The Box - Marc Levinson [164]
11. The original proposals for the Waterfront Commission came from the Dewey-appointed New York State Crime Commission and from the Port Authority. See State of New York, Record of the Public Hearing Held by Governor Thomas E. Dewey on the Recommendations of the New York State Crime Commission for Remedying Conditions on the Waterfront of the Port of New York, June 8–9, 1953, and PNYA, “Comparison of Plans for Improvement of Waterfront Labor Conditions in the Port of New York,” January 29, 1953; A. H. Raskin, “C-Men on the Waterfront,” NYT Magazine, October 9, 1955, p. 15; letters from Lee K. Jaffe, director of public relations, PNYA, to Steve Allen, NBC Television, November 1, 1957, and from Daniel P. Noonan, director of Public Relations, Department of Marine and Aviation, to Steve Allen, October 31, 1957, Wagner Papers, Reel 40531, Frames 1920 and 1922. The film, a musical about a political campaign between rebels and old-line union leaders on the waterfront, was eventually shot on a privately owned pier.
12. A pier inventory, compiled after some of the oldest had been demolished, can be found in New York City Planning Commission, The Waterfront (New York, 1971), p. 89; Cavanagh letter to Board of Inquiry; George Home, “City Action Seen on Port Program,” NYT, August 7, 1952; Austin J. Tobin, “Transportation in the New York Metropolitan Region during the Next Twenty-five Years” (New York, 1954), p. 7.
13. A massive truck terminal in lower Manhattan, opened in 1932, was the main exception. See Doig, Empire on the Hudson, pp. 84–104 and 118–119.
14. Wallace S. Sayre and Herbert Kaufman, Governing New York City: Politics in the Metropolis (New York, 1960), p. 341; cover letter in PNYA, Marine Terminal Survey of the New Jersey Waterfront (New York, 1949); Doig, Empire on the Hudson, pp. 259–260. A prominent article by Cullman published within nine months of the war’s end discussed the urgent need for improved port facilities and airports and noted the Port Authority’s success at carrying out large capital projects; the subheadline—written at a time when the agency had no responsibility whatsoever for ports or airports—was: “Now the Port Authority, with 25 years behind it, prepares for a new era of sea, land, and air traffic.” See “Our Port of Many Ports,” NYT Magazine, May 5, 1946, p. 12.
15. John I. Griffin, The Port of New York (New York, 1959), p. 91; PNYA, “Proposal for Development”; Austin J. Tobin, statement to New York City Board of Estimate, July 19, 1948, Doig Files; PNYA, Annual Report 1949, p. 7; PNYA, Marine Terminal Survey, 5; Doig, Empire on the Hudson, pp. 353–354 and 538. As early as 1946, the city’s commissioner of marine and aviation was rejecting suggestions that the Port Authority should organize a port improvement campaign, commenting that “the Port Authority has nothing to do with the Port of New York, and has no authority in it.” See “Rejuvenated Port to Rise in Future,” NYT, November 23, 1946. The ILA’s role in opposition is noted in Joshua Freeman, Working-Class New York (New York, 2000), p. 161.
16. PNYA, Weekly Report to Commissioners, April 5, 1952; “Betterments Set for Port Newark,” NYT, April 9, 1952; Charles Zerner, “Big Port Terminal Near Completion,” NYT, January 31, 1954; Edward P. Tastrom, “Newark Port to Start Operating New $6 Million Terminal Soon,” JOC, March 9, 1954; “Awaits Bid for Piers,” Newark Evening News, December 8, 1952; “Modernizing the Docks,” New York World-Telegram, December 9, 1952; “City