Robert Moses’ Controversies and Contributions in New York

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Robert Moses’ Controversies and Contributions in New York

Introduction

Robert Moses is a phenomenal person, as far as New York is concerned. He is called the master builder of the mid-twentieth century Long Island, New York City, Westchester County, and Rockland County. Moses changed shorelines; built roadways, bridges, and tunnels; and forever transformed neighborhoods. He was in favor of highways, therefore, shaping the modern suburban culture prevalent today. Most importantly, Moses’s success in planning led to a generation of architects, urban planners, and engineers who continued to propagate his philosophies across the country.  His contribution to the development of New York City cannot be overlooked, despite the controversies surrounding him.

Moses was seen as a racist. Despite building many playgrounds in New York City, almost none was situated in Harlem. In addition, important recreational Riverside Drive achievements and related amenities were in the South of 125^th Street, and with barriers to access for citizens who were non-white, such as busy highways, were repetitive in most of his projects. His close associates claimed that, by making water too cold, they could stop African Americans from making use of pools that were located in whites’ neighborhoods. He stood against public transit. This was seen as being anti-blacks, since majority did not own a car, and were dependent on public means of transport. Consequently, such people could not have access to the elaborate recreational facilities that were being built across the city (Brown 26)

Furthermore, Moses’s projects displaced many people from their land. Many believe that he preferred vehicles to people. Many of his projects required land. In his quest to get land for the projects, he displaced many of the working class neighborhoods in the City of New York. Many of their residential were demolished due to the projects. On the contrary, he showed favoritism to wealthy landowners. For instance, some of his highway projects in Long Island changed course, with the aim of avoiding to cross properties of wealthy landowners.

Additionally, Moses’ controversies were elevated by holding several government positions simultaneously. He persuaded the government of New York and Governor Smith to allow him to have several city and state jobs at the same time. At one time, he held twelve different jobs, had four palatial offices all over New York City and Long Island, and was in control of all federal budgets to New York City.  All public housing projects were under his leadership. All these issues gave him more political power, especially, the chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge Authority (Brown 15)

The Triborough Bridge Authority’s legal structure made it impossible for governors and mayors to intervene in its affairs, due to multi-year appointments of commissioners and language of the bond contracts. Revenues from the bridge totaled to tens of millions of dollars annually. Therefore, the agency was in a position to finance debts of millions of dollars, making him the only individual in New York able to fund large public construction projects.

Despite the controversies surrounding Moses’ projects, he must have seen the future while living in the past. The parks, bridges, parkways, and bridges that Moses created are jaw-dropping. It is hard to imagine how the City of New York could operate without such creations. Think of his creations such as: the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the West-Side Highway, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Throgs Neck Expressway, the Clearview Expressway, the Van Wyck Expressway, and the Long Island Expressway. All these are Moses’s creations in New York. Without such creations, the state and the city itself could be a total nightmare. Considering the rise in the number of automobiles in the road, traffic could be a nightmare in the city. In addition, the recreational facilities that he created are important to the modern society in New York. If it were not his expansion of public infrastructure and carving out more space, it would have been impossible for New York to recover from the flight and blight of the 1970s and 1980s to be the economic magnet it is nowadays (Eisenstadt 31)

If we lived in the countryside before New York was built, Moses’ constructions will change our lives in a tremendous way. His constructions such as highways and expressways are important to us. They are the reason we can comfortably drive around the city of New York without traffic jams. The highways are amazing. Unlike the small roads in the countryside, they are better to drive in, making our lives in the city more enjoyable.

Similarly, Moses’s playgrounds remain phenomenal. They provide us with facilities that we use to nurture our talents. They provide our children with an avenue to play their favorite sports. Consequently, it helps in nurturing talent, and at the same time providing avenues for them to socialize. This is important in enhancing the wellbeing of the society. In addition to the playgrounds, the recreational facilities that were built by Moses are a great aesthetic in the city. They are the places where we go to pass time and have great times. Such venues are phenomenal to us and make life more enjoyable. Without such creations from him, probably, life could be more boring in the city. His bridges are important in enabling us to move from one place to another. It is through him that we find the city life enjoyable in almost all aspects. With his contributions in the entire field of construction, Moses made life in New York different from that in the countryside.

Conclusion

The contributions of Robert Moses in shaping the physical appearance of New York City cannot be overlooked. He played a major role in planning the city. Moses constructed highways, parks, bridges, zoos, houses, playgrounds, tunnels, civic centers, beaches, New York World Fair, and exhibition halls. By the end of his tenure the city had 2,567, 256 acres of parkland, thirteen bridges, four hundred and sixteen miles of parkways, and six hundred and fifty-eight playgrounds built by him. All these contributions from him make him to stand as a phenomenal master builder of the City of New York. His constructions are the reason that the city is a magnetic hub to many people in the United States. However, his contributions as the master builder of New York are marred with negative issues. In most cases, his endeavors had instances of discrimination, especially against the non-whites. His shift from public transit and the tunnels he built; which could not allow lorries and buses to pass, were seen as a way of stopping the non-whites from having access to most of the facilities that he had constructed at that time. In addition, he displaced many working class people, in the quest to acquire more land for his constructions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Brown, Jeffrey. “A tale of two visions: Harland Bartholomew, Robert Moses, and the development of the American freeway.” Journal of Planning History 4.1 (2005): 3-32. Print.

Eisenstadt, Peter R. Rochdale Village: Robert Moses, 6,000 Families, and New York City’s Great Experiment in Integrated Housing. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. Print.