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Robert Moses

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Robert Moses
Moses in 1939 with a model of his proposedBattery Bridge
49thSecretary of State of New York
In office
January 17, 1927 – January 1, 1929
GovernorAl Smith
Preceded byFlorence E. S. Knapp
Succeeded byEdward J. Flynn
1st Chairman of theNew York State Council of Parks
In office
1924–1963
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byLaurance Rockefeller
1stCommissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
In office
January 18, 1934 – May 23, 1960
Appointed by
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byNewbold Morris
Personal details
Born(1888-12-18)December 18, 1888
New Haven, Connecticut,U.S.
DiedJuly 29, 1981(1981-07-29)(aged 92)
West Islip, New York,U.S.
Resting placeWoodlawn Cemetery,Bronx,New York City, U.S.
Political partyRepublican[1]
Spouses
  • Mary Sims
    ​
    ​
    (m.1915; died 1966)​
  • Mary Alicia Grady
    ​
    (m.1966)​
Children2
Education

Robert Moses(December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an Americanurban plannerand public official who worked in theNew York metropolitan areaduring the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in thehistory of New York CityandNew York State.The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States.[2]

Never elected to any office, Moses held various positions throughout his more-than-40-year career. He held as many as 12 titles at once, includingNew York City Parks Commissionerand chairman of theLong Island State Park Commission.[3]By working closely with New York governorAl Smithearly in his career, he became expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating the workings of state government. He created and led numerous semi-autonomouspublic authorities,through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issuedbondsto fund new ventures with little outside input or oversight.

Moses's projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way cities in the U.S. were designed and built. As Long Island State Park Commissioner, Moses oversaw the construction ofJones Beach State Park,the most-visited public beach in the United States,[4]and was the primary architect of theNew York State Parkway System.As head of theTriborough Bridge Authority,Moses had near-complete control over bridges and tunnels in New York City as well as the tolls collected from them; he built, among others, theTriborough Bridge,theBrooklyn–Battery Tunnel,and theThrogs Neck Bridge,as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongsideurban renewalefforts that destroyed huge swaths of tenement housing and replaced them with largepublic housing projects,transformed the physical fabric of New York and inspired other cities to undertake similar development endeavors.

Moses's reputation declined after the publication ofRobert Caro'sPulitzer Prize-winning biographyThe Power Broker(1974), which cast doubt on the purported benefits of many of Moses's projects and further cast Moses as racist. In large part because ofThe Power Broker,[5]Moses is today considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State.

Early life and education

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Moses was born inNew Haven, Connecticut,on December 18, 1888, to parents ofGerman Jewishdescent, Bella (Silverman) and Emanuel Moses.[6][7]He spent the first nine years of his life living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven, two blocks fromYale University.In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City,[8]where they lived on East 46th Street off Fifth Avenue.[9]Moses's father was a successful department store owner andreal estatespeculator in New Haven. In order for the family to move to New York City, he sold his real estate holdings and store, then retired.[8]Moses's mother was active in thesettlement movement,with her own love of building. Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary andsecondary education,theDwight Schooland theMohegan Lake School,a military academy nearPeekskill.[10]

After graduating fromYale College(B.A., 1909) andWadham College,Oxford(B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), and earning a Ph.D. inpolitical sciencefromColumbia Universityin 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics.[11]

Career

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A committedidealist,Moses developed several plans to rid New York ofpatronage hiringpractices, including authoring a 1919 proposal to reorganize the New York state government, which was ultimately not adopted but drew the attention ofBelle Moskowitz,a friend and trusted advisor to GovernorAl Smith.[12]When the stateSecretary of State'sposition became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses. He served from 1927 to 1929.[13]

Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1918, and then again in 1922. With Smith's support, Moses set in motion a sweeping consolidation of the New York State government. During that period Moses began his first foray into large-scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smith's political power to enact legislation. This helped create the newLong Island State Park Commissionand the State Council of Parks.[14]In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission.[15]This centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Dealfederal government.[original research?]Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out efficiently, such as the development ofJones Beach State Park.[citation needed]Displaying a strong command oflawas well as matters ofengineering,Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter inAlbany".[2]At a time when the public was accustomed toTammany Hallcorruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government.[12]

Shortly afterPresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sinaugurationin 1933, thefederal governmentfound itself with millions ofNew Dealdollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few local officials who had projectsshovel ready.For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significantWorks Progress Administration(WPA),Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC), and other Depression-era funding. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions was that of Parks Commissioner of New York City, a role he served from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960.[16]

Offices held

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The many offices and professional titles that Moses held gave him unusually broad power to shape urban development in the New York metropolitan region. These include, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project:[17]

Influence

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During the 1920s, Moses sparred withFranklin D. Roosevelt,then head of the Taconic State Park Commission, who favored the prompt construction of aparkwaythrough theHudson Valley.Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (theNorthern State Parkway,theSouthern State Parkwayand theWantagh State Parkway), although theTaconic State Parkwaywas later completed as well.[18]Moses helped build Long Island'sMeadowbrook State Parkway.It was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world.[19]

Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructured New York state's government during the 1920s. A 'Reconstruction Commission' headed by Moses produced a highly influential report that provided recommendations that would largely be adopted, including the consolidation of 187 existing agencies under 18 departments, a new executive budget system, and the four-year term limit for the governorship.[20]

WPA swimming pools

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During theDepression,Moses, along with MayorFiorello H. La Guardia,was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those inJacob Riis Park,Jones Beach,andOrchard Beach.[21][22]He devised a list of 23 pools around the city.[23][24]The pools would be built using funds from theWorks Progress Administration(WPA), a federal agency created as part of theNew Dealto combat the Depression's negative effects.[22][25]

Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. These comprised ten pools atAstoria Park,Betsy Head Park,Crotona Park,Hamilton Fish Park,Highbridge Park,Thomas Jefferson Park,McCarren Park,Red Hook Park,Jackie Robinson Park,andSunset Park,as well as a standalone facility atTompkinsville Pool.[26]Moses, along with architectsAymar Embury IIandGilmore David Clarke,created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of theStreamline ModerneandClassicalarchitectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes.[26][27]

Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934.[28]By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week.[22]Combined, the facilities could accommodate 66,000 swimmers.[29][30]The eleven WPA pools were considered forNew York City landmarkstatus in 1990.[31]Ten of the pools were designated as New York City landmarks in 2007 and 2008.[32]

Moses allegedly fought to keep African American swimmers out of his pools and beaches. One subordinate remembers Moses saying the pools should be kept a few degrees colder, allegedly because Moses believed African Americans did not like cold water.[33]

Water crossings

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Triborough Bridge

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Part of the Triborough Bridge (left) withAstoria Parkand its pool in the center

Although Moses had power over the construction of allNew York City Housing Authoritypublic housing projects and headed many other entities, it was his chairmanship of theTriborough Bridge Authoritythat gave him the most power.[12]

The Triborough Bridge (later officially renamed theRobert F. Kennedy Bridge) opened in 1936, connectingthe Bronx,Manhattan,andQueensvia three separate spans. Language in its Authority'sbondcontracts and multi-year Commissioner appointments made it largely impervious to pressure from mayors and governors. While New York City and New York State were perpetually strapped for money, the bridge's toll revenues amounted to tens of millions of dollars a year. The Authority was thus able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling bonds, a method also used by thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey[34]to fund large public construction projects. Toll revenues rose quickly as traffic on the bridges exceeded all projections. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses used the revenue to build other toll projects, a cycle that would feed on itself.[35]

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In the late 1930s a municipal controversy raged over whether an additional vehicular link between Brooklyn andLower Manhattanshould be built as a bridge or a tunnel. Bridges can be wider and cheaper to build, but taller and longer bridges use more ramp space at landfall than tunnels do.[12]A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimatedBattery Parkand physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason, the bridge was opposed by theRegional Plan Association,historical preservationists,Wall Streetfinancial interests, property owners, various high society people,constructionunions,the Manhattanborough president,MayorFiorello LaGuardia,and governorHerbert H. Lehman.[12]Despite this, Moses favored a bridge, which could both carry more automobile traffic and serve as a higher visibility monument than a tunnel. LaGuardia and Lehman as usual had little money to spend, in part due to theGreat Depression,while the federal government was running low on funds after recently spending $105 million ($1.8 billion in 2016) on theQueens-Midtown Tunneland other City projects and refused to provide any additional funds to New York.[36]Awash in funds from Triborough Bridge tolls, Moses deemed that money could only be spent on a bridge. He also clashed with the chief engineer of the project,Ole Singstad,who preferred a tunnel instead of a bridge.[12]

Only a lack of a key federal approval thwarted the bridge project. President Roosevelt ordered theWar Departmentto assert thatbombinga bridge in that location would blockEast Riveraccess to theBrooklyn Navy Yardupstream. Thwarted, Moses dismantled theNew York AquariumonCastle Clintonand moved it toConey Islandin Brooklyn, where it grew much bigger. This was in apparent retaliation, based on specious claims that the proposed tunnel would undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. He also attempted to raze Castle Clinton itself, the historic fort surviving only after being transferred to the federal government.[12]Moses now had no other option for a trans-river crossing than to build a tunnel. He commissioned the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (now officially theHugh L. Carey Tunnel), a tunnel connecting Brooklyn toLower Manhattan.A 1941 publication from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority claimed that the government had forced them to build a tunnel at "twice the cost, twice the operating fees, twice the difficulty to engineer, and half the traffic," although engineering studies did not support these conclusions, and a tunnel may have held many of the advantages Moses publicly tried to attach to the bridge option.[12]

This had not been the first time Moses pressed for a bridge over a tunnel. He had tried to upstage the Tunnel Authority when theQueens-Midtown Tunnelwas being planned.[37]He had raised the same arguments, which failed due to their lack of political support.[37]

Post-war influence of urban development and projects

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Theheadquarters of the United Nationsin New York City, viewed from theEast River.TheSecretariat Buildingis on the left and theGeneral Assembly Buildingis the low structure to the right of the tower. This set of buildings straddles theFDR Drive,another of Moses's creations.

Moses's power increased afterWorld War IIafter Mayor LaGuardia retired and a series of successors consented to almost all of his proposals. Named city "construction coordinator" in 1946 by MayorWilliam O'Dwyer,Moses became New York City'sde factorepresentative inWashington.Moses was also given powers overpublic housingthat had eluded him under LaGuardia. When O'Dwyer was forced to resign in disgrace and was succeeded byVincent R. Impellitteri,Moses was able to assume even greater behind-the-scenes control overinfrastructureprojects.[12]One of Moses's first steps after Impellitteri took office was halting the creation of a citywide Comprehensive Zoning Plan underway since 1938 that would have curtailed his nearly unlimited power to build within the city and removed the Zoning Commissioner from power in the process. Moses was also empowered as the sole authority to negotiate in Washington for New York City projects. By 1959, he had overseen construction of 28,000 apartment units on hundreds of acres of land. In clearing the land for high-rises in accordance with thetowers in the parkconcept, which at that time was seen as innovative and beneficial by leaving more grassy areas between high-rises, Moses sometimes destroyed almost as many housing units as he built.[12]

From the 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of theTriborough,Marine Parkway,Throgs Neck,Bronx-Whitestone,Henry Hudson,andVerrazzano-Narrows Bridges.His other projects included theBrooklyn-Queens ExpresswayandStaten Island Expressway(together constituting most ofInterstate 278); theCross-Bronx Expressway;many New York Stateparkways;and other highways. Federal interest had shifted from parkway tofreewaysystems, and the new roads mostly conformed to the new vision, lacking the landscaping or the commercial traffic restrictions of the pre-war highways. He was the mover behindShea StadiumandLincoln Center,and contributed to theUnited Nations headquarters.[12]On November 25, 1950, GovernorThomas E. Deweyappointed Moses along with former Secretary of WarRobert P. Pattersonand former JusticeCharles C. Lockwoodas a member of the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission, installed after theRichmond Hill train crashon November 22, 1950, that claimed 79 lives.[38]The Commission recommended the state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service.[39]

Moses had influence outside the New York area as well. Public officials in many smaller American cities hired him to design freeway networks in the 1940s and early 1950s. For example,Portland, Oregonhired Moses in 1943; his plan included a loop around thecity center,withspursrunning through neighborhoods. Of this plan, onlyI-405,its links withI-5,and theFremont Bridgewere built.[40]

Moses himself did not know how to drive an automobile.[41]Moses's highways in the first half of the 20th century were parkways—curving, landscaped "ribbon parks" that were intended to be pleasures to travel on, as well as "lungs for the city". However,post–World War II economic expansion,and notion of theautomotive city,led to the creation offreeways,most notably in the form of the vast, federally fundedInterstate Highway network.[12]

Brooklyn Dodgers

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When the owner of theBrooklyn Dodgers,Walter O'Malley,sought to replace the outdated and dilapidatedEbbets Field,he proposed building anew stadiumnear theLong Island Rail Roadon the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue (next to the present-dayBarclays Center,home of theNBA'sBrooklyn Nets). O'Malley urged Moses to help him secure the property through eminent domain, but Moses refused, having already decided to build a parking garage on the site. Moreover, O'Malley's proposal — to have the city acquire the property for several times as much as he had originally said he was willing to pay — was rejected by both pro- and anti-Moses officials, newspapers, and the public, as an unacceptable government subsidy of a private business enterprise.[42]

Moses envisioned New York's newest stadium being built in Queens'Flushing Meadowson the former (and as it turned out, future) site of theWorld's Fair,where it would eventually host all three of the city's major league teams of the day. O'Malley vehemently opposed that plan, citing the team's Brooklyn identity. Moses refused to budge and, after the 1957 season, the Dodgers left forLos Angelesand the New York Giants left forSan Francisco.[12]Moses was later able to build the 55,000-seat multi-purposeShea Stadiumon the site. Construction ran from October 1961 to its delayed completion in April 1964. The stadium attracted an expansion franchise, theNew York Mets,who played at Shea until 2008, when the stadium was demolished and replaced withCiti Field.The NFL'sNew York Jetsalso played its home games at Shea from 1964 until 1983, after which the team moved its home games to theMeadowlands Sports Complexin New Jersey.[43]

End of the Moses era

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View of the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair as seen from the observation towers of the New York State pavilion. The Fair's symbol, theUnisphere,is the central image.

Moses's reputation began to fade during the 1960s. Around this time, Moses's political acumen began to fail him, as he unwisely picked several controversial political battles he could not possibly win. For example, his campaign against the freeShakespeare in the Parkprogram received much negative publicity, and his effort to destroy a shaded playground inCentral Parkto make way for a parking lot for the expensiveTavern-on-the-Greenrestaurant earned him many enemies among the middle-class voters of theUpper West Side.

A 1964 Parks Department map showing numerous Robert Moses projects, including several highways that went unbuilt or were only partially completed.

The opposition reached a climax over the demolition ofPennsylvania Station,which many attributed to the "development scheme" mentality cultivated by Moses[44]even though it was the impoverishedPennsylvania Railroadthat was actually responsible for the demolition.[45]This casual destruction of one of New York's greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn against Moses's plans to build aLower Manhattan Expressway,which would have gone throughGreenwich Villageand what is nowSoHo.[46]This plan and theMid-Manhattan Expresswayboth failed politically. One of his most vocal critics during this time was the urban activistJane Jacobs,whose bookThe Death and Life of Great American Citieswas instrumental in turning opinion against Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 1964.[47]

Moses's power was further eroded by his association with the1964 New York World's Fair.His projections for attendance of 70 million people for this event proved wildly optimistic, and generous contracts for fair executives and contractors made matters worse economically. Moses's repeated and forceful public denials of the fair's considerable financial difficulties in the face of evidence to the contrary eventually provoked press and governmental investigations, which found accounting irregularities.[35]In his organization of the fair, Moses's reputation was now undermined by the same personal character traits that had worked in his favor in the past: disdain for the opinions of others and high-handed attempts to get his way in moments of conflict by turning to the press. The fact that the fair was not sanctioned by theBureau of International Expositions(BIE), the worldwide body supervising such events, would be devastating to the success of the event.[48]Moses refused to accept BIE requirements, including a restriction against charging ground rents to exhibitors, and the BIE in turn instructed its member nations not to participate.[49]The United States had already staged the sanctionedCentury 21 ExpositioninSeattlein 1962. According to the rules of the organization, no one nation could host more than one fair in a decade. The major European democracies, as well as Canada, Australia, and the Soviet Union, were all BIE members and they declined to participate, instead reserving their efforts forExpo 67inMontreal.

Robert Moses gives a salute after the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open theVerrazzano-Narrows Bridgeon November 21, 1964

After the World's Fair debacle, New York City mayorJohn Lindsay,along with GovernorNelson Rockefeller,sought to direct toll revenues from theTriborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority's (TBTA) bridges and tunnels to cover deficits in the city's then financially ailing agencies, including thesubway system.Moses opposed this idea and fought to prevent it.[45]Lindsay then removed Moses from his post as the city's chief advocate for federal highway money in Washington.

The legislature's vote to fold the TBTA into the newly createdMetropolitan Transportation Authority(MTA) could have led to a lawsuit by the TBTA bondholders. Since the bond contracts were written into state law, it was unconstitutional to impair existing contractual obligations, as the bondholders had the right of approval over such actions. The largest holder of TBTA bonds, and thus agent for all the others, was theChase Manhattan Bank,headed then byDavid Rockefeller,the governor's brother. No suit was filed. Moses could have directed TBTA to go to court against the action, but having been promised a role in the merged authority, Moses declined to challenge the merger. On March 1, 1968, the TBTA was folded into the MTA and Moses gave up his post as chairman of the TBTA. He eventually became a consultant to the MTA, but its new chairman and the governor froze him out—the promised role did not materialize, and for all practical purposes Moses was out of power.[43]

Moses had thought he had convinced Nelson Rockefeller of the need for one last great bridge project, a spancrossing Long Island SoundfromRyetoOyster Bay.Rockefeller did not press for the project in the late 1960s through 1970, fearing public backlash among suburban Republicans would hinder his re-election prospects. A 1972 study found the bridge was fiscally prudent and could be environmentally manageable (according to the comparatively low environmental impact parameters of that period), but the anti-development sentiment was now insurmountable and in 1973 Rockefeller canceled plans for the bridge.

The Power Broker

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External videos
video iconPresentation by Robert Caro on Robert Moses and urban development at the Brookings Institution, September 28, 1998,C-SPAN
Main article:The Power Broker

Moses's image suffered a further blow in 1974 with the publication ofThe Power Broker,aPulitzer Prize–winning biography byRobert A. Caro.Caro's 1,200-page opus (edited down from 2,000 or so pages) showed Moses generally in a negative light; essayistPhillip Lopatewrites that "Moses's satanic reputation with the public can be traced, in the main, to... Caro's magnificent biography".[50][12]For example, Caro describes Moses's lack of sensitivity in the construction of theCross-Bronx Expressway,and how he disfavoredpublic transit.Much of Moses's reputation is attributable to Caro, whose book won both the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1975 and theFrancis Parkman Prize(which is awarded by theSociety of American Historians), and was named one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of the twentieth century by theModern Library.[49][12]Upon its publication, Moses denounced the biography in a 23-page statement, to which Caro replied to defend his work's integrity.[51]

Caro's depiction of Moses's life gives him full credit for his early achievements, showing, for example, how he conceived and created Jones Beach and the New York State Park system, but also shows how Moses's desire for power came to be more important to him than his earlier dreams. Moses is blamed for having destroyed more than a score of neighborhoods by building 13 expressways across New York City and by building largeurban renewalprojects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale.[12]Yet the author is more neutral in his central premise: the city would have developed much differently without Moses. Other U.S. cities were doing the same thing as New York in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s;Boston,San Francisco,andSeattle,for instance, each built highways straight through their downtown areas just as Moses wished to do in New York.[12]The New York City architecturalintelligentsiaof the 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile asLe CorbusierandMies van der Rohe,had supported Moses. Many other cities, likeNewark,Chicago,andSt. Louis,also built massive, unattractive public housing projects.[52][12]Caro also points out that Mosesdemonstrated racist tendencies.[53]These allegedly included opposing black World War II veterans to move into a residential complex specifically designed for these veterans,[54][failed verification]and purportedly trying to make swimming pool water cold in order to drive away potential African American residents in white neighborhoods.[55]

People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input, but until the publication of Caro's book, they had not known many details of his private life—for instance, that his older brother Paul had spent much of his life in poverty. Moses was said to have blocked Paul, an engineer, from being hired for any public service jobs including major infrastructure projects that Moses himself had spearheaded.[56]Paul, whom Caro interviewed shortly before the former's death, claimed Robert had exerted undue influence on their mother to change her will in Robert's favor shortly before her death.[12]Caro notes that Paul was on bad terms with their mother over a long period and she may have changed the will of her own accord, and implies that Robert's subsequent treatment of Paul may have been legally justifiable but was morally questionable.[12]

Death

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The crypt of Robert Moses

During the last years of his life, Moses concentrated on his lifelong love ofswimmingand was an active member of the Colonie Hill Health Club.

Moses died ofheart diseaseon July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 atGood Samaritan HospitalinWest Islip, New York.

Moses was of Jewish origin and raised in asecularistmanner inspired by theEthical Culturemovement of the late 19th century. He was a convert to Christianity[57]and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum inWoodlawn CemeteryinThe Bronx, New York Cityfollowing services at St. Peter's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church inBay Shore, New York.

Legacy

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Various locations and roadways in New York State bear Moses's name. These include two state parks,Robert Moses State Park – Thousand IslandsinMassena, New YorkandRobert Moses State Park – Long Island,theRobert Moses Causewayon Long Island, and theRobert Moses Niagara Power PlantinLewiston, New York.TheNiagara Scenic ParkwayinNiagara Falls, New Yorkwas originally named the Robert Moses State Parkway in his honor; its name was changed in 2016. TheMoses-Saunders Power DaminMassena, New Yorkalso bears his name. Moses also has a school named after him inNorth Babylon, New Yorkon Long Island; there is also aRobert Moses Playgroundin New York City. There are other signs of the surviving appreciation held for him by some circles of the public. A statue of Moses was erected next to theVillage Hallin his long-time hometown,Babylon Village, New York.

During his tenure as chief of the state park system, the state's inventory of parks grew to nearly 2,600,000 acres (1,100,000 ha). By the time he left office, he had built 658 playgrounds in New York City alone, plus 416 miles (669 km) of parkways and 13 bridges.[58]The proportion ofpublic benefit corporationsis greater in New York than in any otherU.S. state,however, making them the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and accounting for 90% of the state's debt.[59]

Appraisal

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Criticism andThe Power Broker

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Cover ofThe Power Broker

Moses's life was most famously characterized inRobert Caro's 1974 award-winning biographyThe Power Broker.

The book highlighted his practice of starting projects certain to cost more than the initial funding approved by the New York State legislature, knowing the legislature would eventually have to fund the full project to avoid appearing to have provided effective oversight (fait accompli). He was also characterized as using his political power to benefit cronies, including a case in which he secretly shifted the planned route of theNorthern State Parkwaylarge distances to avoid impinging on the estates of the rich, but told owners of the family farms who lost land that it was an unbiased decision based on "engineering considerations."[12]The book also charged that Moseslibeledofficials who opposed him, attempting to have them removed from office by calling themcommunistsduring theRed Scare.The biography further notes that Moses fought against schools and other public needs in favor of his preference for parks.[12]

Moses's critics charge that he preferred automobiles over people. They point out that he displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City and destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building multiple expressways through them. The projects contributed to the ruin of theSouth Bronxand theamusement parksofConey Island,caused theBrooklyn Dodgersand theNew York GiantsMajor League baseball teams to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively, and precipitated the decline of public transport fromdisinvestmentand neglect.[12]His building of expressways also hindered theproposed expansion of the New York City Subwayfrom the 1930s to well into the 1960s because the parkways and expressways that were built replaced, at least to some extent, the planned subway lines. The 1968Program for Action(which was never completed) was hoped to counter that.[12]Other critics charge that he precluded the use of public transit, which would have allowed non-car-owners to enjoy the elaborate recreation facilities he built.

Racism

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Caro'sThe Power Brokeralso accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways in order to make them inaccessible to public transit buses, thereby restricting "the use of state parks by poor and lower-middle-class families" who did not own cars. Caro also wrote that Moses attempted to discourage Black people in particular from visiting Jones Beach, the centerpiece of the Long Island state park system, by such measures as making it difficult for Black groups to get permits to park buses, and assigning Black lifeguards to "distant, less developed beaches".[33]While the exclusion of commercial vehicles and the use of low bridges where appropriate were standard on earlier parkways, where they had been instituted for aesthetic reasons, Moses appears to have made greater use of low bridges, which his aide Sidney Shapiro said was done to make it more difficult for future legislatures to allow commercial vehicles.[60][61]Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend".[62]

Moses vocally opposed allowing Black war veterans to move intoStuyvesant Town,a Manhattan residential development complex created to house World War II veterans.[54][12]In response to the biography, Moses defended his forced displacement of poor and minority communities as an inevitable part of urban revitalization: "I raise mysteinto the builder who can removeghettoswithout moving people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs. "[51]

Additionally, there were allegations that Moses selectively chose locations for recreational facilities based on the racial compositions of neighborhood, such as when he selected sites for eleven pools that opened in 1936. According to one author, Moses purposely placed some pools in neighborhoods with mainly white populations to deter African Americans from using them, and other pools intended for African Americans, such as the one in Colonial Park, nowJackie Robinson Park,were placed in inconvenient locations.[63]Another author wrote that of 255 playgrounds built in the 1930s under Moses's tenure, two were in largely Black neighborhoods.[64]Caro wrote that close associates of Moses had claimed they could keep African Americans from using theThomas Jefferson Pool,in then-predominantly-whiteEast Harlem,by making the water too cold.[65][55]Nonetheless, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design.[66]

In addition, Moses took a favorable view of theBritish Empireand a racism much broader than solely towards the African-American community, speaking of Empire as useful in stemming the "rise of the lesser breeds without the law".[67][68][69]

Reappraisal

[edit]

Some scholars have attempted to rehabilitate Moses's reputation by contrasting the scale of works with the high cost and the slow speed of public works in the decades following his era. The peak of Moses's construction occurred during the economic duress of theGreat Depression,and despite the era's woes, Moses's projects were completed in a timely fashion and have been reliable public works since then, which compares favorably to the delays that New York City officials have had in redeveloping theGround Zerosite of the formerWorld Trade Centeror to the delays and technical problems surrounding theSecond Avenue Subwayand Boston'sBig Digproject.[70]

Three major exhibits in 2007 prompted a reconsideration of his image among some intellectuals, as they acknowledged the magnitude of his achievements. According to theColumbia Universityarchitectural historianHilary Ballonand colleagues, Moses deserves a better reputation. They argue that his legacy is more relevant than ever and that people take the parks, playgrounds, and housing that Moses built, now generally binding forces in those areas, for granted even if the old-style New York neighborhood was of no interest to Moses himself. Moreover, were it not for Moses's public infrastructure and his resolve to carve out more space, New York might not have been able to recover from the blight and flight of the 1970s and the 1980s to become today's economic magnet.[71]

"Every generation writes its own history," saidKenneth T. Jackson,a historian of New York City to theNew York Timesin 2007. "It could be thatThe Power Brokerwas a reflection of its time: New York was in trouble and had been in decline for 15 years. Now, for a whole host of reasons, New York is entering a new time, a time of optimism, growth and revival that hasn't been seen in half a century. And that causes us to look at our infrastructure, "said Jackson." A lot of big projects are on the table again, and it kind of suggests a Moses era without Moses, "he added.[71]Politicians are also reconsidering the Moses legacy; in a 2006 speech to theRegional Plan Associationon downstate transportation needs, New York Governor-electEliot Spitzerstated a biography of Moses written today might be calledAt Least He Got It Built:"That's what we need today. A real commitment to get things done."[72]

[edit]
  • Moses is the subject of a satirical song byJohn Forsterentitled "The Ballad of Robert Moses", included on his 1997 albumHelium.[73]
  • In season 3, episode 2 of the television seriesUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,"Kimmy's Roommate Lemonades",Kimmy is shown considering attendance at several New York City colleges with comedic names based on the city's culture and history. One was originally called "Robert Moses College for Whites", and its sign has been altered by crossing out "Whites" and replacing it with the word "Everyone".[74]
  • Moses is the subject of a critical song byNYHCbandSick of It Allentitled "Robert Moses was a racist", included on their 2018 albumWake the sleeping dragon!.[75]
  • The bandBob Mosesis named after Robert Moses.[76]
  • A fictionalized version of Moses is the main villain ofThe Unsleeping City,the third season of the web seriesDimension 20.[77]
  • The character of Moses Randolph inMotherless Brooklynis based on Robert Moses.[78]
  • At the beginning of theCOVID pandemic,when many TV commentators, politicians and others worked from their homes,The New York Timesnoted the frequent placement ofThe Power Brokeras a background element.[79]
  • The2021 film adaptationofWest Side Storyadds the historical context of New York City's urban gentrification in the 1950s. During the song "America",a group of Puerto Rican demonstrators appear, protesting their pending evictions, and one of them holds a sign condemning Moses.[80]

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^Robert Caro,The Power Broker,1975.
  2. ^abCaro, Robert A.(July 22, 1974)."Annals of Power".The New Yorker.RetrievedSeptember 1,2011.
  3. ^Sarachan, Sydney (January 17, 2013)."The legacy of Robert Moses".Need to Know | PBS.RetrievedDecember 3,2019.
  4. ^"Jones Beach".Long Island Exchange.Archived fromthe originalon January 21, 2013.RetrievedNovember 21,2012.
  5. ^Burkeman, Oliver (October 23, 2015)."Review: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.RetrievedMarch 23,2024.
  6. ^"Robert Moses, Master Builder, is Dead at 92".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon March 5, 2016.
  7. ^Caro 1974,p. 25.
  8. ^abCaro 1974,pp. 29.
  9. ^DeWan, George (2007)."The Master Builder".Long Island History.Newsday. Archived fromthe originalon December 11, 2006.RetrievedApril 4,2007.
  10. ^Caro 1974,pp. 35.
  11. ^"Robert Moses".
  12. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyCaro 1974.
  13. ^"Moses Resigns State Position".Cornell Daily Sun.Ithaca, NY. December 19, 1928. p. 8.
  14. ^Gutfreund, Owen."Moses, Robert".Anb.org.RetrievedDecember 24,2014.
  15. ^Caves, R. W. (2004).Encyclopedia of the City.Routledge. pp.472.ISBN978-0-415-25225-6.
  16. ^"New York City Parks Commissioners: NYC Parks".nycgovparks.org.RetrievedMarch 29,2018.
  17. ^"Robert Moses |".nypap.org.RetrievedMarch 29,2018.
  18. ^"Taconic State Parkway".NYCRoads.RetrievedMay 25,2006.
  19. ^Leonard, Wallock (1991).The Myth of The Master Builder.Journal of Urban History. p. 339.
  20. ^Caro 1974,pp. 106, 260.
  21. ^Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Patrick; Mellins, Thomas (1987).New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars.New York: Rizzoli. p. 717.ISBN978-0-8478-3096-1.OCLC13860977.
  22. ^abcCaro, Robert(1974).The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.New York: Knopf. p. 456.ISBN978-0-394-48076-3.OCLC834874.
  23. ^"23 Bathing Pools Planned by Moses; Nine to Be Begun in a Month to Meet Shortage of Facilities Caused by Pollution".The New York Times.July 23, 1934.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedAugust 9,2019.
  24. ^"Public Swimming Facilities in New York City"(PDF)(Press release). New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. July 23, 1934. p. 3 (PDF p. 30).RetrievedJanuary 6,2021.
  25. ^"City to Construct 9 Pools To Provide Safe Swimming".New York Daily News.July 23, 1934. p. 8.RetrievedAugust 18,2019– via newspapersOpen access icon.
  26. ^ab"History of Parks' Swimming Pools".New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.RetrievedJanuary 15,2021.
  27. ^Shattuck, Kathryn (August 14, 2006)."Big Chill of '36: Show Celebrates Giant Depression-Era Pools That Cool New York".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedJanuary 8,2021.
  28. ^"Park Work Is Begun on 2 Bathing Pools; Construction Under Way at High Bridge and Hamilton Fish – 7 Others to Be Started Soon"(PDF).The New York Times.October 4, 1934. p. 48.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedJanuary 13,2021.
  29. ^"Revisiting The 11 Pools Whose Gala Openings Defined 1936".Curbed NY.August 29, 2013.
  30. ^Gutman, M. (2008). "Race, Place, and Play: Robert Moses and the WPA Swimming Pools in New York City".Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.67(4): 532–561.doi:10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.532.JSTOR10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.532.
  31. ^Brozan, Nadine (July 30, 1990)."A Crumbling Pool Divides a Neighborhood".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedJanuary 11,2021.
  32. ^Schuster, Karla (August 3, 2007)."After 71 years Astoria Pool is among 10 outdoor public pools that the city is designating as landmarks".Newsday.ProQuest280156824.RetrievedMay 12,2021– via ProQuest.
  33. ^abCaro 1974,pp. 318–319.
  34. ^Doig, Jameson W. (November 15, 2002).Empire on the Hudson.Columbia University Press.ISBN978-0-231-07677-7.
  35. ^abCarion, Carlos."Robert Moses"(PDF).Nexus.umn.edu. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on November 26, 2014.RetrievedDecember 24,2014.
  36. ^"Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (I-478)".Nycroads.RetrievedMarch 12,2014.
  37. ^ab"Queens-Midtown Tunnel".NYCRoads.RetrievedAugust 1,2010.
  38. ^Dewey Names 3 Men to Study 'All Aspects' of the L.I. Road,The New York Times, November 26, 1950
  39. ^Dewey Asks State Control of Long Island Road,Geneva Daily Times,March 8, 1951
  40. ^Mesh, Aaron (November 5, 2014)."Feb. 4, 1974: Portland kills the Mount Hood Freeway".Willamette Week.RetrievedNovember 21,2014.Every great civilization has an origin story. For modern Portland, it is an exodus from Moses. That's Robert Moses, the master builder of New York City's grid of expressways and bridges who brought the Big Apple its car commuters, smog and sprawl. In 1943, the city of Portland hired Moses to design its urban future. Moses charted a highway loop around the city's core with a web of spur freeways running through neighborhoods. The city and state embraced much of the plan. The loop Moses envisioned became Interstate 405 as it links with I-5 south of downtown and runs north across the Fremont Bridge.
  41. ^Asimov, Isaac(1979). "Eccentricities".Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts.New York: Grosset & Dunlap. p. 105.ISBN978-0-448-15776-4.
  42. ^Fetter, Henry D. (Winter 2008)."Revising the Revisionists: Walter O'Malley, Robert Moses, and the End of the Brooklyn Dodgers".New York History (New York State Historical Association). Archived fromthe originalon May 5, 2010.
  43. ^abMurphy, Robert (June 24, 2009)."OMalley-vs-Moses".Huffington Post.
  44. ^Lopate, Phillip (March 13, 2007)."Rethinking Robert Moses".Metropolis Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon March 1, 2009.RetrievedOctober 9,2010.
  45. ^abKay, Jane Holtz (April 24, 1989)."Robert Moses: The Master Builder"(PDF).The Nation.248(16): 569. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on July 16, 2004.RetrievedOctober 9,2010.
  46. ^"Environmental and Urban Economics: Robert Moses: New York City's Master Builder?".Greeneconomics.blogspot. May 6, 2007.RetrievedMarch 12,2014.
  47. ^"The Next American System — The Master Builder (1977)".PBS.February 3, 2010.
  48. ^"Robert Moses: Long Island's Master Builder".YouTube.Archivedfrom the original on November 14, 2021.RetrievedDecember 24,2014.
  49. ^ab"Robert Moses".Learn.columbia.edu. Archived fromthe originalon October 28, 2017.RetrievedDecember 24,2014.
  50. ^Lopate, Phillip(February 11, 2007)."A Town Revived, a Villain Redeemed".The New York Times.Section 14, col. 1.RetrievedAugust 1,2010.
  51. ^abBoeing, G. (2017)."We Live in a Motorized Civilization: Robert Moses Replies to Robert Caro".SSRN:1–13.arXiv:2104.06179.doi:10.2139/ssrn.2934079.S2CID164717606.RetrievedAugust 13,2017.
  52. ^Glaeser, Edward (January 19, 2007)."Great Cities Need Great Builders".The New York Sun.Archived fromthe originalon October 24, 2017.RetrievedOctober 9,2010.
  53. ^Caro 1974,pp. 510, 514.
  54. ^abChaldekas, Cynthia (March 16, 2010)."Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City".New York Public Library.RetrievedOctober 9,2010.
  55. ^abPowell, Michael (May 6, 2007)."A Tale of Two Cities".The New York Times.RetrievedAugust 1,2010.As for the pool-cooling, Mr. Caro interviewed Moses's associates on the record ( "You can pretty well keep them out of any pool if you keep the water cold enough," he quotes Sidney M. Shapiro, a close Moses aide, as saying).
  56. ^https://professornerdster /power-broker-by-robert-caro-summary-analysis-of-chapter-26/[bare URL]
  57. ^Purnick, Joyce (August 1, 1981)."Legacy of Moses Hailed".The New York Times.Section 2, col. 1, p. 29.RetrievedAugust 1,2010.
  58. ^"Robert Moses, Master Builder, is Dead at 92".The New York Times.July 30, 1981.RetrievedMarch 12,2014.
  59. ^"New York's 'shadow government' debt rises to $140 billion".The Post-Standard.Syracuse.Associated Press.September 2, 2009.RetrievedDecember 16,2010.
  60. ^Caro 1974,pp. 952.
  61. ^Campanella, Thomas (July 9, 2017)."How Low Did He Go?".Bloomberg.RetrievedJuly 25,2018.
  62. ^Woolgar, Steve; Cooper, Geoff (1999)."Do Artefacts Have Ambivalence? Moses' Bridges, Winner's Bridges and Other Urban Legends in S&TS".Social Studies of Science.29(3): 433–449.doi:10.1177/030631299029003005.ISSN0306-3127.JSTOR285412.S2CID143679977.RetrievedNovember 17,2021.
  63. ^Wiltse, Jeff (2009).Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America.University of North Carolina Press. p. 140.ISBN978-0-8078-8898-8.RetrievedJanuary 10,2021.
  64. ^Riess, Steven A. (1991).City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports.An Illini book. University of Illinois Press. p. 148.ISBN978-0-252-06216-2.
  65. ^Caro 1974,pp. 512–514.
  66. ^Gutman, Marta (November 1, 2008). "Race, Place, and Play: Robert Moses and the WPA Swimming Pools in New York City".Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.67(4). University of California Press: 538.doi:10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.532.ISSN0037-9808.
  67. ^Jeffries, Glen (November 13, 2023)."Winston Churchill's Mother? You've Got the Wrong Brooklyn Address".Hell Gate.RetrievedNovember 17,2023.
  68. ^"Ceremonies in Honor of Lady Churchill | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News".WNYC.RetrievedAugust 16,2024.
  69. ^"HONORING MEMORY OF WINSTON CHURCHILL'S MOTHER; Plaque Unveiled on Brooklyn Home, Birthplace of Churchill's Mother".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedAugust 16,2024.
  70. ^Glaeser, Edward (January 19, 2007)."Great Cities Need Great Builders".The New York Sun.Archived fromthe originalon October 24, 2017.RetrievedAugust 1,2010.
  71. ^abPogrebin, Robin(January 28, 2007)."Rehabilitating Robert Moses".The New York Times.p. 1, Section 2, col. 3.RetrievedAugust 1,2010.
  72. ^Spitzer, Eliot(May 5, 2006)."Downstate Transportation Issues Speech"(PDF).Regional Plan Association.Archived from the original on September 27, 2006.RetrievedFebruary 15,2007.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  73. ^"John Forster: the Ballad of Robert Moses".AllMusic.RetrievedJanuary 5,2018.
  74. ^Pape, Allie (May 19, 2017)."Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Recap: Furiosity".Vulture.New York, NY: New York Media.
  75. ^"Sick of It All:Robert Moses was a racist".Discogs.RetrievedApril 19,2019.
  76. ^"Vancouver duo Bob Moses on going from a parking lot to the Grammy Awards".
  77. ^Sarah Shachat (December 21, 2023)."How 'Dimension 20' Brings Tabletop RPGs to Life — and Zombie Bear Death".IndieWire.RetrievedMarch 29,2024.
  78. ^Klimek, Chris (October 30, 2019)."Edward Norton on Why He Placed 'Motherless Brooklyn' in Robert Moses' New York".Smithsonian.Archivedfrom the original on November 1, 2019.RetrievedNovember 3,2019.
  79. ^Rubinstein, Dana (May 28, 2020)."Lights. Camera. Makeup. And a Carefully Placed 1,246-Page Book".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on March 20, 2022.RetrievedMarch 20,2022.
  80. ^Hornaday, Ann (December 7, 2021)."'West Side Story' is an urgent, utterly beautiful revival ".Washington Post.RetrievedJanuary 17,2022.

Bibliography

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Other sources

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Exhibits:

Papers:

Archival Audio:

Interviews:

[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related toRobert Moses.
Wikiquote has quotations related toRobert Moses.
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State of New York
January 17, 1927 – January 1, 1929 		Succeeded by
Civic offices
Preceded by
Unified
 Commissioner of theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation
January 18, 1934 – May 23, 1960 		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by
Established
 Chairman of theNew York State Council of Parks
April 30, 1924 – January 1, 1963 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman of theTriborough Bridge Authority
November 14, 1936 – April 25, 1946 		Succeeded by
Merged into Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
Preceded by
Unified
 Chairman of theTriborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
April 26, 1946 – February 29, 1968 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
John E. Burton
 Chairman of theNew York Power Authority
March 8, 1954 – January 1, 1963 		Succeeded by
James A. FitzPatrick
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican Nominee for Governor of New York
1934 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Moses&oldid=1247893376"