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Four months after the opening of three much mulled-over Robert Moses exhibitions, the debate over his legacy shows no signs of waning. Yesterday’s NY Times delved yet again into the morass, this time wondering whether the two perspectives are simply creatures of their cultural moments – a city embroiled in decay vs. a city experiencing a growth spurt.
Here’s Power Broker author Robert Caro’s take:
“I understand each age looks through its own prism,” he said a few days ago. “But the revisionists are not coming to grips with this man.”Caro, whose biography of Moses portrayed a racist, arrogant bureaucrat who, essentially, bulldozed his way through the lives of poor and working-class New Yorkers, hasn’t flinched in recent months as historians - like Columbia historians Kenneth T. Jackson and Hilary Ballon - have sought to cast the achievements of Moses in a different light.
“It’s a mesmerizing narrative,” [Ballon] said. “Caro stimulated a great discussion, and there’s a human truth there: Powerful people become undone by their power. But the book is far from definitive and misjudges history. It’s absolutely evident to me that ‘The Power Broker’ is symptomatic of a time and a zeitgeist. In the community of historians, there’s been brewing a sense of discontent.”There's more:
“When I read of the heroic building of the 1930s, I brought to mind the stalled projects of our day," Professor Ballon said. "It’s easy enough now to realize that New York hasn’t fallen down, as Caro thought. Look at this resurgent city. It’s spectacular."The piece zigs and zags through an issue that has been debated to death – and returns to the revisionists' claim that Moses helped build the foundations of today’s thriving metropolis (beaches, parks, highways, cultural institutions), how the city needs another master builder and how Moses’ racism was "a product of his time.” The pool-cooling incident is recounted and so is the idea that Moses’ legacy, inadvertently, is that he “created great beaches for poor people,” according to NYU urban policy and planning professor Mitchell Moss.
One of our favorite parts is when Caro is asked about the Cross Bronx Expressway and he quotes from page 19 of his dog-eared book:
“To build his highways, Moses threw out of their homes 250,000 persons — more people than lived in Albany or Chattanooga, or in Spokane, Tacoma, Duluth, Akron, Baton Rouge, Mobile, Nashville or Sacramento. He tore out the hearts of a score of neighborhoods.”And there's this gem, again from Caro: “It’s a compliment, really, that they are still debating my book as if it was new.”
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Taking Jackson's History of NYC class at Columbia, you could see that Jackson at least at some level a small beef personally with Caro. Take that for what its worth when thinking about Jackson's criticisms...
Robert Moses was the reason the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to LA.
'nough said.
Prof. Jackson is a good man who is incredibly bright and loves this city down to his bones.
Having said that, in this case, Caro is dead right. I'm surprised Jackson can overlook Moses's racism (and how it influenced his decisions) so blithly.
I'm amazed at how many times we as humans need to learn the same lessons over and over again.
Lesson: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The only reason that New York City isn't Detroit is because we didn't have a Lomex and Mimex shoved through our city.
No, NY isn't Detroit because it's economically significant, whereas Detroit was a product of its time, and is now economically useless.
Anyway, of course I agree that Moses was the worst thing to ever happen to New York. His slum "clearances" have kept slums a permanent fixture of New York, in addition to obliterating tens of thousands of examples of native architecture. Disgusting, megalomaniacal and unforgiveable.
NYC is also a product of its time and if you think that we're somehow immune to ever becoming like Detroit, think again. All great cities re-invent themselves to stay relevant.
We just happened to hop on the right bandwagons at the right times.
Yes, but are we hopping on the right bandwagon right now?
You can only build so much ultra-expensive residential devleopment. I'm genuinely afraid that we're going to hit a breaking point and have nothing to fall back upon, because we've bulldozed over it.
i don't live in nyc (chicago). my question is how the heck do people get to long island from NJ when driving?
holland tunnel and then just drive crosstown?
also if there's a fare to drive below 82nd street what is that going to do to commuters and interstate traffic?
oh i see. cross bronx expressway...
NJ-> statin island expressway -> brookyln to LI
Kenneth Jackson, good as much of his work is, has become a shill for Columbia's expansion into Harlem, which requires a certain Mosesesque outlook on planning (or injudicious use recent shifts in eminent domain). Hillary Ballon too. In addition, I agree with the first commenter that Jackson has always seemed to have an ax to grind when it comes to Caro. Maybe it's an inferiority complex. 1246+ pages can certainly be intimidating.
perryair, NYC reinvents itself all the time, and has the economic power of a Detroit in a few blocks of Midtown. Detroit is and was a one-trick pony. No city is immune from anything, but NYC is as immune as a city can get from the kind of total uselessness suffered by Detroit. Detroit will only come back because US population growth will push people to seek out its retardedly cheap housing. It was a premature city built on protectionism. NYC was built on the opposite.
Wow, it's like this was made for me and this thread:
Times Square's economy is bigger than Panama's and Bolivia's put together. No Typekey, so look at am ny's site.