Robert Moses was extremely influential in shaping New York City and has largely contributed to its success today. Jackson brings up many interesting points arguing against Caro’s novel, The Power Broker, by explaining the positive impact Moses implanted on New York City. I mainly agree with Jackson about Moses’ positive influence on New York but I believe in some instances Moses may have tried to go too far with his power and ideas for rebuilding New York.
Jackson begins by discussing the decline of cities after World War II. Many major cities were affected by the decline in factories and manufacturing. Cities whose sole economic growth comes from industry clearly suffered but I was surprised that New York City also deteriorated. Jackson mentions the many other sources of revenue that impact New York’s economy, such as the finance or fashion industry, so it was surprising that the city’s population decreased so rapidly after the decline of the industry-fueled jobs. Even New York’s major seaport could not keep the city alive in that time period from 1950 to 1975 as people moved out and crime increased. New York’s population declined by almost one million people, a number I find shockingly large (68).
There may have been a multitude of factors that contribute to New York City’s rise from its deplorable state in 1975, but I agree with Jackson that Robert Moses was definitely a fore bringer of a positive time for New York. Moses built several great highways and bridges to connect the boroughs and cultural hubs such as Lincoln Center. His projects were completed efficiently, such as the Whitestone Bridge: built early and under budget, with “effective and talented teams of engineers and workers” (69).
While it is true that New York “never became as hospitable to the motorcar as other American cities” such as Los Angeles, where it is near impossible to get around town without a car, Jackson argues that Moses was building roadways because it was what the public actually wanted at the time (68). In other cities, Jackson states that the voters chose to have roads built rather than public transportation. Moses may have built several very useful highways, but he wanted to go even further and build another expressway running through Manhattan and cutting through Washington Square Park. Anthony Flint’s book “Wrestling with Moses” describes how Moses attempted to build a raised expressway running over Fifth Avenue. This may have been beneficial to traffic reduction, but I disagree with the proposed construction. Dividing such a historical park would have drastically altered the neighborhood and taken away the interesting culture that presides in the area.
One part that I was wondering about was Jackson’s use of “Gotham” when talking about New York. He never indicated why he referred to New York as such and it was slightly confusing to see it throughout the reading interchangeable with New York. After looking it up, I found that Gotham is an old nickname for New York City. Also I found that Jackson didn’t address Moses’ integrity very well, merely stating that it is “difficult to prove a negative” though I agree on the point that Moses mainly sought “power, influence, and importance,” something that he was able to achieve (70).
