January 31, 2007
Gabe Pressman on Robert Moses
As the debate about the former Parks Commissioner rages on, Venerated newsman Gabe Pressman is cheerleading for Robert Moses. In an article posted on the WNBC web site, Pressman says that he knew the master builder.
Here’s his take:
Yes, Moses was tough. And he fought hard against those he believed were undermining his vision of what New York should be. But he was far from insensitive to the needs of people. The Yale-educated master builder -- who created Jones Beach and Orchard Beach, the highways that opened up Long Island and the suburbs to immigrants from the city -- was truly interested in doing right for all New Yorkers.There’s more:
He was far from the bully Caro described. He had compassion. He had a rich sense of humor. He was deeply devoted to the city on which he left his mark.And, um, even more:
Many years ago, Moses spoke to me of Caro, who was then in the process of writing his book. According to Moses, Caro was trying to interview him and Moses said, "I'm not going to talk to this guy. He's doing a hatchet job on me."We wonder who will chime in next. Any ideas? This week, Paul Goldberger takes a crack at the debate in the New Yorker and today WNYC's Brian Lehrer devoted part of his show to it.
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I wonder if Pressman realizes that Robert Caro isn't the only author to make Moses look like the bad guy in the development of the modern NYC. Plenty of other people viewed Moses as a bully in pushing his vision of an urban landscape.
I wonder if Pressman realizes that Robert Caro isn't the only author to make Moses look like the bad guy in the development of the modern NYC. Plenty of other people viewed Moses as a bully in pushing his vision of an urban landscape.
Haven't had a chance to listen to it but Brian Lehrer had Caro, Hilary Ballon and Kenneth Jackson discussing Moses on today's show.
Ben,
Go blog about baseball cause you seem to know a whole lot more about the Yanks than anything else.
Go blog about baseball cause you seem to know a whole lot more about the Yanks than anything else.
That was an incredibly insightful and useful comment. Thank you for adding to the dialogue. I'm sorry you disagree with an opinion on Robert Moses. I happen to know a lot about history and New York City history as well. So don't mind me if I keep talking about it.
So don't mind me if I keep talking about it.
You love the sound of your own voice.
The thing that gets lost in all the stories about this new exhibit is that Caro does in fact give Moses his due for the parks, Jones Beach and so forth. The fact of the matter is that was all fairly early on in his career. It was all down hill from there, and the rest of his legacy is not going to get "rehabilited" - it was a disaster.
I think he was a catalyst to get done what needed to be done... which was give the city some type of modern arterial highway structure. You can live in fairy-tail land all day long, but the reality is people are going to want to use cars no matter how you may feel about that. Sure there were downsides to some of the decisions, but the region would have been stymied without much of what was done at the time. And while some neighborhoods declines, others were born and grew, but the region as a whole was able to grow both in size and economically.
Nothing can speak of one's life but one's actions. No Second Avenue subway - but lots of highways - and the dream to make NYC into LA....No amount of whitewashing can cover Moses damage to this city. The word "compassionate" has been misused so much in recent history, it stands now for hypocrisy and profiteering. I am sure "compassionate conservatives' would recognize Moses as one of their own...
Simon,
Really, you mean that economic growth can't happen without massive highways cutting through once vibrant communities? That'd be news to me, considering this history of rail in the U.S., and considering how cities around the world preserved their soul and are doing quite well, thank you very much.
The money spent on building congestion-generating highways could have been spent on rail projects and other useful activities. Moses consistently vetoed rail projects (like the right of way for the AirTrain). To pretend that nothing would have happened if we didn't build highways is really a silly notion.
I also think Zizzle made a good point - no one is denying that Moses did some good things (Jones Beach and other parks), but one must recognize the truly awful things he did as well. Even the good things he did promoted car dependence (e.g. highways to Jones Beach while blocking bus access, etc., etc.)
I think you need to get out of your bubble. Thank god he managed to get done what he did.
Robert Moses was a hero to most
But he never meant, shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and Gabe Pressman
And yet, Moses' ego got the better of him because he did end up talking to Caro.
"Thank god he managed to get done what needed to be done"
This is the reasoning many use to support dictatorial figures -- who cares about abuse of power, let's just get it done!
Caro's exhaustively researched and footnoted book describes how Moses managed to attain absolute power over public development in NYC, how he was answerable to no one. It's really a remarkable tale, and in a way this was Moses' ultimate achievement -- that no one, not the voting public (he was never elected to anything), nor the representatives of the public (he had more power than the mayor of NY and the governor of the state put together), could challenge him.
And most of Moses most egregious projects and destructive proposals (ie, the Cross Bronx Expressway, an expressway through SoHo) were undertaken in the later part of his career, when he was at the pinnacle of power.
The book is called "The Power Broker" for a reason!
revisionist history giving props to a once hated Moses now so that Bloomberg and whoever else can doze and develop huge swaths of the borroughs and not look so bad.