The Cross Bronx Expressway should have been built but not in the location it stands today. The Cross Bronx Expressway, today, makes New York City extremely accessible to Westchester and areas north of the Bronx. It is in part because of Moses’ highways that New York City is the bustling epicenter of commerce and culture that it is. However, the manner in which the expressway was constructed led to the destruction of people’s homes and lives in the sense of living in a community. Tearing down dozens of apartment buildings and uprooting over one thousand families doesn’t justify the construction of one of the many highways that make Manhattan accessible to other counties and boroughs. The Cross Bronx Expressway was one of multiple routes a highway through the Bronx could have ran, and it was a callous and careless choice. The widespread opposition to the highway, especially by the residents of East Tremont, should have led to an alternative route but nevertheless to a Cross-Bronx Expressway.
It is the accessibility to New York City that allows it to flourish commercially as a financial capital and also culturally as an immigrant hub, and Moses’ infrastructure facilitates that. The Cross Bronx Expressway did not need to displace the New Yorkers that it did, but a Cross Bronx Expressway should always have been part of New York City’s future road map.
Ariel Avgi
