I am Robert Caro, a journalist and the author of “Power Broker,” a biography detailing the life and impact of Robert Moses, the defendant in this trial. Robert Moses was undoubtedly a visionary, who was the shaper of modern day New York City. But through my extensive study, I found that for all his vision, how he went about realizing this plan is worthy of condemnation. Over his decades long career, time and time again, Robert Moses used unscrupulous methods to get what he wanted, in many instances by intimidating public officials, and allowed personal convictions influence where improvements were made, letting slums languish in desperate need without public works while wealthier neighborhoods received numerous parks and playgrounds.

Many people in New York could see the benefits of Moses’s public works right before their eyes, in all the new pools, parks and playgrounds that he built. But this wasn’t the case for blacks living in poorer neighborhoods, neighborhoods that desperately needed those new facilities. During the 1930s, Robert Moses built 255 playgrounds in New York City – and he made a point of advertising this accomplishment. But there was only one playground in Harlem, only one in Stuyvesant Heights, and none in South Jamaica – all three major black neighborhoods. Through interviews with community leaders in those neighborhoods, I learned that children in these neighborhoods had to play in the streets, in dilapidated tenements or vacant lots covered in metal and rotting meals. Robert Moses ignored the plight of these people, despite their pleas.

In order to make his vision for the Cross-Bronx Expressway a reality, Robert Moses had to cut through the poor, but safe and clean neighborhood of East Tremont. He served the people of East Tremont a 90-day eviction notice, without the proper authority and without regard to their livelihood. He destroyed these families’ lives on nothing more than a whim – and if not a whim, for his position stood against all common sense, then political backdealings.

One can make the argument that the Cross-Bronx Expressway was still a necessity, and that the route Robert Moses chose was, if not perfect, one that worked. But still, even so, Robert Moses then went above and beyond to make the lives of those displaced people in East Tremont hard and squalid. He promised the people of East Tremont an easy relocation, but the company which he gave the relocation contracts to was notorious for its redirection and inability to actually perform its duty. In the end, East Tremont was reduced to a horrific slum, with gaping pits in abandoned lots, bonfires of heaped up lumber blazing, and rats running throughout the streets. Elderly neighbors, who had no one else left but each other, were flung to parts of the city that meant isolation from their only contacts, when they had specifically asked to be located in buildings close to each other. Day by day, as construction went on, the families left or remained in buildings that often had no heat or water, buildings that were often vandalized and looted.

Furthermore, his method of pushing his plan for the Cross-Bronx Expressway through was obvious interference in what should have been an impartial process. When the citizens of East Tremont organized in order to protect their neighborhood, Robert Moses used his extensive network of political connections to thwart them at every turn, even when their request was as simple as having a stenographer to record a meeting between the community group and members of the city government, when the city government had their own stenographer to tell their own side of the story. Respect for the redress of grievances meant nothing to Robert Moses, and this is clear from his relentless manueverings against the citizens of East Tremont, who ended up, as a community, completely shattered. This is all par for the course for Robert Moses. He was able to get the people of New York, and even the entirety of the city government, to do whatever he pleased – and through whatever means necessary; Joseph McGoldrick, New York City Comptroller from 1938-1945, admitted that officials in the city government were intimidated by Robert Moses, and often felt attacked.

The price that came with Robert Moses’s vision was high; neighborhoods were shattered, slums were left to languish – and these effects can all still be felt today. Robert Moses, once the young idealist, in the end became that which he had initially fought so hard against: another corrupt politician who would crush others out of the slightest offense, and who used whatever means necessary – intimidation, extralegal action – to get what he wanted. Nothing could stand in the path of Robert Moses, not even the public good, when it stood against his particular vision of a project or his overarching plan for New York.

Glassman Jane Jacobs Affidavit 2012

Robert Moses Affidavit

Affidavit – Kenneth T. Jackson

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 4^th, 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.

This is a test.