The Battle For Gotham

The titanic clash of wills between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs in the 1960s and how their dueling perspectives helped to define contemporary urban life.

In the 1970s, New York City hit rock bottom. Crime was at its highest, the middle class exodus was in high gear, and bankruptcy loomed. Many people credit New York's "master builder" Robert Moses with turning Gotham around, despite his brutal, undemocratic. and demolition-heavy ways. Urban critic and journalist Roberta Brandes Gratz contradicts this conventional view. New York City, Gratz argues, recovered precisely because of the waning power of Moses. His decline in the late 1960s and the drying up of big government funding for urban renewal projects allowed New York to organically regenerate according to the precepts defined by Jane Jacobs in her classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and in contradiction to Moses's urban philosophy. As American cities face a devastating economic crisis, Jacobs's philosophy is again vital for the redevelopment of metropolitan life. Gratz who was named as one of Planetizen's Top 100 Urban Thinkers gives an on-the-ground account of urban renewal and community success.

In the 1970s, New York City hit rock bottom. Crime was at its highest, middleclass exodus was in high gear, and bankruptcy loomed. Many people credit New York's “master builder,” Robert Moses, with turning Gotham around, despite his heavy-handed ways. Roberta Brandes Gratz contradicts this conventional view. She argues that New York City recovered precisely because of the waning power of Moses and the growing influence of Jane Jacobs, the pioneer of organic renewal projects. As American cities face a new economic crisis, Jacobs's philosophy is again vital for metropolitan life. Gratz gives an on-the-ground account of urban renewal and community success. Her writing—at once personal, political, and instructive—breaks down how the impossible was achieved.

In Politics in Gotham, scholars from a variety of fields—political science, philosophy, law, and others—provide answers to the question: “What does Batman have to do with politics?” Contributors use the Batman canon, from the comics to the feature films, to explore a broad range of issues in politics and political thought. What can Batman’s role in Gotham City teach us about democracy? How do Batman’s vigilantism and his violence fit within a society committed to the rule of law? What’s the relationship between politics in Gotham and politics in our own communities? From Machiavelli to the fake news phenomenon, this book provides a compelling introduction to the politics behind one of the world’s most enduring pop culture figures.

As gang violence runs rampant and the city's rogues gallery capitalise on the chaos, Nightwing, Robin, and many of Gotham's other heroes and anti-heroes must battle for the right to wear the mantle of the Bat. Who will succeed Bruce Wayne - and how will they choose to honour his legacy?

Despite having no formal training in urban planning, Jane Jacobs deftly explores the strengths and weaknesses of policy arguments put forward by American urban planners in the era after World War II. They believed that the efficient movement of cars was of more value in the development of US cities than the everyday lives of the people living there. By carefully examining their relevance in her 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs dismantles these arguments by highlighting their shortsightedness. She evaluates the information to hand and comes to a very different conclusion, that urban planners ruin great cities, because they don’t understand that it is a city’s social interaction that makes it great. Proposals and policies that are drawn from planning theory do not consider the social dynamics of city life. They are in thrall to futuristic fantasies of a modern way of living that bears no relation to reality, or to the desires of real people living in real spaces. Professionals lobby for separation and standardization, splitting commercial, residential, industrial, and cultural spaces. But a truly visionary approach to urban planning should incorporate spaces with mixed uses, together with short, walkable blocks, large concentrations of people, and a mix of new and old buildings. This creates true urban vitality.

The television series Gotham gave viewers a unique perspective on the fascinating world of Batman, the legendary comic book character. More than a simple "origin story," the series introduces viewers to a pre-Batman Gotham City, where young hero-cop James Gordon fights a one-man war on crime. In a city where crime is evolving from traditional organized crime to a city plagued by flamboyant and psychotic "super villains," there is a desperate need for a Batman. All of this is witnessed by Bruce Wayne, who was orphaned after his parents were murdered. This book details how characters and story lines throughout the series touch on modern America: our ethics and flaws, our fears and aspirations. Chapters also explore the show's unique twists to classic depictions of the franchise's characters, who have been adored by millions of fans across the decades. Throughout the text, the authors examine Gotham for its insight into 21st-century America, concluding in the exhilarating and frightening conclusion that "We ARE Gotham."

Crime is down in Gotham City…Could that be a bad thing? A coordinated effort in Gotham has led to a reduction in violent crime, but at what cost? Villains scatter as their lives begin to crumble under a new regime. And as Batman recovers from his epic battle through the Multiverse and the horrors of Knight Terrors, one name runs through his mind. One name at the heart of this new, safer Gotham…Catwoman. A conflict that’s been brewing for well over a year finally hits the streets, and it will fracture the Bat-Family as war erupts! From bestselling writers Chip Zdarsky and Tini Howard and artists Mike Hawthorne and Adriano Di Benedetto comes the opening shot in the Gotham War!