When compiling the many facets of the “Master Builder” as illustrated by the words of Ballon and Jackson, I was scouring numerous platforms to find a piece of media which artfully expressed Robert Moses as the NY figurehead he is. A piece which captures his ability to construct what he envisioned, to act as a middle man between private and federal parties, and to remain adamant on ridding numerous neighborhoods of African American minorities under the “slum clearance” Title I act. But what I found was both surprising and a little bit lack-luster.
Barely scratching the surface of Moses’s history, “Bulldozer: The Ballad of Robert Moses attempts to tell the story of Robert Moses, the visionary credited with transforming New York City by pushing for the construction of highways, bridges, and tunnels. This unexpected thirty-minute pop-rock musical premiered in 01/25/19 and only sought to romanticize the NYC urban planner. According to the analysis of Marika O’Hara “The narrator sings a folk style that contrasts strangely with the rest of the music and present[s] the narrator as a folk musician is in some way an allusion to the famous folk song “John Henry,” which tells the tale of a steel-driver who fought against a steam-powered drilling machine.
Art serves to outline struggle and polarizing beliefs while echoing the remnants of its generation. But pieces like this seem to fall short. Robert Moses was important to NY history for good or for worse. He managed to simultaneously hold twelve titles (including NYC Parks Commissioner and Chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission), while never actually being elected. Nevertheless, he created and led numerous public authorities that gave him autonomy from the general public and elected officials. Good art isn’t one-sided, similar to the piece we had read which acknowledged his [Robert Moses] ability to increase traffic towards the city, devise Manhattan’s grid, and allocate resources for making the city great with minimal delays. All while archiving his discriminatory actions which influenced the decisions of several agonizing court cases such as Dorsey v Stuyvesant Town which ruled private housing to be allowed to continue to not house African Americans based on prejudice. A man who didn’t find solace in monetary gain, yet saw the city as its corresponding traffic rather than the culture and community that reside within.
Related Questions for Consideration:
What form of media (if you had the chance) will you create which corresponds to the likeness of Robert Moses?
Should we be responsible (as New Yorkers) to educate ourselves on polarizing figures such as Robert Moses?
What struggles are we facing right now in terms of discrimination? Did we move past racist ideology and now only battle economic classism?
