Robert Moses | |
|---|---|
 Moses in 1939 with a model of his proposed Battery 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 the New York State Council of Parks | |
| In office 1924–1963 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Laurance Rockefeller |
| 1st Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation | |
| In office January 18, 1934 – May 23, 1960 | |
| Appointed by | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Newbold Morris |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 18, 1888 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | July 29, 1981 (aged 92) West Islip, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York City, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican[1] |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 2 |
| Education | |
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New 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, including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission.[3] By working closely with New York governor Al Smith early in his career, he became expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating the workings of state government. He created and led numerous semi-autonomous public authorities, through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issued bonds 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 of Jones Beach State Park, the most-visited public beach in the United States,[4] and was the primary architect of the New York State Parkway System. As head of the Triborough 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, the Triborough Bridge, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, and the Throgs Neck Bridge, as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongside urban renewal efforts that destroyed huge swaths of tenement housing and replaced them with large public 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 of Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The 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 of The Power Broker,[5] Moses is today considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State.
- ^ Robert Caro, The Power Broker, 1975.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sarachan, Sydney (January 17, 2013). "The legacy of Robert Moses". Need to Know | PBS. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
- ^ "Jones Beach". Long Island Exchange. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
- ^ Burkeman, Oliver (October 23, 2015). "Review: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved March 23, 2024.