing cities to monotonous “gruel” — incompetence at city building
- “this book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding”
- she writes about “common, ordinary things” & how cities work in real life
- she calls the middle-income housing projects that Robert Moses made “marvels of dullness and regimentation”
- she believes that the current projects/planning are “sealed” against the vitality of life that is found in cities and so-called “slums” like Boston’s North End
- she argues that superblocks, shopping centers, and co-ops ruin cities - OPPOSITE of Moses

Question 8

Superblocks

Answer 8

Complexes that took up entire blocks - a signature style of Moses (Co-op city, Lincoln Center)
Despite the dominating nature of superblocks, they did encourage forms of connection and solidarity between people due to the shared space — still, superblocks are visibly different from a typical NYC neighborhood because there is not the variety of shopping, eateries, small businesses, etc., that an area such as the West Village has

Question 9

Harlem Riot of 1935

Answer 9

Setting: the Kress department store
1. A Black Puerto Rican teenager was accused of stealing a pen from a dime store in Harlem by the white owner
2. The owner calls the police (this business had already been the subject of boycotts years before for not hiring black workers)
3. The police let the boy go, but none of the people in the crowd outside were notified of this. the boy left out the back, but the crowd believed him to be arrested and so they began to protest
4. 250 stores were damaged, people were arrested, and roughly 3 were killed.
This protest touches on the longstanding experience of police abuse and economic exclusion running throughout the city, and the nation.

Question 10

An Internationally Aware City (before & during WWII)

Answer 10

During WWII, New Yorkers became increasingly internationally aware during WWII. The 1930s saw protests by the American League Against War and Fascism, specifically against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936. While Germany and Italy saw a rise in fascism, NYC began to lay claim to its status as an immigrant city.

For example, there was a 26 part radio broadcast on WNYC that covered the history of immigrants to the U.S., however this image of an immigrant city was controversial. There were still major immigration restrictions, notably the limited granting of visas to German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.

NYC also supplied volunteers who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

Question 11

Times Square: NYC’s Wartime Dimouts

Answer 11

NYC feared attack. The city recognized its role as a global power and the vulnerability that came with it. After the London Blitz, 1940-41, NYC dimmed the lights of Times Square for much of the war to protect it from aerial attacks.

Question 12

The Manhattan Project

Answer 12

Oppenheimer
the early research began at Pupin Hall
a government research project, looking to create and harness nuclear power — atomic bomb

Question 13

Harlem Race Riot of 1943

Answer 13

1. a white officer tried to arrest a Black woman for disorderly conduct
2. a Black solder stepped in and he was shot and wounded. Rumors that he died spread.
3. Riots ensued, just like in 1935.
4. La Guardia had U.S. Army troops get involved. There was a 10:30pm curfew.

Question 14

The First Houses

Answer 14

E 3rd Street and Avenue A
the first public houses in the country. they replaced the Lower East Side tenements.
the first tenants were working class people who were screened to make sure they fit the requirements.
over 4000 applicants for 122 apartments — showed the demand for public housing, the density of the city’s lower class
- New York Housing Authority was very selective

there was an intense idealism around the city’s public housing efforts
at the time, public housing was associated with the END of slums —— interesting when we think about today’s perception of public housing

Question 15

Brooklyn Navy Yard

Answer 15

America’s premier naval shipbuilding facility
peak activity was WWII, when around 75 thousand people were employed
- the war gave people purpose and a sense of unity as a nation. they wanted to help with the war effort.
many African Americans moved to Brooklyn from Harlem during the 1940s to work at the navy yard.

Question 16

Quonset Huts

Answer 16

severe housing shortage caused by the war and the major influx of population — led to RENT CONTROL
because of this shortage at the war’s end, returning veterans were housed in Quonset Huts

Question 17

Communist Party

Answer 17

the party became very strong in 1930s NYC
left-wing politics formed a distinctive subculture in the city
it functioned as a social movement in NYC more than anywhere else in the country
at city college, there were “alcoves” where radical students gathered to discuss topics
In Harlem: Communist Party members would organize EVICTION DEFENSE protests
- party members would halt evictions by bringing furniture back into apartments

Question 18

How did NYC govt. change over the 1930s?

Answer 18

La Guardia put an emphasis on “working-class New York.” The glitz and glam of the 1920s was gone, replaced by a world war and the Great Depression. The government and the citizens began to question whether it not the state actually served all New Yorkers equally, and if not, what could be done about it.
- the First Houses
- Communist Party’s rise in popularity

The city’s leadership majorly changed as well. Mayor Jimmy Walker, a product of NYC’s nightlife and wealth culture, was followed by La Guardia—a man whose wife and daughter died from tuberculosis. He was Italian and Jewish, and was a proponent of civil servants, unions, and public funding.

Question 19

What was the New Deal? What were its accomplishments and limitations?

Answer 19

The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by FDR between 1933 and 1938.

The New Deal has three general goals:
1. relief for the needy
2. economic recovery
3. financial reform

The New Deal signaled a shift in govt. philosophy. The govt. was shown to have a responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.

Question 20

Some results of New Deal funding in NYC

Answer 20

Works Progress Administration: paid for a wide range of arts programs/projects in the city

La Guardia administration built highways, roads, schools, clinics. The money also went to the city’s first airport (La Guardia), marking its evolution into a truly international city.

Question 21

Gas House District

Answer 21

the east side north of 14th street
poor immigrant neighborhood
bought by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and turned into Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village.
- a private residential development

Question 22

Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village

Answer 22

a massive post-WWII residential complex
more than 11,000 apartments, about 56 buildings

For Moses, it provided a reason to clear out an unpleasant neighborhood of dilapidated tenements and filthy gas tanks. For the insurance company Metropolitan Life, the city’s partner in constructing these complexes, it represented both a profit opportunity and a way to improve the lives of middle-class New Yorkers. It would be a home for returning World War II veterans and a new mode of living for young families.
- Moses wanted to build middle class housing

Moses’s buildings were NOT glamorous. They dominated blocks (superblocks) and there was no commercial experience immediately near the projects.

Question 23

The Co-Ops (Co-op City and the Allerton Co-ops)

Answer 23

Co-op City in the Bronx was the largest co-operative apartment in the country, housing more than 50,000 people. No individuality.

The Allerton Co-ops in the Bronx were the first large-scale co-ops in the city. They were intended to provide an alternative to the LES slums.

Question 24

San Juan Hill —> Lincoln Square

Answer 24

Lincoln Square is the neighborhood that centers on Lincoln Center
It was originally San Juan Hill, a neighborhood whose residents were mostly Black and Puerto Rican (West Side Story is set in the rubble of San Juan Hill)
Lincoln Center is at Lincoln Square’s core — it was a big deal for the city’s arts, but it drove out large groups of people, which was very typical of Moses’s work, like with the Cross Bronx Expressway

Question 25

What did Robert Moses think made a successful city?

Answer 25

Big highways, lots of cars (Jacobs believed that cars & people need to coexist), EXPANSIVE. Lots of everything, lots of middle-class housing & superblocks.

Question 26

Jacobs & Moses: What kinds of policies did each wish to see?

Answer 26

Moses did not think about people of color when he built. He dispossessed thousands of people who lived in areas like the Bronx and the tenements and San Juan Hill. He flooded the city with cars. He wanted to be immortalized through his projects. Jacobs wanted an upheaval of current city planning methods. She believed that mixing the populations and having interaction between different areas would created a more feasible and functional city. She wanted everyone to use the streets, to crowd the city with liveliness and excitement. She says that a well-used city street is apt to be a safe city street. She advocates for public versus private spaces; she argues that by filling the streets with shops, eateries, businesses, the streets automatically become safer due to surveillance and foot traffic.

Question 27

To Jacobs, what makes an unsuccessful city?

Answer 27

A city that lacks “intricate mutual support.”

Question 28

Why did the American Abstract Artists (AAA) picket the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1940?

Answer 28

The group, which was founded in 1937, was protesting MOMA’s collection policies, specifically the decision to heavily feature European abstract expressionists and modern artists, but not Americans. AAA wanted American artists of this genre to be displayed. This happened at a time when the U.S. was becoming increasingly pro-domestic policy, and isolationist. It was turning away from Communism as the Cold War would begin in just 7 years.

Question 29

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Answer 29

A married couple found guilty of Russian espionage in 1951. During the Cold War years, there were severe consequences for those who were thought to be, or found to be, affiliated with communism and/or the USSR. The couple was executed in 1953.

Question 30

Turtle Bay, Manhattan

Answer 30

A neighborhood in Midtown East, roughly 43rd to 53rd. It is home to the United Nations Headquarters, and was previously an industrial area. The decision to build the UN in NYC was a significant moment in the city’s history as it further established it as a center of international relations, finance, tourism, and just overall power.

Question 31

Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker, & Civil Defense Protests

Answer 31

Day was a Catholic pacifist. Her organization Catholic Worker led to civil defense protests. Starting in 1955, the group would meet in City Hall Park each year when there was a nuclear bomb drill and refuse to take cover. New York state had made it a misdemeanor in 1955 to refuse to take cover during a civil defense drill, but the Catholic Worker, led by Day, refused. They believed that the only thing that could bring safety and peace was elimination of nuclear weapons.

Question 32

The “New York School” of abstract expressionism

Answer 32

The abstract expressionism movement flourished in the aftermath of WWII. The “NY School” was a movement/organization that included artists who had been supported by the Works Progress Administration during the La Guardia x New Deal x FDR years. The artists in this informal group turned away from the postwar politics and focused on creating colorful, non-representational styles of art.

Question 33

The “New York School” of Poets

Answer 33

Refers to a group of poets who lived and worked in downtown Manhattan in the 1950s and 60s. The The New York School, and this includes abstract expressionism, was not an academic institution but rather a community built on proximity, relationships, and similarities in styles, methods, and subject matter. The poets allowed everyday moments, pop culture, humor, and spontaneity into their work, seeking to capture life as it happened. Influenced by literary surrealism and abstract expressionist painting, they responded to the events of the day without embracing the heavy seriousness characteristic of some post-war intellectuals. A core group of five poets: John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, and Frank O’Hara.

Question 34

The 3 main postwar artistic movements

Answer 34

1. Abstract expressionism 2. Little Magazines 3. Beat Poets

Question 35

Little Magazines

Answer 35

Included the “Partisan Review,” “Dissent,” and “Commentary” Had an intense interest in international politics The little magazines provided a place where writers could produce new, artistic work. These magazines were the nursery of several literary movements, and they’re heavily tied to the poetry movement. Sought to provide an intellectual home for a critical, non-Stalinist left

Question 36

Beat Poets - 1950s

Answer 36

Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg (both went to Columbia) The Beats challenged “mainstream” culture The Beats wanted to liberate poetry from academic preciosity/refinement. They sought to turn poetry into an expression of genuine lived experience. They often performed their poetry to the accompaniment of jazz, at places like the Five Spot Cafe in NYC or City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco. Although it affected the entire country, NYC was the heart of this movement (& the other two).

Question 37

The relationship between anticommunism and the emergence of the artistic and literary movements of the 1950s

Answer 37

pro-domestic policies American isolationism art as expression in a very tense and conservative political climate

Question 38

Jackie Robinson

Answer 38

The first American professional baseball player to break the “color line” in Major League Baseball. He did this when he began playing for the LA Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

Question 39

Ella Baker & the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Answer 39

Civil rights leader and NAACP activitist NAACP: a U.S. civil rights organization She called for the resignation of Police Commissioner George Monaghan after he blocked the FBI from investigating the assault on Jacob and Glenda Jackson

Question 40

The Harlem Nine & Mae Mallory

Answer 40

The Harlem Nine was a group of parents that sued the Board of Education for providing inferior education to children of color. These parents, including Mae Mallory, kept their kids at home on February 3, 1964, when more than 460,000 schoolchildren boycotted the public school system. Context: in the late 1950s and early 60s, African American and Latino parents started pressuring the city to end the de facto segregation of its public schools, and to improve the learning conditions for students of color. Students of color were usually taught by the least qualified teachers, in the country’s most dilapidated schools.

Question 41

School Boycott! Freedom Day

Answer 41

February 3, 1964 More than 460,000 Black and Latino students stayed home in a boycott of the NYC public school system It was organized by Reverend Milton Galamison Intended to protest the inequality in the NYC public school system and the slow pace of change

Question 42

Bedford-Stuyvesant

Answer 42

Became the largest Black neighborhood in Brooklyn over the 1940s as Black families/individuals left Harlem in order to find work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and other industrial companies, during the war. There was also a migration to the South Bronx.

Question 43

Spanish Harlem & La Marqueta

Answer 43

Many Puerto Rican migrants settled in East Harlem during the 1940s “La Marqueta” was/is an open air market beneath the elevated Metro North tracks between 111th and 116th street The market sold food and ingredients that were impossible to get anywhere else La Marqueta was indicative of Spanish Harlem’s rise

Question 44

The Young Lords

Answer 44

A Chicago-based street gang that grew to become a civil and human rights organization New York’s Young Lords represented and defended the Puerto Rican experience, and the right of POC to have equal access to city services, such as adequate education, clean streets/neighborhoods, and decent, sanitary healthcare conditions. Led by young Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Latinx New Yorkers They launched eye-catching campaigns in Harlem, East Harlem, and the South Bronx.

Question 45

What did the Young Lords do in July of 1970?

Answer 45

They organized a takeover and occupation of Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. The hospital was long-known for its decrepit condition and substandard care, so the group stormed the hospital and barricaded themselves inside for 12 hours.

Question 46

Operation Bootstrap

Answer 46

The U.S. plan to industrialize Puerto Rico, shifting it from an agrarian economy to an industrial one Mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland, especially to New York

Question 47

The Young Lords: 13-Point Program

Answer 47

The Young Lords used radical politics and flamboyant protest to call attention to the needs of the Puerto Rican community Their 13-Point Program is exactly what it sounds like — 13 demands.

Question 48

Robert F. Wagner

Answer 48

The son of the famed US Senator whose name adorns the Wagner Act, which allowed workers to unionize & undertake collective bargaining Grew up in the Germany immigrant neighborhood of Yorkville on the UES He was mayor from 1966 to 1974. The first mayor to seriously confront the budget gap, and he borrowed millions of dollars. He did not run for reelection when hid term ended in 1966 Mayor 1954-1966 He was successful in many of his efforts until the end of his term, when political agitation began to grow. Think 50s & 60s, the segregated school system, school boycott of Feb 3 1964, James Powell shooting 1965. Plus, Wagner’s proposal to “borrow now, repay later” did not set the city up for success

Question 49

John Vliet Lindsay

Answer 49

Mayor 1966 to 1974 Came from a prosperous background — elite education, Park Avenue address, Yale, etc. The city’s labor unions did not view him as an ally - 1966 transit strike. 12 days, transit workers won wage increases He led the city’s priorities away from industry, and toward tourism, office development, and corporate headquarters - World Trade Center symbolized this new direction upon its completion in 1973 “Fun City” The economy only worsened during the Lindsay years “Give a Damn” - subway advertisements exhorting white New Yorks to give a damn about the conditions of the ghetto Limousine liberal — his ideas and plans for the city outstripped anything realistic

Question 50

Abraham Beame

Answer 50

Mayor 1974-1977 Lindsay’s comptroller — he of all people should’ve understood the city’s fiscal problems NYC’s first jewish mayor. came from the LES, attended City College. very different than Lindsay He was against borrowing under both Wagner & Lindsay, but once he became mayor and was confronted by the same budget gap, he resorted to borrowing It was Wagner who first ventured to put NYC significantly in debt. Lindsay made the debt a perennial feature of the city’s budgeting. But Beame was the central player in the financial collapse of NYC.