ABSTRACT

The three most interesting and controversial issues were the aborted Narrows Tunnel, the Hudson River Bridge controversy, and the fight with Robert Moses over the location of Long Island parkways. The three cases just described demonstrate how the technologically stimulated growth of the metropolitan area beyond the bounds of New York City had created a power vacuum demanding to be filled. In the Narrows Tunnel debate, the Committee espoused the position of the Hylan administration in opposition to the New York State legislature, and, indirectly, the Port Authority. The Hudson River Bridge controversy saw the Committee on the Regional Plan allied with the Port Authority against private entrepreneurship. In the conflict over Long Island parkways, the Regional Plan Committee was accused by Moses of protecting the special interests of its affluent members against the general public good for which Moses felt he spoke.