the context of where the block is is there a place for deliveries you know all these things still apply. one of the really wonderful excavations in the book is early in the century, the police commissioner of all people decides that we need to close streets for children to play. presumably because there was some concern about what kids doing with their time. maybe it was less rather than more construct and not something you'd imagine happening today. but the more you, the more you read the book, the more you can sort of unearth these really wonderful hidden gems things that we have forgotten in our own history other questions. yeah yeah thanks for reminding about a place. so i had forgotten about them and they were really cool when i was little by my other question was would we be a better place if it was a political capital that like paris or london or

budapest which have better transportation systems? many ways, but they are political capitals of their countries, not just the capital. so business travelers oh, i guess the short answer is i don't know. there are we don't wash ington has a transit system. it is not as much a transit city as new york is, london, paris. you mentioned budapest some i haven't been there. copenhagen, stockholm. it is strikingly more easy to fund and run an efficient transit system in those places. it is to do here and so that has to do with all sorts of things from funding to splitting the politics between or among three different levels of government.

you know, there's no real transit advocacy community, paris, in london, there's not much a bicycling advocacy community, but the city and in other levels of government, just of know to do all of these things, you know, you don't need 50 people being paid to advocate for transit to know you should kind of run the trains frequently. so there are many ideas creative differences among these places. i think it may too easy to say if we were the political capital, our problems would be solved. yes, this is it's not just about policy history. it's also about people. shirley hayes was such a dynamic character. but can you speak about some of the other more colorful characters in the movement involved with transit? yeah, i think so. yeah, we we talked about shirley hayes, the washington park flight. we talked lindsay, another one,

of course, is mike quill. and that's another know similar to lindsay. i have much more nuanced picture of quill than i did when. i started out researching the 1966 transit strike. so the 1966 transit strike was important. and that that was the first time we had transit. and it actually showed how transit was to city. if we hadn't had that strike, arguably, we would not have created the mta and eventually refunded the transit system. but that course, that transit strike was mike quill's strike. he was the head of the transport workers union in a much more complex man that i think history gives him credit for. he really understood the subtlety of the changing

political environment that of the things that lindsay ran and won on was. he wanted to end the old machine politics way of things lindsay in many ways was a candidate who wanted to reduce the of the public sector labor unions. one of the reasons the police didn't like him was he wanted police to work more hours at night. you know, very reasonable. an era of rising but he wasn't able to accomplish so just seeing how mike quill kind of saw this as labor's last stand against a technocratic governor in an that would become a a era more skeptical of labor unions and realizing if we go along with this will be going along for things forever. so he refused to go along and that's kind of when the split of weakening private sector unions and strengthening public unions

really began. so he he much more than the sort of, you know, telling the judge to drop dead. i mean, these were very well thought out strategy and tactics, even telling the judge to drop dead. he understood new york an attention economy unless can get that sound bite you are not winning in new york city for better and for worse as our current president knows. yeah. do you think self-driving, for example, changed that equation or whether you how many more things because profit taxes that like so many you i think self-driving cars can they they certainly can and will change urban environment whether do

that for the better or for the worse will be up to the elected and appointed officials in that there are sam lays in his book of a few years ago. you don't want a scenario where it is so cheap to procure and use self-driving car that can put my kid in a car and have that child driven to one school and then put my kid in another car and have that you you proliferating the number of cars on the street. so unless they are adequately priced for all of the externalities that create and we have to resist the temptation to say, oh, we can can have these cars going very quickly in a caravan if don't let pedestrians cross the streets as often or in other words going back to redesigning the streets around the car rather than the other way around. so as long as they fit into a

successful environment, yes, they may improve safety again, as sam notes, the subway car is the safest mode. transportation known to even safer than commercial airline flights from an operational point of view, anything that takes people off of subway and puts them in a car has to meet a very high bar in terms of the safety as well. the question here. yeah, thank you. first of all, congratulations. thanks for taking my my question. is the transportation policy need to be in a left right political and how do you get people on all sides to embrace new transportation policy? yeah, no, i think that's that's a great question and i know you've had your own run ins with this. i hope that it doesn't have to fit in a left right divide. i think new york is a unique environment where in in much of

the country, although cities like l.a., nashville have been at least marginally embracing more transit over the past 20 years in a lot of the country people don't think about transit. 100% depend on their car. you're from my perspective although i respect the other perspective of just leave those people alone i am not going out and saying going to take away your car and your person you know wherever you live. suburban america this argument is about new york city and similar dense cities that have a have a transit infrastructure in place. how do we marginally weigh the scales in favor of transit traffic, foot traffic and cycle traffic and away from the cars hopefully people on the left, on the right in the middle can see

pragmatic arguments for some of these issues without the sort of, you know, conspiracy izing over the 15 minute city on one hand and no no crime on the subway on the other. you know, the these issues succeed on some middle ground. yeah, yeah. challenges to the tribalism stage city mta port authority jersey transit how do you get everyone on the same. i it's very difficult and i think that points up why this has been a battle of inches i think the biggest was that the bloomberg administration understanding okay we can't get congestion pricing but we do control the physical streets there is a lot that we can do on the physical streets with just the mayor so the mayor may depend on albany a lot of things

from most of the city's tax revenue sources to the public law enforcement. the set of laws under which city operates. but when it comes to what does this lane of the street belong to. the mayor can can that very quickly, just having mayor, who will stand up for his or her appointees on just a landscape of the streets itself. can be used for good or for will and in many or for ill, in many ways, it's a city hasn't even gotten to yet. so just that design the streets is a good place to re remember and to to start with i think our time is coming short. we'll one more question. yes, sir? how many cities have a relationship, a robust transit and the economic attacks created

from that with the transit or, you know, sometimes as a system or groups or as a japan that the entity managing director knows that we will see some of that this government potentially. so why why is and what are challenges that having more of that. yeah and i think that goes to paul's question it it would make a lot of sense to a transit revenue source is based on the value of the property. so if you're half a mile out from a major transit trunk line part of your property tax goes to operating that transit line something like east side, for example, it would have made sense to take a little bit of those long island property taxes along that right of way and use that to defray the cost east side access why it done you know again as paul brought up or alluded to the city controls the

property tax the state controls the transit system. so there is never any incentive for the city agree to increase its own to fund this state run transit system and have the governor get the credit to the extent that anyone that the transit system is running a little bit better than it was. nicole, any last words anything that you were not asked that you would like to say? oh, no. i just want to say thank you again, howard. think you pretty much covered it. and you know, happy to talk afterwards. if anyone has thoughts and questions changes, i hope everybody buys a book buy one for your [applause] >> i hope everybody buys a book. my one for a friend. >> and thank you to p&t as well. >> thank you all forol coming o. >> think you, no call. thank you, howard. were going toa set aside a portion of july 2 bit, we have a couple copies left at the register. in the event we run out, more on

the way. we can have one reserved for you and t nicole signed bookplates. we will be open for another half hour or so, so please enjoy yourself and have a great night. [inaudible conversations] >> if you are a join booktv been signed up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive the schedule of upcoming programs, author discussions, book festival and more. booktv every sunday on c-span2 or anytime online at booktv.org. television for serious readers. >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday american history tv documents america's stories, and on sundays booktv brings you the latest in