The author’s depiction of Robert Moses disgusted me. As the author pointed out, there is no real way to build infrastructure within a city through the democratic process. Although everyone wants highways built, no one wants highways built straight through his own home. The author implied that the only solution was to disregard the democratic process altogether– which is exactly what Robert Moses did. Claiming the “the ends justify the needs,” Moses evicted hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in order to build New York’s infrastructure.
However, there is a difference between relocating people in order to facilitate a project for the greater good, and putting innocent people in an impossible situation just because you can. Moses seemed to enjoy the fact that he could change the course of thousands of people’s lives without having to answer to anyone. He thought of himself as a dictator, and he liked it. As the example of East Tremont showed, there were cases in which people’s homes could have been spared, but Moses rejected that idea–for reasons that had nothing to do with the highway project itself.
What disgusted me the most was the complete lack of concern that the New York City government had for the people evicted by Moses. The basic tenant of democracy is that the government is there to serve the people. One could argue that the “greater good” of highway building outweighs the individual need for housing in, for example, East Tremont, but how can a democratic government justify its denial of providing the evicted people with proper housing? The level of cruelty towards the innocent citizens of these neighborhoods, especially the ones that immigrated to America with the hope of a better life in a democratic country, boggles the mind.
