How Fire Island Defeated New York's Most Notorious Urban Planner 

All my homies hate Robert Moses

Thank you for this. I spent my career protecting the Staten Island Greenbelt, the largest urban forest preserve in the U.S. If Moses had had his way, the forest would have been destroyed by two interstate highways he would have built there. The people united can defeat autocracy!

I remember 18:23 18:23 digging holes in the beach to stop cars. Yup I grew up out there.

I think I've commented on this before but it bears repeating: whoever designed that Dune box set deserves the Gulag for all the titles appearing at different heights

Roads in national parks is a balance situation. Denali does it well there is no parking bus only. At the Grand canyon you park somewhere and get a bus to the trail head. I went to Acadia in early July and it was so busy I couldn't access any of it. Five parking spots and a ranger in charge of those five parking spots there all day. I drove the loop road twice looking for a spot and gave up because I didn't want to drive around looking for a place to park. I had to go outside of the national Park to go hiking.

We love to see a win against Robert Moses! Also, if you're taking suggestions, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Cape Cod National Seashore. I was raised on the Cape and rarely see my local national seashore get any love.

See it's not just civil engineers that are obsessed with roads...

Great story about Fire Island, Cameron. Having grown up on Long Island I've been to Jones Beach and Fire Island numerous times. They are the Crown Jewels of Long Island. in spite of the concrete and asphalt. Fire Island National Seashore is a national treasure. I have one complaint about Fire Island (and Jones Island, and Long Beach, and Rockaway). I oppose the local towns restricting access to the beaches. The south shore beaches belongs to the people of New York not the handful of landowners (currently, mostly wealthy) who maintain their personal playgrounds. This is not unique to New York though. I support a program whereby the state acquires parcels as they come up for sale and the parcels transition from private to public property. States should follow the Oregon model where the shoreline is state owned and accessible to the public. Keep up the great storytelling.

This isn't a defeat of Robert Moses exactly, but Niagara Falls, NY is removing the Robert Moses Parkway. So I'm counting that as a defeat against him, even if it is a bit late.

I'd love to hear you do a few biography videos. They can be about either the friends or foes (or somewhere in between) of the NPS. But you mentioned Stuart Udall. He's an interesting character, and I'd love to hear your take on him from the perspective of protecting public lands.

Anyone who wants to understand why America is the way it is needs to read the power broker

Your videos and channel are so great!! Seriously shocked to not see hundreds of thousands of views on your content. Please keep it up! Look forward to watching every time I see you’ve uploaded. I live 5 miles from the west boundary of Yellowstone, so I’d love to see more content about Yellowstone! Particularly your opinion on wolf re-introduction and the controversy surrounding it.

great video as always :) love that you spent some time on urbanism this time, as it really does go hand in hand with conservationism.

If you found this interesting, please check out 'not just bikes' or 'oh the urbanity'. Both are incredibly interesting. Thanks for the great videos at always :)

Any chance you could do a video about Hot Springs National park? It is the only national park around the southern plains area I feel a lot of us down here would love to learn some cool things about it!

I get the criticism of Robert Moses and the Ocean Parkway on Jones Beach Island- but it is a beautiful, almost pristine drive, with none of the commercial development so common along the US east coast barrier islands.

Ironically, Robert Moses didn't drive. If you'd read The Power Broker, you would know that.

I’d love to see some Great Lakes content sometime. Not a national park (mostly) but I bet there’s some good stories in there.

Omg you should do a video on the Old Man Of the Lake in Crater Lake 💙

Incredible! I grew up on the south shore of long Island, been to Robert Moses state park countless times and spent summer weekends all over fire Island, and I guarantee you not many people my age (50) know this story of how it became a national seashore, nor how ruthless Robert Moses was .. thank you so much for doing this.

Moses was, of course, a cartoon villain. He was the inspiration for Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Ironically, Moses, the great proponent of cars, didn't drive. He was an elitist disguised as a fighter for democracy. Those parkways he built to his new car-friendly suburbs were specifically designed to prevent bus traffic, thus preventing people from using public transit from living there. Another defeat for Moses was when Jane Jacobs prevented him from destroying Greenwich Village from his highway building.

If you want an example of exactly what would have happened to fire island (just add a lighthouse) look just a little over to Jones beach. That’s a barrier island with a Moses touch. And while as a New Yorker I *like* jones beach, it absolutely is a different place than fire island. It’s probably the best Moses but it’s park development that he made. But it’s also been modified for some decades by the time I first went as a kid. And now there is a better preservation mission there.

Rad, I didn't know you took suggestions for videos!!! I highly recommend going down a rabbit hole about or just visiting Chaco Culture National Historical Park. That whole area is stunning and the sheer amount of ruins inside the park is insane. Also it was designated as an International Dark Sky Park, so it has really great opportunities to stargaze since it's so in the middle of nowhere. I went like once and I still think about it to this day, but I'm from the Four Corners area and really love that place. 💕

I've never been to fire island because I was told it got its name due to being covered in poison ivy. Just looked it up to see if that's the case and basically got an answer of... yeah that's definitely a thing people THINK is true.

Now they just need to preserve the right to use settlable land in ways that would restore itself once it's not being used anymore and without "settlers" cutting down trees. It would be a great way to give people who need it and can't yet afford more a place to catch up with themselves, change, make plans for themselves, save money and get a start for the rest of their lives. Got to love how everyone who has "authority" over the type has little faith in them getting on with their lives enough that they practically groom the mentality practically swaying outcomes according to the disruptions instead of the ideals when not interrupted persistently.

Being from Long Island, I still can’t believe they named a state park after him. Not too far away from Jones Beach 🏝️

Fire island didnt want anyone else comming and building houses . Now that they were there they wanted it closed to all others.. how can you hate someone thats been dead for 60 years...

Carlsbad Caverns - underground and diverse.

What happened to all the neighborhoods on Fire Island?

Just imagine hating Robert Moses but having to drive down _Robert Moses Parkway_ every day.

Thank you so much for doing this video. Fire Island is very special to me. My family has been going there for three generations. My parents met in Fire Island in the town of Kismet. If Robert Moses had gotten his way my hometown would have been destroyed, my parents would have never met, and I would not exist. I owe my very existence to Fire Island National Seashore. I also think this story and Fire Island’s current car-restrictive status could be a model for other communities fighting to preserve their natural surroundings in a country dominated by cars and development.

I'm not so sure, and neither is Robert Caro. Discovering the Eastern section of Robert Moses State Park, you'll find a two lane road that accesses that stretch of beach. Robert Moses looked at the bulldozing performed in Point O'Woods where concrete sidewalks were lay, and he stated that any more building out there would destroy the Island, and people did. Houses now act as hotels on much of the Island. People built on the primary dunes and in 1964 a hurricane came through and the disaster on Fire Island began. I have personally had been displaced in 1981 from my home in Brooklyn where BAM wanted to build a park and directed to Housing Preservation and Development, a Moses creation, and suffered greatly by their brutality, but to say Robert Moses "dabbled" in hydroelectrics is misleading at best and inspires me to ignore this report as well meaning and correct politically, but not historically.

I agree with his philosophy on the automobile, it is synonymous with America and individual liberty. Especially nowadays that one could find a good used Corolla for like 3 grand with like 100k miles on it and take it another 100k rather easily.

Fire Island? Oh my! Is it supposed to be on fire, or is this a product of us also brutally suppressing every ember for the past 110 years?

Great video. Grew up on the south shore of LI in the 50's60's and 70's.....beautiful place. I remember the fight to keep RM out of there. They did however name a bridge and causeway after him. Sounds like Gates, Zuckmyberg, Winfreed and company are following his playboook in Maui. Leave the places alone.

I found your analysis overly simplistic and one sided. No reasonable person would dispute that Robert Moses did many bad things, that many of those bad things disproportionately hurt poor people and people of color, and that the effects of those bad things persist through today. But he was not the cartoon villain you literally say he is. And the choice of what to do with Fire Island was not the binary decision you suggest between a Jones Beach-type car-centric development and what is there now. And what is there now, however unspoiled and lovely, is very hard for almost everyone to reach. Many of the existing Fire Island communities, such as Ocean Beach, are notorious for enforcing myriad rules that effectively stop almost all visitors who don’t own or rent houses there. Owning or renting a house there is a much higher hurtle today than owning or renting a car. For this reason, today, Fire Island is a place almost exclusively enjoyed only by relatively wealthy people. Jones Beach may have been designed to serve only those with cars, but it was also designed to protect the sea shore from far more nefarious development. Jones Beach never became some tacky, profit-driven commercial eyesore. Robert Moses prevented that. Without him, it would not have remained in its natural state and could easily have been carved up by private landowners (like the Hamptons) or commercially exploited to ruination (like Coney Island). Neither happened, and we have your purported “cartoon villain” to thank for that. Jones Beach is now accessible a train/bus combination, as well as by bicycle. Millions of people enjoy it. Millions of people cannot enjoy Fire Island, because it is not as accessible, but that’s fine too. Also, Ocean Parkway on Jones Beach is not the monstrous highway you say. It is a four-lane road with a bike path on its north side. Moreover, its construction never “destabilized” the island as you suggest. Indeed, the construction of Jones Beach involved an enormous hand-planted beach grass endeavor that continues to protects Jones Beach from hurricanes to this day. Robert Moses did do many bad things. But he also did some good things too. Most would say Jones Beach was one of those good things, even if not a perfect thing, and done with some bad intent.

Yawn

Actually, the reason minority neighborhoods were targeted was purely pragmatic, the cost of that land was often much lower than the cost of land elsewhere. Trying to paint these actions as racist are as dumb as the concepts of "gentrification" and "white flight" today. You must use the lens of the past to examine the past, simple as. Were there racist people? sure, always will be however the point remains that cheap land means it's getting stuff built on it.

Good Job