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3/13/1967 - See America First II. Radburn Lives! by Eden Ross Lipson

NOT FOR PUBLICATI INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS ERL West Street See America First II New York N Y 10023 Radburn Lives March Mr R H Nolte Institute Current World Affairs Madison Avenue New York N Y Dear Mr Nolte They planners urban critics socially scious bureaucrats about Radburn New Jersey though champion horse A champion Native Dancer great better memory productive material In right When Radburn planned built praised abroad It proclaimed New Town Motor Age It famous Newspapers wrote about college students tourists busload trekked through Jersey farmland paths internal parks They future future looked promising But Depression limited dream after War Radburn midst suburbia tended alternative still legend Now New Towns thing More velopments across United States calling themselves New Towns Someplace their promotional literature refer Radburn American pioneer The Great Experiment The Radburn Plan It But Radburn lives People cross George Washington Bridge drive Bergen Mall where among newer department stores Alexanders abstract mosaic brightly glares across parking passing Route The grims likely young planners foreign dignitaries coming their respects survey remains beginning The local merchants really understand younger residents Radburn small Borough Fair Lawn Legally Radburn Association families three parks swimming pools tennis archery courts pathways between houses The Motor Age holocaust Radburn conquer rounded Radburn hidden Once world young stock market booming America bursting energy splitting still Century urban seams Radburn began It going Garden City America Its derived sources Ebenezer Howard author quoted lttle Garden Cit_es To morrow founder Letchworth Welwyn design New York Citys Central Park Frederick Law Olmstead Calvert Vaux The Association difficulty keeping Central Park originally outsiders tennis courts The separate traffic swimming pools carefully supervised systems roadways Last school children Clarence Stein summed R A cards vehicles equestrians pedestrians outside traffic That every resident Fun Cty knows still works especially Sundays To describe Radburn appreciate impact legend number qualifications The City Housing Corporation initially build Garden City But dustrial future around tract found could afford seemed So absolute characteristics Garden City forth Howard scratched industry economic suffciency began People Radburn would either commute New York City miles nearby Paterson miles Interestingly before construction George Washington Bridge worked New York They still Next according Garden City agricultural green surrounding protecting The Ci Housing Corporation options surrounding farmland extending development residential Radburn someday could afford build still money green So Radburn never claim Garden City either During Depression Corpora options anyway It fnally dissolved leaving Radburn Association caretaker unfinished dream Pilgrims visit Radburn because experimental suburb really New Town claimed urban Indeed deeply urban Still Radburn dealt problems residential safety matically different other American construction areas marked mportant nnovatons Radburn marked highway today Getting speed Route marked Fairlawn directions A station owner large anonymous development anxiously wonders Radburn He It Fairlawn Once pretty exclusive lately infiltrated everyplace Startled pointed selection words follow directions straight light curiously driveways schoolyards quite looking Negroes Jews In Clarence Stein chief architect Henry Wright planner Radburn wrote gentle polemic called Toward New Towns Amer_ca Recently NIT Press brought paperback edition In flush current interest cities generally prominent place stores sells The generously illustrated systematic review seres experimental American residential developments beginning Sunnys_de Gardens Radburn Going Radburn Steins under Baedeker You forewarned validity charm perhaps genius Radburn street In street isolate various service functions demean sociable aspects hopes might wither consciousness entirely Rad turns street because dominates inherently dangerous The result instead street corner society social might called private cameraderie Actually Radburn entire different special within general suburban sprawl In aerial photograph taken surrounding already ent_rely covered houses interior parks forming Radburns green spines housing clustered separated roadways Should unable perceive charac teristics immediately could still identfy Radburn landscaping conspicuously dense Looking toward The parks accessible An integral Radburn design super blocks notion turning houses around living parts house street garbage delvery green parkland Thus narrow streets arounds service parts houses gaping garage doors pantries ktchens Stand across narrow footpaths toward living quarters private yards usually separated dainty pcket fences Perhaps built deference Robert Frost admonition Good fences neighbors lkely children flower Generally efficiently Radburn offers variety housi mostly brick brick clapboard facades There family houses houses garage breezeway attached neighbors rather large nearly Gothic apartment complex detached single family units In The Cty History Lewis Mumford mentions oldest small houses Mohenjo Daro dates third millenum B C slightly larger house occupied Sunnyside Gardens which Cty Housing Corpora viewed model housing estate Tolstoy answered How proportion scale resdent_al dwellngs relatively modern world sometimes serve social values economic possblties In nsofar mddle class housing concerned people thought small Remember Rodgers Hart songs We build There small Well Radburn housing small The Radburn parks ferred A B R because streets paths around begin those alphabetically consis letters The Abbot Court apartment buildings connected passageways footpath leading Needless A Jane Jacobs The Death Life Great American Cities points modern planners persistently confuse crowding people buildings And while condtons often occur simultaneously necessarily Mrs Jacobs density bined overcrowding often results urban slums gives specific amples In years since publshed Houses street New number sample garages tr_icts ncvNegro Evidence garbage produced summer Hough collection unintended touch Cleveland Los social realism Angeles Watts classically another Others constantly simmer boiling point Oakland Californa parts Detroit Philadelphia East Bronx New York Even there overcrowding Americans discovering suburban experience unrelieved density housing without sufficient recreational faciit_ies least produces social tensions There number social values concerns implicit Radburn The first course value living nature facing being system This Lewis Mumford described century development romantic notion suburb living comfortable relation nature instead agriculturally productive countryside Within broad Radburn planners ferentiated variety facilities healthful recreation build swimming pools tennis courts residents expensive frivolity builder sidered heretical Before War Borough Fair Lawn population nearing Radburn Association recre ation facilities conspicuously desirable there jealous tension larger community The Boroughs population public swimming pools almost years still Radburn residents mention trace smugness their pools weeks longer And furthermore their modest Association cover privileges F RL Membership The neighborhood unavoidable enforced Radburn Association written deeds annual determLned basis Borough tabulation assessed value The average family about range The Association maintains parks clears paths pools sponsors summer programs resident ildren community facilties Grange building headquarters Originally AssociatLon housed Plaza building moved Grange Plaza building medium sized albeit center along Fairlawn Avenue dividCng Radburn North Super Block I Radburn South Super Block II The famous overpass straddled Avenue school children wouldn cross against automobile traffLc The administrative difficulty Association admits having Borough policing tennis SLnce Borough nothing comparable temptation courts outsiders seems enduringly strong Perhaps because recreational facltes Radburn develop positve neighborhood spirit early existence Sxty While adults retired original families there elsewhere after theLr children grown signifcant Radburn rased people l_ving there turnover famles about usually leave because transfers In nflated estate market houses Radburn In today market prices range family houge estate houses homes street include extra purchased years barricade against potential development The average house Radburn The Radburn school which orginally served Radburn children draws entire built The schoolyard opens Radburn parks children there The Negro I school traffic underpass which delights children keeps street above I later learned Radburn I asked works Radburn describe people there seemed confused I suggested attempting white collar breakdown That today those engineers morning wearing sport shirts money I dress The tradit suburb economically homogeneous class tradespeople serv_ce personnel brought outside Radburn exception Suburbs nothing history there cities suburbs existed Typically cities always crowded point perpetual sanitary hygenic hazard As Sholom Aleichem crowded streets visible Why should there vacant space build something Isn written earth inhabited merely gazed So cities filthy those could afford delighted country place When suburb slipped nglish during Middle Ages simply referred outside walls usually residential purposes The notion healthful raise children outside walls beginnings immemorial reality urban conditions Then women children remained behind fresh while commuted equivalenta their living The outer limits suburban development established transportation facilities available In century industrial cities reached pinnacles filth suburbs upper middle classes flourished Rail trolley lines stations miles apart scattered small separated communities deeper bands around cities Then In early afternoon children school parks empty except occasionai women stroll grocery store The number people children increased tremendously advent private family The suburb characteristic charming space planned expensive often hazardous roadways In really changed nature natural suburb The Radburn fundamentally about susta suburb making perpetually green recreational again children Mumford childhood suburb transt_onal stages If children focus suburb To urbanite concentration suburban energy enthusiasm recreation exclusion other k_nds human endeavor commercial industral artistic alarming It should however surprising naton worships youth leisure Whle seems appeal Americans notion universal suburb contra diction terms Identity suburb based accessablty separatio density dversty another suburb Stein concluded Radburn splendid venture voyage discovery search practical urban environment actual requirements today The urbanity still debatable As practicality precisely Radburn quaint technological obsolescence makes visiting pilgrimage shrine Modern stoves refrigerators kitchens medium sized garages narrow lanes The sight symbol suburbia station wagon trying worse still funny though passerby think problem posed Only parts Radburn technology parks perfect grace Perhaps itself lesson In students Columbia College f_ield Rad required Contemporary Civilizaton course A raduate period startled learn I there I remember interesting place But fLeld I really enjoyed night Fulton Fish Market Sncerely Ross Lipson Received New York March