Caro, in his book The Power Broker, paints for us, a relatively negative image of Robert Moses. Although Caro refers to Moses as one of America’s greatest builders, he delves into explicit detail about the trail of injustice Robert Moses left during his thirty year campaign to change the city. For many years, Robert Moses was able to do as he pleased while the media paid little to no attention to him. Moses’ reputation, which had grown in his earlier years building parks in cities, was able to shun away any negative light on his actions. Reading about the several protests Moses had to deal with, I initially felt disgusted. Although he had the legal right to do as he did with his projects, I couldn’t believe that he was able to quell the complaints of thousands of individuals, and in such low key ways. He was cheating the people and making decisions that reached far beyond his moral jurisdiction. It wasn’t until the Tavern-on-the-Green incident that people finally managed to stand up to him via media, and his reputation hit a low point. My first impression of Moses, that he was a great hero of New York, suddenly took a turn. He wasn’t the great guy I made him out to be. In fact, he was still a great guy, but suddenly for me he became the jerk who so happened to achieve greatness. The kind of guy who did great and amazing things, but stepped on many to do so.
However, the big questions still stands: Did the ends really justify the means? Here we consider everything he’s ever done for New York since the start of his thirty year campaign. Had Moses stuck to following the strict doctrines of democracy, more than half of his projects would have never even seen the light of day; a lot of our convenient expressways and cultural buildings would be missing, and New York would have been far behind in having a necessary modern city structure. Here, we refer to Kenneth Jackson’s view of Robert Moses. Jackson held a view opposite of Caro, that Moses, rather than causing the decay of the city, actually helped bloom the city into the bustling center of attention it is today. Although much of The Power Broker had its merits in painting the negative aspects of Robert Moses, there was still too much to be said about the results of Moses’ works. The cause for this disparity in views is simply time. During the time Caro wrote his book, there was a lot to be said about a decaying city. Some of the places that underwent renovation/gentrification had yet to see significant results. As such, I felt that Caro’s views could be completely justified. Fast forward to now, and there’s barely a New Yorker who couldn’t imagine their great city without the arterial highways and cultural buildings they know and love.
In hindsight, it’s certainly clear that Rober Moses’ renovation of New York paved the path to the city’s success. Very few people in the mid 20th century knew of the success that was to come from his projects. However, the neighborhoods of New York are not all perfect, and by no means is the city considered a utopia. There is still much improvement for this city. For this we look at Jane Jacobs and her view on city planning in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jacobs certainly was not a fan of Robert Moses despite the fact that she never once references him. She instead attacks the ideas and structures of which Moses’ planning is based on. Opposed to the way city planners come up with ideas to restructure broken neighborhoods, calling this the “pseudoscience of city planning”, she presents an alternative view of planning. Her view focuses more on individual neighborhoods rather than an overview of the city. Lets face it, overall, New York City looks like a splendid city full of wonder and adventure; however, when we look at New York neighborhood by neighborhood, little is to be said about the areas that see run down buildings and streets with high crime and poverty rates. I believe that if there could exist a meeting point between Moses’ ruthless planning and Jacobs view of individual neighborhood development, that New York could achieve greater success in its renovations. However, this isn’t a black and white issue, and I actually have little backing to my statement considering my little knowledge of actual city planning and social/political/economical developments that encompass such things. This, I hope to remedy by continuing on with this course so I may see where the future of this great city is headed.
