‘That was our beach’: Notes on Fred Conrad’s Iconic 1977 Photograph
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
My grandparents lived in Brooklyn, and when I was pretty young, they took me to the roof of one of the Twin Towers, the Empire State Building, and across the ferry and up the Statue of Liberty, probably in 1975/6. I still remember bits of that visit, that it was an overcast day and very dark, and from the roofs, I couldn't really see anything because I was probably still under 4' tall.
In 2001, I was working at a startup in Austin. I saw the second impact on television, and the rest of it. I followed my boss home, and in his mail that day (had arrived the day before) was a piece of tourism marketing from New York. It was a postcard with an image of the Twin Towers from an angle above, and written across the image was the enticement, "Get up! Get out! Get away!" Surreal.
[0] https://cs12.pikabu.ru/post_img/big/2021/04/20/10/1618940061...
[1] https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/03/30/lens/29-photograp...
It’s a Beach if We Say So: Lost Scenes From Downtown’s Hipster Landfill
Before Battery Park City, artists and sun-seekers made themselves at home.
But I feel the whole thing could do with a map for context.
these might be useful:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XabzkD02Sqw/TyLIsZvsPgI/AAAAAAAAWF...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/interactive-map-compa...
> The World Trade Center officially opened on a rainy morning in April 1973. Then, that
> fall, the members of OPEC declared an oil embargo against nations that supported
> Israel during the Yom Kippur War and the price of gasoline skyrocketed, sending the U.S.
> economy into a tailspin. Economic stagnation combined with plummeting tax revenue resulting
> from an exodus of wealthy (and largely white) residents left New York in an intractable
> financial crisis. By 1975, the city had run out of money to pay for normal operating
> expenses and faced the prospect of defaulting on its obligations and declaring bankruptcy.
1973 was a surprise (no one thought the countries involved could stick together).
The major countries in OPEC (in particular Saudi Arabia, which can produce oil at around $10/barrel) still have power, but since the development of shale oil in mid 2000's even that power is diminished.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/597669/cost-breakdown-of... (Note that this doesn't include distribution costs which are significant)
The Bush v Gore Supreme Court decision in 2000 was largely about if we were going to double down on fossil fuels or transition to renewables IMHO. As usual, the US made the.. let's just say not progressive choice.
Tons of documentaries talk about these sorts of unforced errors that get buried under revisionist history:
Europe chose a different path and now they’re beholden not only to OPEC but also to Russia.
However, energy is an international market and being “independent” is more of a political idea than something that could ever exist in reality.
For context, in the 1970s the US was ~83% white (57% today) [1], and New York was ~62% white (30% today) [2]. So you could append "largely white" to most things at the time.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_New_Yor...
Jane Levere: What does the title of your book mean?
Justin Beal: The title is willfully ambiguous.
But the article was pretty cool. I always liked the twin towers. But I'll admit architecture as art is subjective.