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{{Quote box|title=''Brooklyn: The Once and Future City''|By Thomas J. Campanella<br />Princeton UP: 2019<br />552 pp. Paperback $21.95.|align=right|width=25%}} | {{Quote box|title=''Brooklyn: The Once and Future City''|By Thomas J. Campanella<br />Princeton UP: 2019<br />552 pp. Paperback $21.95.|align=right|width=25%}} | ||
{{byline|last=Dalziel|first=John|url=http://prmlr.us/mr13dal}} | {{byline|last=Dalziel|first=John|url=http://prmlr.us/mr13dal}} | ||
I approached Professor | {{start|I approached Professor Campanella’s richly detailed}} and illustrated history | ||
of Brooklyn with the perspective of a general reader who, while having | of Brooklyn with the perspective of a general reader who, while having | ||
merely the briefest personal experience of the borough thought he had more | merely the briefest personal experience of the borough thought he had more | ||
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Here, too, can be perceived small indications of influences that allow for | Here, too, can be perceived small indications of influences that allow for | ||
the very occasional revealing of Professor Campanella’s disapproval and | the very occasional revealing of Professor Campanella’s disapproval and | ||
judgment of the many actions and schemes that contributed to the disappointment | the judgment of the many actions and schemes that contributed to the disappointment | ||
at a society’s loss of potential and vitality as represented in such a place | at a society’s loss of potential and vitality as represented in such a place | ||
as his Brooklyn. | as his Brooklyn. | ||
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Restrained as he seems by the discipline of his scholarship in city planning, | Restrained as he seems by the discipline of his scholarship in city planning, | ||
architecture and urban studies, it is not until the epilogue that he permits | architecture and urban studies, it is not until the epilogue that he permits | ||
himself the indulgence of mourning the loss of neighborhoods | himself the indulgence of mourning the loss of neighborhoods, their | ||
‘essence, their identity, their soul,’ and the encroachment of ‘manufactured | ‘essence, their identity, their soul,’ and the encroachment of ‘manufactured | ||
authenticity’. Brooklyn, he laments, “has become ground zero of gentrification | authenticity’. Brooklyn, he laments, “has become ground zero of gentrification | ||
in New York.” | in New York.” | ||
While not as passionately expressed as Pete Hamill in Downtown: My Manhattan, raging at the destruction of Penn Station, he does single out one Fred C. Trump’s 1966 destruction of Coney Island’s Pavilion of Fun, ‘the last great example of Victorian Architecture in the United States’, as “an act of vandalism.” | While not as passionately expressed as Pete Hamill in ''Downtown: My Manhattan'', raging at the destruction of Penn Station, he does single out one Fred C. Trump’s 1966 destruction of Coney Island’s Pavilion of Fun, ‘the last great example of Victorian Architecture in the United States’, as “an act of vandalism.” | ||
The history of Brooklyn, as portrayed, allows limited time for nostalgia. Given the presentation of schemers, opportunists, the selfishly ambitious and piratically greedy entrepreneurs and a litany of “clear it . . . build it . . . tear it down . . . build it again,” there should be little surprise at the vulnerability of beauty and prospects of permanence. | The history of Brooklyn, as portrayed, allows limited time for nostalgia. Given the presentation of schemers, opportunists, the selfishly ambitious and piratically greedy entrepreneurs and a litany of “clear it . . . build it . . . tear it down . . . build it again,” there should be little surprise at the vulnerability of beauty and prospects of permanence. | ||
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The workforce was such that a caste system evolved among the mix of African-Americans, immigrant Swedes, English, Irish, and Prussians, who mostly lived in company-owned boarding houses. | The workforce was such that a caste system evolved among the mix of African-Americans, immigrant Swedes, English, Irish, and Prussians, who mostly lived in company-owned boarding houses. | ||
Such was the dehumanizing effects of the environment that those who on the rare occasion would cross to Manhattan were, in 1878, with the support of the courts, effectively banned from public transport | Such was the dehumanizing effects of the environment that those who on the rare occasion would cross to Manhattan were, in 1878, with the support of the courts, effectively banned from public transport because the system did not allow for “the transportation of smells.” | ||
While true to the dispassionate tone that he employs throughout, Thomas Campanella frequently uses the subtle ironic comment or reference to contemporary reportage that communicates a prime interest in the human cost of the decisions and actions of the disparate and ever competing ambitious and powerful. | While true to the dispassionate tone that he employs throughout, Thomas Campanella frequently uses the subtle ironic comment or reference to contemporary reportage that communicates a prime interest in the human cost of the decisions and actions of the disparate and ever competing ambitious and powerful. | ||
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Within ten years, her work had contributed beyond measure to the transforming of the Isle into what she, in a deserved self-indulgent display of lobbyist hyperbole described as ‘the richest spot on Earth.’ | Within ten years, her work had contributed beyond measure to the transforming of the Isle into what she, in a deserved self-indulgent display of lobbyist hyperbole described as ‘the richest spot on Earth.’ | ||
The emerging nascent society, nourished so richly by its “counselor, dictator, friend and champion,” would in 1920 see the beginning of what would eventually | The emerging nascent society, nourished so richly by its “counselor, dictator, friend and champion,” would in 1920 see the beginning of what would eventually be its destruction. | ||
In that year, the New York Sanitary Utilization Company ceased operations on the island, with the loss of jobs resulting in a declining population. The narrow creeks and salt marshes separating the island from Brooklyn were filled in and Flatbush Avenue was extended, thus gathering what Campanella describes as “the Hades of horsedom” to the greater Brooklyn. | In that year, the New York Sanitary Utilization Company ceased operations on the island, with the loss of jobs resulting in a declining population. The narrow creeks and salt marshes separating the island from Brooklyn were filled in and Flatbush Avenue was extended, thus gathering what Campanella describes as “the Hades of horsedom” to the greater Brooklyn. | ||
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The account of Barren Island contains, in concentrated form, most of the recurring threads that bind the stories of the designing of roadways and the erection and destruction of amusement parks, racetracks, and hotels, the unrealized dreams of great buildings to doomed public housing. | The account of Barren Island contains, in concentrated form, most of the recurring threads that bind the stories of the designing of roadways and the erection and destruction of amusement parks, racetracks, and hotels, the unrealized dreams of great buildings to doomed public housing. | ||
Finally, in a world that allows too many Robert Moses’ and Fred Trumps to attain power and too few Jane Shaws, Thomas Campanella’s message of the failures and destructive results of the misguided and, at times, venal implementation of short-sighted and profit-motivated urban renewal projects needs to be heeded in many more places than his still | Finally, in a world that allows too many Robert Moses’ and Fred Trumps to attain power and too few Jane Shaws, Thomas Campanella’s message of the failures and destructive results of the misguided and, at times, venal implementation of short-sighted and profit-motivated urban renewal projects needs to be heeded in many more places than his still beloved Brooklyn. | ||
{{Review}} | {{Review}} | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:More than the Dead Know}} | {{DEFAULTSORT: More than the Dead Know}} | ||
[[Category:Book Reviews (MR)]] | [[Category: Book Reviews (MR)]] | ||