Robert Moses | |
|---|---|
 Moses in 1939 with a model of his proposedBattery Bridge | |
| 49th Secretary of State of New York | |
| In office January 17, 1927 – January 1, 1929 | |
| Governor | Al Smith |
| Preceded by | Florence E. S. Knapp |
| Succeeded by | Edward J. Flynn |
| 1st Chairman of theNew York State Council of Parks | |
| In office 1924–1963 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Laurance Rockefeller |
| 1stCommissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation | |
| In office January 19, 1934 – May 23, 1960 | |
| Appointed by | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Newbold Morris |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1888-12-18)December 18, 1888 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | July 29, 1981(1981-07-29) (aged 92) West Islip, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York City, U.S. |
| Party | Republican[1] |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | |
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an Americanurban planner and public official who worked in theNew York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in thehistory of New York City andNew 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 public 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 Commissioner and chairman of theLong Island State Park Commission.[3] By working closely with New York governorAl Smith early in his career, he became an 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 issuedbonds to 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 was responsible for, among others, theTriborough Bridge, theBrooklyn–Battery Tunnel, and theThrogs Neck Bridge, as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongsideurban renewal efforts 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 asracist. In large part because ofThe Power Broker,[5] Moses came to be considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State.
Moses was born inNew Haven, Connecticut, on December 18, 1888, to parents ofGerman Jewish descent, Isabella "Bella" (née Cohen;Yiddish:איזאַבעלאַ כהן משה) and Emanuel Moses (Yiddish:עמנואל משה).[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 offFifth Avenue.[9] Moses's father was a successful department store owner andreal estate speculator 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 School and 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 science fromColumbia University in 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics.[11]
In 1915, Moses married Mary Louise Sims of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. They had two daughters, Mrs. Richard J. Olds (Barbara) of Greenwich, Conn., and Jane Rose Moses Collins. Mary Sims Moses, who had remained virtually bedridden in their home from 1952–1966 with arthritis,[12] died on September 6, 1966. Moses subsequently married his secretary Mary Alicia Grady on October 4, 1966.Newsday reported on Grady's death in 1993, Grady had accompanied Moses on numerous vacations, prior to their marriage.[13] They lived in Manhattan's Gracie Terrace.[13]
Moses developed several plans to rid New York ofpatronage hiring practices, 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.[14] When the stateSecretary of State's position became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses. He served from 1927 to 1929.[15]
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 Commission and the State Council of Parks.[16] In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission.[17] This centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal federal 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 oflaw as well as matters ofengineering, Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter inAlbany".[18] At a time when the public was accustomed toTammany Hall corruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government.[14]
Shortly afterPresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sinauguration in 1933, thefederal government found itself with millions ofNew Deal dollars 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.[19]
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:[20]
During the 1920s, Moses sparred withFranklin D. Roosevelt, then head of theTaconic State Park Commission, who favored the prompt construction of aparkway through theHudson Valley. Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (theNorthern State Parkway, theSouthern State Parkway, and theWantagh State Parkway), although theTaconic State Parkway was later completed as well.[21] Moses helped build Long Island'sMeadowbrook State Parkway. It was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world.[22]
Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructuredNew York state 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.[23]
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.[24][25] He devised a list of 23 pools around the city.[26][27] The pools would be built using funds from theWorks Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of theNew Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects.[25][28]
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.[29] Moses, along with architectsAymar Embury II andGilmore 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 Moderne andClassical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes.[29][30]
Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934.[31] By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week.[25] Combined, the facilities could accommodate 49,000 swimmers.[32] The eleven WPA pools were considered forNew York City landmark status in 1990.[33] Ten of the pools were designated as New York City landmarks in 2007 and 2008.[34]
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.[35]
Although Moses had power over the construction of allNew York City Housing Authority public housing projects and headed many other entities, it was his chairmanship of theTriborough Bridge Authority that gave him the most power.[14]
The Triborough Bridge (later officially renamed theRobert F. Kennedy Bridge) opened in 1936, connectingthe Bronx,Manhattan, andQueens via three separate spans. Language in its Authority'sbond contracts 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[36] 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.[37]
In the late 1930s a municipal controversy raged over whether an additional vehicular link between Brooklyn andLower Manhattan should 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.[14] A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimatedBattery Park and physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason, the bridge was opposed by theRegional Plan Association, historical preservationists,Wall Street financial interests, property owners, various high society people,constructionunions, the Manhattanborough president, MayorFiorello LaGuardia, and governorHerbert H. Lehman.[14] 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 Tunnel and other City projects and refused to provide any additional funds to New York.[38] 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.[14]
Only a lack of a key federal approval thwarted the bridge project. President Roosevelt ordered theWar Department to assert thatbombing a bridge in that location would blockEast River access to theBrooklyn Navy Yard upstream. Thwarted, Moses dismantled theNew York Aquarium onCastle Clinton and moved it toConey Island in 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.[14] 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.[14]
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 Tunnel was being planned.[39] He had raised the same arguments, which failed due to their lack of political support.[39]
Moses's power increased afterWorld War II after 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 facto representative inWashington. Moses was also given powers overpublic housing that 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 overinfrastructure projects.[14] 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 park concept, 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.[14]
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 Expressway andStaten Island Expressway (together constituting most ofInterstate 278); theCross-Bronx Expressway; many New York Stateparkways; and other highways. Federal interest had shifted from parkway tofreeway systems, 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 Stadium andLincoln Center, and contributed to theUnited Nations headquarters.[14] On November 25, 1950, GovernorThomas E. Dewey appointed Moses along with former Secretary of WarRobert P. Patterson and former New York State Supreme Court JusticeCharles C. Lockwood as a member of the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission, installed after theRichmond Hill train crash on November 22, 1950, that claimed 79 lives.[40] The Commission recommended the state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service.[41]
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, Oregon hired Moses in 1943; his plan included a loop around thecity center, withspurs running through neighborhoods. Of this plan, onlyI-405, its links withI-5, and theFremont Bridge were built.[42]
Moses himself did not drive an automobile.[43] 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.[14]
When the owner of theBrooklyn Dodgers,Walter O'Malley, sought to replace the outdated and dilapidatedEbbets Field, he proposed building anew stadium near theLong Island Rail Road on the corner ofAtlantic Avenue andFlatbush Avenue (at the current site of theAtlantic Terminal Mall, across from theBarclays 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.[44]
Moses envisioned New York's newest stadium being built in Queens'Flushing Meadows on 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'sBrooklyn identity. Moses refused to budge and, after the 1957 season, the Dodgers left forLos Angeles and theNew York Giants left forSan Francisco.[14] Moses was later able to build the 55,000-seat multi-purposeShea Stadium on 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 Jets also played its home games at Shea from 1964 until 1983, after which the team moved its home games to theMeadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey.[45]
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 Park program received much negative publicity, and his effort to destroy a shaded playground inCentral Park to make way for a parking lot for the expensiveTavern-on-the-Green restaurant earned him many enemies among the middle-class voters of theUpper West Side.
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The opposition reached a climax over the demolition ofPennsylvania Station, which many attributed to the "development scheme" mentality cultivated by Moses[46] even though it was the impoverishedPennsylvania Railroad that was actually responsible for the demolition.[47] 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 Village and what is nowSoHo.[48] This plan and theMid-Manhattan Expressway both failed politically. One of his most vocal critics during this time was the urban activistJane Jacobs, whose bookThe Death and Life of Great American Cities was instrumental in turning opinion against Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 1964.[49]
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.[37] 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.[50] 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.[51] The United States had already staged the sanctionedCentury 21 Exposition inSeattle in 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 67 inMontreal.
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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.[47] 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.[45]
Moses had thought he had convinced Nelson Rockefeller of the need for one last great bridge project, a spancrossing Long Island Sound fromRye toOyster 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.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Presentation by Robert Caro on Robert Moses and urban development at the Brookings Institution, September 28, 1998,C-SPAN |
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 Lopate writes that "Moses's satanic reputation with the public can be traced, in the main, to ... Caro's magnificent biography".[52][14] 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.[51][14] Upon its publication, Moses denounced the biography in a 23-page statement, to which Caro replied to defend his work's integrity.[53]
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 renewal projects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale.[14] 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.[14] The New York City architecturalintelligentsia of the 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile asLe Corbusier andMies van der Rohe, had supported Moses. Many other cities, likeNewark,Chicago, andSt. Louis, also built massive, unattractive public housing projects.[54][14] Caro also points out that Mosesdemonstrated racist tendencies.[55] These allegedly included opposing black World War II veterans' intentions to move into a residential complex specifically designed for these veterans,[56][failed verification] and purportedly trying to make swimming pool water cold in order to drive away potential African American residents in white neighborhoods.[57]
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 majorinfrastructure projects that Moses himself had spearheaded.[58] 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.[14] 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.[14]
During the last years of his life, Moses concentrated on his lifelong love ofswimming and was an active member of the Colonie Hill Health Club.
Moses died ofheart disease on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 atGood Samaritan Hospital inWest Islip, New York.
Moses was of Jewish origin and raised in asecularist manner inspired by theEthical Culture movement of the late 19th century. He was a convert to Christianity[59] and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum inWoodlawn Cemetery inThe Bronx, New York City following services at St. Peter's by-the-SeaEpiscopal Church inBay Shore, New York.[60]
Various locations and roadways in New York State bear Moses's name. These include two state parks,Robert Moses State Park – Thousand Islands inMassena, New York andRobert Moses State Park – Long Island, theRobert Moses Causeway on Long Island, and theRobert Moses Niagara Power Plant inLewiston, New York. TheNiagara Scenic Parkway inNiagara Falls, New York was originally named the Robert Moses State Parkway in his honor; its name was changed in 2016. TheMoses-Saunders Power Dam inMassena, New York also bears his name. Moses also has a school named after him inNorth Babylon, New York on Long Island; there is also aRobert Moses Playground in 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 Hall in 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.[61] The proportion ofpublic benefit corporations is 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.[62]
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 theNew York State Legislature, knowing the legislature would eventually have to fund the full project to avoid appearing to have provided ineffective 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 Parkway large 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."[14] The book also charged that Moseslibeled officials who opposed him, attempting to have them removed from office by calling themcommunists during theRed Scare. The biography further notes that Moses fought against schools and other public needs in favor of his preference for parks.[14]
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 Bronx and theamusement parks ofConey Island, caused theBrooklyn Dodgers and theNew York GiantsMajor League Baseball teams to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively, and precipitated the decline of public transport fromdisinvestment and neglect.[14] His building of expressways also hindered theproposed expansion of the New York City Subway from 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.[14] 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.
Caro'sThe Power Broker also accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways 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".[35] 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 access for commercial vehicles.[63][64] Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend".[65]
Moses vocally opposed allowing Black war veterans to move intoStuyvesant Town, a Manhattan residential development complex created to house World War II veterans.[56][14] In response to the biography, Moses defended his forced displacement of poor and minority communities as an inevitable part of urban revitalization: "I raise mystein to the builder who can removeghettos without moving people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs."[53]
Additionally, there were allegations that Moses selectively chose locations for recreational facilities based on the racial compositions of a 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.[66] Another author wrote that of 255 playgrounds built in the 1930s under Moses's tenure, only two were in largely Black neighborhoods.[67] 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.[68][57] Nonetheless, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design.[69]
On March 26, 1952, Moses gave a speech at an event in New York City which commemoratedLady Randolph Churchill, the mother ofSir Winston Churchill. In the speech, Moses claimed thatRudyard Kipling foresaw "the rise of lesser breeds without the law", a comment described as "excruciatingly racist" by the journalist Glen Jeffries.[70][71][72]
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 Zero site of the formerWorld Trade Center or to the delays and technical problems surrounding theSecond Avenue Subway and Boston'sBig Dig project.[54]
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 Ballon and 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.[73]
"Every generation writes its own history," saidKenneth T. Jackson, a historian of New York City to theNew York Times in 2007. "It could be thatThe Power Broker was 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.[73] Politicians are also reconsidering the Moses legacy; in a 2006 speech to theRegional Plan Association on downstate transportation needs, New York Governor-electEliot Spitzer stated 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."[74]
.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.
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).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Exhibits:
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| 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 Merged intoMetropolitan Transportation Authority |
| 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 |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
