by Paul Grondahl

More than 50 years on, the anger rises in their voices and belies a deep distrust over the official version of why 3,500 families, predominantly Italian immigrants, watched their houses, shops, restaurants, churches and way of life destroyed to make way for the South Mall. The accepted narrative was that the urban core was a slum and it was erased in the name of urban renewal and social progress.

More than 1,500 homes and apartment buildings, 350 businesses, four churches and 29 taverns were seized and torn down by the state under the law of eminent domain. Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller's Modernist white marble monolith rose from a 98-acre hole that had been cut in the heart of the capital city.

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Source: http://www.timesunion.com/