He helped Jane Jacobs defeat Robert Moses’ plan to build a four-lane highway through Washington Square Park in the late 1950s — brokering an unlikely alliance between Ms. Jacobs, the urban theorist, and Carmine De Sapio, the Tammany boss, that eventually saw not only Moses’ plan killed, but all vehicular traffic banished from the park.What a hero!
He negotiated the deal in which the City of New York bought and renovated Yankee Stadium in 1971, when the team’s owners had threatened to leave and Mayor John V. Lindsay resolved to make them stay.Again, a hero.
[In 1963, Redlich became] executive assistant to the Warren Commission’s chief counsel, J. Lee Rankin. In that job, he and several other staff lawyers, including Arlen Specter, the future Pennsylvania senator, devised the single-bullet theory...A more ambiguous accomplishment. It resolved everything, but the resolution could never be fully accepted.
The widespread doubt cast on the theory in later years caused Mr. Redlich to tell a Congressional subcommittee reviewing the commission’s findings in 1977, “I think there are simply a great many people who cannot accept what I believe to be the simple truth, that one rather insignificant person was able to assassinate the president of the United States.”
RIP.
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In that job, he and several other staff lawyers, including Arlen Specter, the future Pennsylvania senator, devised the single-bullet theory...
Well, if they 'devised' the single-bullet theory, does that imply that they made it up? (Instead of, you know, the 'single bullet theory' fitting the facts, then or now.)
It is nearly impossible to discuss the assassination without conspiracy theory creeping into the discussion.
Anyone who beat that tyrant Robert Moses is okay in my book.
I'm a fan of Otto Redlich. Especially the Redlich-Teller product rule.
A four lane highway through Washington Square Park!
I can see pros and cons for this.
About a half dozen next Dylans can be heard busking in WSP on any reasonably warm sunny day.
A four lane highway would put an end to this nonsense.
Hero?? NYC is in a fiscal crisis and the city buys Yankee Stadium so a convicted felon can buy the Yankees a couple years later w/ a free ballpark. Only in America can mega wealthy owners get taxpayers to build their ballparks.
Only in America can mega wealthy owners get taxpayers to build their ballparks.
Don't be a spoil sport. It's the frigging Yankees!
The Cubs are trying to get the State of Illinois to cough up for a complete renovation of Wrigley Field. Bastards won't pony up.
How is it heroic to make overburdened New Yorkers pay for what Steinbrenner had the money to pay for, a new Yankee Stadium?
How is it heroic to make overburdened New Yorkers pay for what Steinbrenner had the money to pay for, a new Yankee Stadium?
Who said it was heroic?
I just said: Whatever the frigging Yankees want, the frigging Yankees should get.
Now, if only the Cubbies could get a little support from the taxpayers of the great State of Illinois.
How is it heroic to make overburdened New Yorkers pay for what Steinbrenner had the money to pay for, a new Yankee Stadium?
Hey, it's the American way. Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.
A more ambiguous accomplishment. It resolved everything, but the resolution could never be fully accepted
Not to get side-tracked (and, yeah, we will) but the single bullet theory is, for me, the only logical explanation of what happened.
If, for example, the bullet exiting JFK's throat didn't hit Governor Connally (and the two men were not lined up exactly), then where did it go? It had to go somewhere else. It should have tore up the back seat of the limo and other parts of the car.
There should have been evidence of the back seat of the Presiden't limo shot up and torn apart by the bullet. But pictures taken immediately after the shooting show no damage.
And with that, off we will probably go.
[In 1963, Redlich became] executive assistant to the Warren Commission’s chief counsel, J. Lee Rankin. In that job, he and several other staff lawyers, including Arlen Specter, the future Pennsylvania senator, devised the single-bullet theory...
Given that JFK was born in 1917, the still-alive-as-a-vegetable theory is becoming ever less plausible.
Peter
A lot of the mess in which Gotham finds itself is due to the way Robert Moses destroyed neighborhoods.
Redlich, even if he couldn't win 'em all, did the city a favor.
PS A lot of the "theories", conspiracy and otherwise, surrounding Jack Kennedy's murder ignore the fact that Oswald was an expert with the weapon he used and an expert could accurately fire the number of rounds fired in that time frame.
"He negotiated the deal in which the City of New York bought and renovated Yankee Stadium in 1971, when the teams owners had threatened to leave..."
What, a hero? Should've let them leave, if nothing else just to watch Trooper's young head explode.
First of all youse guys know nuthin about the history of the Yankees.
At the time that deal went down the Yankees were owned by CBS and Bill Paley the liberal of liberals. The politicians didn't want to get on his bad side so they made the deal.
Steinbrenner and the Yankees weren't always that rich. In fact George only actually put up about $800,000 of his own money to buy the club. The rest came from many limited partners. The fact of the matter is that CBS was so desperate to take the deal that they sold at a substantial discount.
The Yankees of those days barely had one million fans. The ballpark was almost always empty. Even in the great 1961 season you could walk right up and buy good seats.
The economic juggernaut that is the Yankees was entirely and soley created through Steinbrenners actions. His use of free agency, publicity and the creation of a cable TV network is what made the Yankees what they are today.
The most valuable franchise in the history of sports.
The Mets on the other hand have always been the darlings of the city and it's politicos. The land that Shea staduim was built on came from the city as well as all of the improvements to Flushing Meadow Park.
I personally don't think municpalities should be involved in funding staduims in any way. It was big mistake for the city to get invovled in new staduims for the Mets and Yankees.
The old Yankee staduim should never have been torn down. It should have been refurbished again to stand as a monument like Fenway Park or Wrigly Field.
These staduims only happened because Bloomberg has turned over the City to the Real Estate interests. Of course none of that is explored in the dirt bag mainstream media as most of those douchenozzles want to get jobs from Bloomberg Media someday.
I remember the first time I went to the "Old Yankee Staduim." In 1961 my dad said com'om I am going to take you and your buddies to the game. Even though he was a big Met's fan he knew I was a huge Roger Maris fan so he took us to the Staduim.
There is no way to describe the feeling as you are riding on the 4 train and it burst out of the tunnel and you see Yankee staduim coming up on the right. All of the people going to the game pile out of the train. You look down from the elevated tracks and see all the people going into Stan's bar or the souviner shops along River Avenue. You smell the hot dogs and pretzels roasting and here the vendors yelling "Program here" as you dart between the crowd which is walking in what seems every direction at once. You walked along the side street by Macomb Dams Park and entered throught the Centerfield entrance.
As you walk out of the grandstand you see this blue sky and then below the verdant green field where your heros are tossing the pea around. They are all there. Roger Maris. Elston Howard. Yogi Berra. Bobby Richardson. Tony Kubeck. Hector Lopez. Mickey is still in the clubhouse throwing up but he will be there at game time.
You take out your stub of a pencil and mark out the lineups. You don't need to see the names on the backs of the uniforms because you know the numbers of your heros.
You stand up for the national anthem and wait for the last two words of the song: "Play ball!"
You cheer along with the rest of the crowd and you wait for that sound that you have been waited for all day. The ball flies out of Bob Turley's hand and it hits Elston's mitt. First pitch.
All is well with the world.
It might never be this good again.
"I think there are simply a great many people who cannot accept what I believe to be the simple truth, that one rather insignificant person was able to assassinate the president of the United States"
This really is at the heart of the conspiracy theories, along with Ruby's shooting of Oswald. The President of the United States is supposed to be the most powerful man in the world. If he can't protect himself from having his brains blown out by some loser, what chance is there for the rest of us? The conspiracy theories are quite comforting.
As for Ruby, I can see why younger people would believe it would be impossible for Ruby to off Oswald without some inside help. But it was a different world back then. No security gates at every public building. Not even at airports. You walked onto a plane like walking onto a bus. You weren't even strip-searched! Same for the local police station.
"... one rather insignificant person ..."
One rather arrogant speaker. I expected Ann to pick up on that dangerous snobbery. Perhaps loyalty to the guru, which is required, prevented. Anyhow, anyone who takes down a POTUS is insignificant neither before, during nor after the deed. Two skyscrapers in NYC came down because of people considered insignificant by a whole lot of observers. Ann comments on the unsettling one bullet theory but not the dangerous snobbery expressed after the fact of the theory that must have been present also before the fact of the theory. Informing the theory?
Each of us is insignificant until we do something significant. Meaning, none of us is insignificant, each of us is significant. Our significance is not in what we do but who we are. If we do anything significant, that expresses who we are.
The intent driving the creation of DHS was to reorganize large segments of the US national security infrastructure to be governed and tasked by the assumption that everyone is a person of interest. Meaning, everyone is a significant person. From a law-enforcement point of view, that is the case. Especially when it is political/economic policy to flood the countryside with non-complying non-citizens.
“And with that, off we will probably go.”
Perhaps.
But the evidence for a single-bullet has become even more persuasive since the theory was first proposed almost five decades ago.
I'm sorry Trooper, I couldn't understand you..take Hank Steinbrenner's dick out of your mouth and tell me again about The Boss. You failed to mention in your redacted history of King George that one of his partners was John DeLorean. I was raised a Yankee fan by my old man and my mother's family were Red Sox fans. Steinbrenner did revive the Yanks but much of it was in spite of him, not because of him. Just ask George Costanza.
ndspinelli you have to be kidding me. George was the reason for the Yankees sucess. He was willing to spend the money and take the risks and do what had to be done. If anything the new regime has blown it. You can't tell me that if George was around that we would have lost out on Cliff Lee or any other free agent we wanted. George is the reason why the Yankees are where they are. Teams like the Red Sox and the Phillies only started to suceed when they copied his techingues. Why don't you go to Queens and hang out with the Wiponzies and the rest of the loser Met fans.
And so what if one if his partners was John Delorean? What does that mean? He had a bunch of partners over the years but they were just along for the ride. George was the driving force and the reason for the Yankees sucess. His record of championships, money spent and more importantly money earned is unequalled in professional sports.
Don't be a sore loser, loser. I think Jose Reyes just pulled his hammy and Jason Bey just got a hemmoroid or something.
I mean who rebuilt the current Yankees? Buck Showalter? What the fuck did ever do with the Yankees?
Joe Torre? What the fuck did he ever do without the Yankees?
Gene Michael? How did he do as an manager or executive without the Yankees money behind him?
Those douchenozzles are all ready to take credit for all the good things and claim all the bad stuff was George. The fact remains he risked the money. And made the moves that allowed him to have the money to risk by creating the Yes network and establishing the model that every subsequent team follows if they want to play with the big boys for more than one fluke year.
And I just figured out I don't know how to spell "success!"
That sucks. So to speak.
Trooper, You're dug in on The Boss and I'm not going to change your mind. However, shortly after buying the Yanks in 1973 he was suspended for 2 years. So..when the Yanks won the pennant in 1976 it was substantially accomplished w/ George sitting in Tampa scratching his nuts. And..I was living in KC and rooting for the Royals when they swept your asses in 1980 and George huffed out of the ballpark like a prissy little girl. I'm sure you remember the classic footage of that buffoon trying to put on his sportcoat and ranting like an asshole. KC..a team from the smallest market, swept your guy's team! George Brett[a real ballplayer] putting a Goose fastball into the upper deck..remember that one Trooper?? Or do you have Yankee Alzheimers..you only remember the victories.
Ann,
I lived in the Village from 1976 to 1984. Thank God the cross town expressway was never built in the Village. I also supported the defeat of the West Side Highway plans of Rockefeller,Lindsey, Morris et al (Abe Beam?).
I've always wondered if we had crossed paths at that time. I lived at 13 W13th Street. I recall shopping in the markets of Ave of the Americas, Bleeker and West 4th.
Pizza at Johns on Bleeker, roast chicken at either Balducci's or the Jefferson Market, And coffee at that little upstairs cafe a block south of the Jefferson Library. Did I see you there? Perhaps. If not then its my loss.
I am glad that you had such a progressive legal scholar. Your education appears to have made you a better skilled libertarian legal advocate IMHO.
I remember the losses just like the wins. And George was more sinned against then a sinner. He was suspended for campaign contributions when basicly Nixons White House told him he had to pay up or he would lose all of his government contracts. So he paid up and the aftermath of Watergate cooked his goose.
The measley win here or there by some little pissant team like the Royals or the Red Sox or the Diamond Backs or the Marlins don't mean much when weighed against the totatlity of the Yankees tradition of victory.
How have those Royals done lately in the last I don't know thirty years or so?
Not so good.
I bet if George had owned them they would have won five pennants in the ensuing years. Just sayn' dude.
I think Robert Moses did some great things...but the Cross Bronx Expressway wasn't one of them (and helped ruin the Bronx) and the Cross City highway would have been a disaster too. The West Side HWay and FDR Drive around the city are critical, however.
I also think the fact that conspiracy theories about Kennedy and the 9/11 truthers are from that same place - how could a person/people so insignificant to the great American super power do so much damage? Then the conspiracy theories start. By the way, the one bullet theory has been proven a few times. Last on Mythbusters I think.
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