Tuesday, 17 October 2017

Myths

Yesterday before storm Ophelia hit it was a warm morning. I had some business to do in town so I decided to walk by way of the seafront. The seafront road in Scarborough stretches for about two miles connecting the North and South Bays. It winds its way around the Castle Headland and on a warm autumn morning with few people around is an absolute joy.

Walking is a time for thought and this walk reminded me of a couple of things that first seemed unrelated, geographically and historically remote from each other. But when I started to think about it they were very much of relevance to each other. At a dinner party recently I was expounding boringly on my thoughts for pedestrianising part of the seafront, specifically the road on South Bay. I feel strongly that the dual carriageway there cuts the town off from the sea, and prevents the area being used to its full potential. I see the seafront as one large piazza full of performance spaces, cafes, and pop-up events. It would be rescued from the belching diesel fumes particularly those from superannuated open-top buses. As usual I am a prophet before my time and I was derided, particularly on the evidence free grounds that it would cause congestion in the town centre and increase journey times particularly from north to south.

I was reminded of this conversation as I read Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, a biography of Robert Moses who was responsible for re-imagining and physically re-shaping New York in the mid-Twentieth Century. Essentially it is a brilliant study of power and how power corrupts. I had read about the extension of roads along the western part of Manhattan Island. Moses believed that these roads were needed to cut journey times in the city. His opponents saw them as despoiling a natural resource that could never be re-created. The river and its environment were forever lost to New Yorkers beneath an ugly road. But the final irony is that the road quickly became jammed and journey times were not improved at all. Like hydra though as one road jammed Moses always thought the solution was just one more road!

This is particularly relevant to Scarborough seafront, the argument being that the seafront road saves time in driving from north to south. Now that maybe is true although I suspect that the gains are marginal. But what it does show is that we value our right to mobility above that of the environment. As a society we think we should have the right to travel quickly between places ignoring the interests of the majority. We do not think that the individual should adjust their behaviour to the benefit of all.


My argument is that if we act as a society we prioritise to the values of that society. Mobility is great but it is not a right particularly when it comes to speed. The additional cost of five minutes is for a few marginal, particularly when it is at the cost of dis-benefit to the majority. So surprising, as it may seem Robert Moses’ desecration of the Manhattan waterfront has huge lessons for Scarborough seafront. As I say I can be extremely boring about this.

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