Fighting Westway

Environmental Law, Citizen Activism, and the Regulatory War That Transformed New York City

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology, Urban, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book Fighting Westway by William W. Buzbee, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William W. Buzbee ISBN: 9780801470295
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: April 4, 2014
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: William W. Buzbee
ISBN: 9780801470295
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: April 4, 2014
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

From 1971 to 1985, battles raged over Westway, a multibillion-dollar highway, development, and park project slated for placement in New York City. It would have projected far into the Hudson River, including massive new landfill extending several miles along Manhattan’s Lower West Side. The most expensive highway project ever proposed, Westway also provoked one of the highest stakes legal battles of its day. In Fighting Westway, William W. Buzbee reveals how environmentalists, citizens, their lawyers, and a growing opposition coalition, despite enormous resource disparities, were able to defeat this project supported by presidents, senators, governors, and mayors, much of the business community, and most unions. Although Westway’s defeat has been derided as lacking justification, Westway’s critics raised substantial and ultimately decisive objections. They questioned claimed project benefits and advocated trading federal Westway dollars for mass transit improvements. They also exposed illegally disregarded environmental risks, especially to increasingly scarce East Coast young striped bass often found in extraordinarily high numbers right where Westway was to be built.Drawing on archival records and interviews, Buzbee goes beyond the veneer of government actions and court rulings to illuminate the stakes, political pressures, and strategic moves and countermoves that shaped the Westway war, a fight involving all levels and branches of government, scientific conflict, strategic citizen action, and hearings, trials, and appeals in federal court. This Westway history illuminates how high-stakes regulatory battles are fought, the strategies and power of America’s environmental laws, ways urban priorities are contested, the clout of savvy citizen activists and effective lawyers, and how separation of powers and federalism frameworks structure legal and political conflict. Whether readers seek an exciting tale of environmental, political, and legal conflict, to learn what really happened during these battles that transformed New York City, or to understand how modern legal frameworks shape high stakes regulatory wars, Fighting Westway will provide a good read.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

From 1971 to 1985, battles raged over Westway, a multibillion-dollar highway, development, and park project slated for placement in New York City. It would have projected far into the Hudson River, including massive new landfill extending several miles along Manhattan’s Lower West Side. The most expensive highway project ever proposed, Westway also provoked one of the highest stakes legal battles of its day. In Fighting Westway, William W. Buzbee reveals how environmentalists, citizens, their lawyers, and a growing opposition coalition, despite enormous resource disparities, were able to defeat this project supported by presidents, senators, governors, and mayors, much of the business community, and most unions. Although Westway’s defeat has been derided as lacking justification, Westway’s critics raised substantial and ultimately decisive objections. They questioned claimed project benefits and advocated trading federal Westway dollars for mass transit improvements. They also exposed illegally disregarded environmental risks, especially to increasingly scarce East Coast young striped bass often found in extraordinarily high numbers right where Westway was to be built.Drawing on archival records and interviews, Buzbee goes beyond the veneer of government actions and court rulings to illuminate the stakes, political pressures, and strategic moves and countermoves that shaped the Westway war, a fight involving all levels and branches of government, scientific conflict, strategic citizen action, and hearings, trials, and appeals in federal court. This Westway history illuminates how high-stakes regulatory battles are fought, the strategies and power of America’s environmental laws, ways urban priorities are contested, the clout of savvy citizen activists and effective lawyers, and how separation of powers and federalism frameworks structure legal and political conflict. Whether readers seek an exciting tale of environmental, political, and legal conflict, to learn what really happened during these battles that transformed New York City, or to understand how modern legal frameworks shape high stakes regulatory wars, Fighting Westway will provide a good read.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book By Sword and Plow by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book A Fight for the Soul of Public Education by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Code Green by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Untold Futures by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Protest Politics in the Marketplace by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Handbook of Larval Amphibians of the United States and Canada by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book First, Do Less Harm by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book To Follow in Their Footsteps by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Small States in World Markets by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Losing Hearts and Minds by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Fleas, Flies, and Friars by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Activists beyond Borders by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book The Future of the Dollar by William W. Buzbee
Cover of the book Why Intelligence Fails by William W. Buzbee
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy