Cities: July 2009 Archives

The Judge Report - Fifty Years

From the New York Post: "Drive through nearby run-down Amsterdam [N. Y.] to see the product of 50 years of state economic development efforts." Robert N. Going replies:

"If left to our own devices and own resources and own markets, I wonder what Amsterdam would have looked like today?

"In 1970 alone more than 27 million dollars in outside funds passed through here and not without a little corrupting effect....

"I remember one of the great problems our outside experts were attempting to solve for us was the critical problem of traffic jams in our downtown.

"That's the one project at which they were sensationally successful."

Field of Schemes: An anniversary few noticed: 100 years & Forbes Field

"Now remembered as a small intimate ballpark that has long since been demolished, at the time Forbes Field was the most massive monument to professional sports ever built.

"It was built entirely with private funds, and it ushered in a sort of competition among team owners to build similar ballparks, places like Fenway, Wrigley, Comiskey, Ebbets, and Navin in Detroit....

"My theory: Now that the real ballparks of a bygone era have inspired construction of numerous "retro ballparks," MLB is not wedded to keeping the old dinosaurs around. In short, Fenway and Wrigley have served their usefulness in prompting the kind of new construction that has made team owners around the country lots of money. If dumping them for shiny new models is in the cards, MLB would not have a problem with that."