Robert Moses, the man who rebuilt New York 

And he built countless parks, cleaned up the civil services, created clean beaches. Was he a good man no, was he a bad man no he was human who made countless mistakes destroying lives and improved many lives as well

@@TimesFM4532 Lives ruthlessly destroyed by one cannot be absolved by good deeds and favors bought to others. The ends do NOT justify the means.

@@TimesFM4532lmao clean beaches is the least of nyc worries

Well, thank you Loma Preida earthquake. It got rid of our Embarcadero freeway in S.F.

Yup. Pretty sure they destroyed Bunker Hill here in Los Angeles to construct a music center very similar to Lincoln Center. Happened 10 years after Moses destroyed San Juan Hill on the UWS

As much as I am a child of NYC, and I love the City as is, I totally agree that he could have set the stage for greater things with the power he wielded

I-290 in Chicago destroyed the city's West SIde. Ironically, it was named for Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had pushed for the Interstate Highway System but was opposed to freeways slicing through cities and had never intended for Interstate Highways to be built through urban areas. But at least the EIsenhower Expressway - I-290 - has a mass transit rail line running down its median with stations that are accessible by stairs from overpasses. The City of New York asked Moses to leave a right of way for a future rail transit line along the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678) in Queens so more people could take a train to Idlewild (now JFK) Airport. He refused to do so.

Because of him, the Brooklyn Dodgers left New York and became the Los Angeles Dodgers

Thanks for sharing a magnificent lesson from history, Carole.

He certainly did. The South Bronx was a working-class neighborhood in the 1950's (the Honeymooners was set there). Thanks to his Cross Bronx Expressway, there was now no reason to traverse the South Bronx, causing most of the businesses in the area to shut down. By the 1970's, it was a crime-ridden hellhole. Imagine the Washington Square area transforming in a similar fashion.

@@iamedyson 😊 You're welcome Edyson! PS: We can also thank Doris Deither for saving Shakespeare in the Park (Central Park).

@R A R Clearly we see the spirit of WSP very differently. Were there communists at one time...sure, might even be some now, I don't know. But it's about values, caring about others, keeping our country out of ill conceived wars. You think it's about hating the rich? You've entirely missed the point about what that park stands for. Your comment about John Lennon made me laugh out loud. Yes....John was a 1% er, but his songs, and the values he represented, have been played in the park since the 60's by nearly every group of musicians and singers who have been there. His song Imagine is a treasure. I suspect if you walked through the park today, someone will be singing it. He and the Beatles are heroes for their talent and the value system they sang about. Sorry you don't get that.

His plans for the park were really foolish, but other aspects of his work through the yrs were a mix of necessary changes & moving NYC to the next level. It's tough for a person as influential as Moses was to not to do bad things along with the good. His Lincoln Center & world's fair gave the city more cultural prowess & a huge PR/civic boost. Do various New Yorkers themselves display the best judgment?. BTW, aspects of the newly revamped Geffen Hall (of Moses's Lincoln Center) show "uh-er-oo-okay" judgment.

I don't think I'll ever read a book better than it. Just a staggering achievement.

W comment, greetings from Poland.

Why did you randomly vomit out movie opinions towards the end of your comment lmao

Black Adam was not good.

Don't have a blog, just reaching out to anyone interested. Thanks for your support! :)

Marble Hill in Manhattan is the only part of the borough on the North American mainland. That's because Moses rerouted the Harlem River and straightened it out for one of his projects - I think it was the Henry Hudson Bridge. The re-driecting of the river put Marble Hill on the wrong bank.

We don't have freeways . You from LA or SF? Bob Moses creations were and still are called "Parkways". Back when he created them they were landscaped with lots of trees and grass borders or pushed through Long Island's estate country with lots of mature trees lining the roadways. In later years expansion to add lanes took away some of the lushness. But not concrete soul-less "freeways". Moses added winding curves and low hills and gentle grades for variety. The low bridges excluded working class persons of all races who were often carless back then. Jones Beach was a nautical themed wonderland with clean tiled pools and diving boards, changing areas, white sand, pitch and putt golf, tennis courts refreshment stands, Umbrella rentals, and within the bay side of the barrier island a performing waterside venue for musicals back then and pop/rock later. Guy Lombardo's big band. Now it is "improved" with much of the old decorative elements gone. But still his gift to Long Island and surrounding areas. Then we have Lincoln Center, and the absolutely necessary long suspension bridges which would have been built anyway had he never lived. All cities with waterways have bridges. Yes I read Caro years ago. Yes RM was a curmudgeon and a man who enjoyed his power, sometimes in destructive and highly objectionable actions. But his best creations still stand, and his critics forget those Parkways opened up farmland to be developed for the post-war vets of WW II and houses of their own. The fact that Mr. Caro charted Moses journey from Al Smith (Democrat) friendly bureaucrat to conservative is what really gets under the skin of his car-hating (even electric) urban naysayers.

It's staggeringly good.

I met Robert Moses with my grandfathers neighbor at Oak beach in Babylon Ny and he was a extremely kind person to my family and if it wasn't for him they would have turned long island in a shipping port ,so he built the bridges low to keep long island a community and not a Newark new jersey dump site Port

There was a movie about him to with Ed Norton, but you know it was BASED/INSPIRED BY R. MOSES.

Read the Power Broker by Robert Caro. Fantastic book

Movie was called “Motherless Brooklyn”. Fictionalized story within a story.

There is a very good pbs documentary call new york that really sheds light on what this man did. You can find it on RU-vid

An interesting observation, from my perspective, as I was born in Jamaica, Queens County in 1966, and I have also driven many of the same miles - my first early remembrances are of the Worlds Fair globe, visiting the science center there, with my grandmother (via mass transit) and as a child watching my immigrant father playing soccer in the shadow of the very same globe - interesting how perspectives are perhaps different

Never had a driver's license, never could legally drive on any of his parkways, bridges or tunnels. Story is he once tried running a bulldozer or front end loader but did so awkwardly.

Simon Callow's bio on Charles Laughton is marvelous. Better than his Welle's books.

Better than Issacsons Jobs?

Nassau County is full of bureaucrats

What did you study in graduate school?

@@RockPaperScissors13 umm maybe you're not aware, but there is already plenty of fictional portrayals of Hitler and other evil dictators in media. I wouldn't call this play a "heart warming story" either.

Bruh I love your comment so much

We don't have a Haussmann. That's why Detroit, although founded by the people who founded Paris, looks a lot more like Newark.

Or power attracts the wrong people.

His whole view of "urban renewal" was so backwards and harmful to American cities. What a shame.

Obviously he was totally enthralled by car culture (if not directly in GM's pocket) - just look at what GM did to undermine the Rochester public transit system during the same era - they buried a nascent subway system due to GM payoffs, and got away with a piddly fine from the federal government of the time

@@reneharde3459 And irony of ironies, he never drove a car.

All government underinvestment is the result of blacks taking welfare and not paying in. Blacks take more than it costs to fund our military.

@@Shahrdad Stunning - thanks for that ;-)

Maybe watch the video. They show how he destroyed so many parts of the city.

BFDT So True

He offered both clubs what became Shea Stadium. 🏟 Walter O'malley said I can't take the Brooklyn Dodgers to Queens, He can take them to Los Angeles he can't take them to Queens. 👸🏻 👸 👸🏼 . The Giants left as well.

You think? I still have an issue of Sport magazine with a story of Willie Mays months before he came out west. From that year.

I've read that O'Malley wanted to build what would have become the very first domed stadium at the location where Barclay's Center is currently located in Brooklyn, but Moses nixed the plan.

@@tonysustarsic5212 It had to do with cars

Bring Back the Dodgers back to Brooklyn!

Yes, Ric Burns’ New York documentary features almost an entire episode dedicated to Robert Moses plus he is featured in the posthumous WTC final episode as well. Robert Caro is brilliant as is Marshall Berman in their analysis and critique of the megalomaniacal Robert Moses - a man that tried to bend the city to his will in worship to the automobile and didn’t even know how to drive. Essential viewing.

#SteveD: A slight correction on your comment regarding Moses. I have a solo DVD of that great NEW YORK documentary called CENTER OF THE WORLD when it became available in 2003. Still watch it every 9/11 anniversary. While Robert Moses was the unchecked architect behind the parks, highways, and bridges from 1925 to 1965, the wheelchair bound elderly man you referenced was actually Austin J. Tobin. The man who ran the NY/NJ Port Authority which help funded the construction of the Twin Towers complex. His name graced the plaza to which the WTC would be built on. He spent so many years defending the project that it practically killed him. You're right using that observation about the toll of buildings that displaced the poor. I just wanted to make sure you knew who the person you referenced really was.

Definitely need to check it out - I did not realize he was still alive at that point

Classic Documentary

I remember seeing it back in the day.

They were geniuses

Kevin Bacon's father (No I'm not kidding)

@@jojopuppyfish I know you're not. Did he propose the Vine Street Expressway? Because that's a horrible drive. You feel like you're in a sewer conduit.

And I have family who has lived in New York since the 1960s.

And they still love New York..

And bringing Willie Mays to San Francisco.

The Brooklyn Dodgers need to move back to Brooklyn and build a new Ebbets Field

If they don’t then I will build the new stadium and sue California for kicking the Brooklyn Dodgers out of Brooklyn. That’s why I was born

That's one way to view it. Another, that I lean towards, is that he transformed a city and we've struggled for years to maintain it.

@@chriskelvin248 *transformed a city for the worse. Transformed/destroyed...doesn't matter what word you use. He did harm to NYC and countless other American cities.

@@EvanAntes Great public works will always have a cost beyond money. You can't not displace what was there before with something completely different and not completely change what was there before. That's life. Did he wield great power and not let anything/ anybody stand in his way of his great ideas? Absolutely. Could someone do now what he did then? No way. But I'm thankful for the things he got built and wouldn't have it any other way. They wouldn't exist otherwise. My only gripe is that many of the roads and bridges should be better maintained.

@@chriskelvin248 Actually you can give those people the money they were promised to relocate. That is the issue. They were promised money and housing and never got it. You just saying "thats life" shows how heartless and cruel you are. This also contributed to the horrible housing crisis we still have today in 2022.

@@chriskelvin248 I guess you're one of those people that is thankful we had infrastructure built by slaves too, right? Wouldn't have it any other way, right?! Just unbelievable people still think this way. Unable to reflect.

Did you watch it?

It’s not a glowing report about Moses

@@marytheresejacksonlutz2533 Mary I used to watch h Sunday Morning, I'm surprised

He wasn't mean he was pure evil he destroyed neighborhoods dislocated poor people with nowhere to go so he can build his highways and bridges. The man didn't give a damn

@@Nighthawk-8050 Well, tbph, I wrote this comment roughly half way through the video, towards the end of it my opinion was actually closer to your judgement on him. ✌

The salted cheese sticks.

They wouldn't. The goal was to carve up the city to convenience suburban car commuters.

Remove the word “genius”. Now you got it.

He made Jones Beach accessible by car but you still have to take the ferry to get to Fire Island - except for the western tip, which is the Robert Moses State Park, accessible by the Robert Moses Causeway. Getting to the towns on Fire Island from there requires a long, long walk along the beach. He developed Jones Beach State Park and Robert Moses State Park for straights. By "straights" I mean "squares." 😄

I have an old Esquire mag with Roy on the cover, with an angel's halo over him. His article.

I feel the ghost of Cohn running around this country to this day.

mostly bad

He did a lot of bad things

He had Ebbets Field torn down because (I’m not joking) there was not enough space near it for a large parking area.

@@pauly260 Moses had nothing to do with tearing down Ebbets field, that was done privately. O'malley sold the land to private developers. The Polo Grounds ? , yes Moses did tear that down to build public housing.

@@jefflewis4 Turns out you're right. Sorry 'bout that.

Like Richard J. Daley in Chicago, he had the power to do good, he had the power to do evil, and he did both.

But when he got to Harlem, he stopped.

@@stevenmaginnis1965 True. My point was he did good things for NYC and bad things. The triborough bridge was 3 pillings in the water for 10 years before RM took over and finished the project in 3 years.

Y’all wouldn’t exist without NY. Y’all would be one of the poorest states if NYC was removed so be quiet

From the armchair of ‘brutal racism is bad’? I guess so…

Is it so hard for you to reflect on past mistakes?

@@benjamingiese841 is everything about racism with you people.

@@EvanAntes what mistakes New York city is a shining beacon to the world.

@@robertvandalsem94 The world isn't black and white. NYC isn't perfect. Destroying neighborhoods and displacing thousands (if not millions) of people is a mistake. Building extensive freeway systems while neglecting mass transit is a mistake. We can see this now in modern day NYC. Are you blind?