My name is Lillian Edelstein. I am a Jewish housewife from East Tremont, Bronx. I became an activist against the Cross Bronx Expressway after realizing how it would destroy the neighborhood so many people called their home.
Our neighborhood was veryimportant to us. It was an area where immigrants from European farms could get used to the city life. Most of residents were Jewish immigrants, escaping prosecution back home. Many, at first, settled back in the Lower East Side, eventually spreading out. Each neighborhood was not a dirty “slum” as Robert Moses referred to it. Rather, it was a tight-knit area with languages, cuisine, friends, family and culture uniting after a difficult time. Whether it was the history of our people or the physical closeness we were forced to live in, we were happy. We weren’t rich. But we were a family. East Tremont was a big family. There isn’t a stronger bond than that.
Our East Tremont neighborhood was a perfect location for our hard-working fathers, who had good transportation to their jobs. Stay-at-home mothers, which majority of us was, could get their weekly kosher food shopping done on East Tremont Avenue. Our parents and grandparents could sit on benches playing chess while overlooking Southern Boulevard.
Robert Moses planned for a cross-borough expressway, construction of which would evict 1,530 families. We were one of those families and got our letters on December 4th, 1952 stating that we had merely 90 days to move. We were assigned to a bureau, which would help us to relocate. Many residents couldn’t afford to move out of East Tremont if they wanted to, our rent-stabilized apartments were all many could afford on salaries. The apartments they offered us were much smaller and filthier that we had.
There was talk of relocating the highway a few blocks and saving our homes. The New York State Society of Engineers proposed an alternative route just two blocks over, through the Crotona Park. Such relocation would save apartments and families and wouldn’t cost additional money. For the sake of my family, friends and everyone in the community, I began to fight as an activist in ETNA, the East Tremont Neighborhood Association. We tried to contact Mr. Moses numerous times but were constantly rejected by both him and his aides, who would give the alternative route no second thought. Yet we were dismissed as a group of poor housewives. In the eyes of Robert Moses and the higher ups he befriended, we were nothing.
We did not have money to hire lawyers so I raised money and encouraged the community to attend hearing after hearing. I went around the press showing maps of the proposed expressway. Only two papers, the Post and the World-Telegram, gave detail coverage to this issue. I contacted the higher-ups, gained support of local businesses and held meetings gaining support of our congressman, senator and assemblyman. Mr. Moses simply had too much power and refused to listen to the voice of the people. During our final meetings, we were treated with outermost disrespect. We could not have a court reporter, were only allowed five engineers as opposed to fifteen belonging to Mr. Moses. He had come up with a fake alternative route, one which would supposedly also destroy many homes. However, our engineers have examined the route many times and knew the real alternative would not disrupt 1,530 homes. Mayor Wagner, who pledged his support to us, abandoned us and we lost hope. The original Cross Bronx Expressway route was chosen.
It ruined our community, our families, friendships and the bonds we all shared. For which reason? The alternative route would have saved federal money, spared 1,530 homes, and would have been just as effective. The simple answer is that Robert Moses wanted his way. He had a full control over our government, government that is supposed to be fair and listen to demands of its peoples. Mr. Moses, however, ran the government thus we were not given a fair process towards appealing our eviction. I believe Mr. Moses should be found of all the crimes charged. Mr. Moses had no justifiable reason to ruin the East Tremont neighborhood when he had a plausible alternative route. He is uncompassionate, selfish and acts in an unjustifiable manner in a way that a manner in a leadership position should not act.
