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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Law - A revisionist view of Robert Moses, the power broker and master builder

This entry is filed under "law" because the fact I remember most about Robert Moses, from Robert Caro's opus, The Power Broker, is near the beginning (i.e. only a few hundred pages into the massive tome), where Caro is described as the "best biller drafter in Albany." His skills in drafting authorizing legislation for his massive public works projects played a large part in his accomplishments.

The NY Times had a fascinating story Jan. 23rd headed "Rehabilitating Robert Moses." The lengthy piece, by Robin Pogrebin, begins:

FOR three decades his image has been frozen in time. The bulldozing bully who callously displaced thousands of New Yorkers in the name of urban renewal. The public-works kingpin who championed highways as he starved mass transit. And yes, the visionary idealist who gave New York Lincoln Center and Jones Beach, along with parks, roads, playgrounds and public pools.

This is the Robert Moses most of us know today, courtesy of Robert A. Caro’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography from 1974, “The Power Broker,” which charts Moses’ long reign as city parks commissioner (1934-60) and chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (1946-68). A 1,286-page book that reads like a novel, it won a Pulitzer Prize and virtually redefined the biographical genre by raising the bar for contemporary research. Today it remains the premier text on the evolution of 20th-century New York, a portrait of a man who used his power without regard for the human toll.

But according to the Columbia University architectural historian Hilary Ballon and assorted colleagues, Moses deserves better — or at least a fresh look. In three exhibitions opening in the next few days — at the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art and Columbia University — Ms. Ballon argues that too little attention has been focused on what Moses achieved, versus what he destroyed, and on the enormous bureaucratic hurdles he surmounted to get things done.

There is more. The New York Observer has an equally interesting piece, "Robert Moses Returns: Power Broker Spurs Caro-Jackson Bout," but it is aimed more at Robert Caro than Robert Moses.

Harvard Prof. Edward Glaeser has a thoughtful article headed "New York - Great Cities Need Great Builders," that begins:

Robert Moses still bestrides New York like a colossus. More than three decades have passed since Jane Jacobs and Robert Caro tore down Moses's once pristine public image, but his physical legacy remains standing. Our New York is Moses's New York. He built 13 bridges, 416 miles of parkways, 658 playgrounds, and 150,000 housing units, spending $150 billion in today's dollars. If you are riding the waves at Jones Beach or watching the Mets at Shea Stadium or listening to 'La Traviata' at Lincoln Center or using the Triborough Bridge to get to the airport, then you are in the New York that Moses built.

If we are to realize Mayor Bloomberg's plans for a city of 9 million people with newer, greener infrastructure, then New York will again need to embrace construction and change. We will need again builders like Moses, who can put the needs of the city ahead of the opposition of a neighborhood. Yet Moses's flaws, which were emphasized so eloquently by Jacobs and Mr. Caro, have led many to see nothing but evil in Moses and his works. Moses's supposed villainy has established its place in the iconography of the preservationists who stand against growth.

The opening of a three-part exhibition on Moses - at the Queens Museum of Art on January 28, at the Wallach Art Gallery of Columbia University on January 31, and at the Museum of the City of New York on February 1 - gives us a chance to reappraise his achievements. We should avoid the excesses of Moses's early hagiography or his later vilification. The successes and failures of this master builder teach us that great cities need great builders, but that we must check their more Pharaonic excesses.

The lessons of Moses's life are taught by his projects. His best work, such as the parks and pools that had large benefits and modest costs, happened early in his career. When he was starting as Governor Smith's park tsar, Moses could get public funding for his projects only if they were popular. The need to build support didn't stop Moses from taking risks. Indeed, Smith accused Moses of wanting to 'give the people a fur coat when what they need is red flannel underwear,' but Moses's bold vision was just what the public wanted. Society was getting richer, and those parks and pools helped New York succeed as a place of consumption and as a center of production.

Most of Moses's bridges and expressways are also major successes. New York is a city of islands. The city's waterways were ideal in the ages of sail and steam, but they became a major headache in the age of the car. Despite his lack of a driver's license, Moses understood that New York needed to adapt to the automobile. His bridges made it easier for cars to cross between the city's islands. His parkways made it more pleasant to drive into New York. Boston's Big Dig should remind us that it is hard to retrofit a pre-car city for the automobile. By comparison, Moses's achievements look cheap and effective.

Some say Moses was wrong to build for the car. Some say the city should have bet exclusively on public transportation that would better serve the poor. But those critics ignore the millions of people who fled the older cities that weren't car friendly. Every one of the 10 largest cities in the country in 1950 - except for Los Angeles and, miraculously, New York - lost at least one-fifth of its population between 1950 and today. Moses's bridges and highways helped to keep some drivers living and working in New York. Those middle-class drivers helped New York to survive and grow, while every other large, cold city in the second half of the 20th century shrank. Not all of Moses's transportation projects were winners. To build the Cross Bronx Expressway, Moses took thousands of apartments using the power of eminent domain. Neighborhoods were shattered as the highway smashed through a once-vibrant area. I cannot tell whether the benefits to the millions who have used the expressway outweigh the costs to the thousands who were evicted, but I am sure that the process was deeply flawed.

To any friend of liberty, Robert Moses's use of eminent domain represents big government at its most terrifying. At the stroke of a pen, entire communities can be wiped out because someone in government thinks that this removal is in the public interest. Without eminent domain, however, large-scale projects will either flounder or cost as much as the Big Dig. Mayor Bloomberg's dream of a renewed New York will need eminent domain.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 31, 2007 04:24 PM
Posted to General Law Related