Robert Moses

Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was the master builder of 20th century New York City and its suburbs. As the shaper of a modern city, one of his few peers is Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and he was easily the most polarizing figure in the history of urban planning. Although he never held elective office, Moses was arguably the most powerful person in New York City government from the 1930s to the 1950s. Moses literally changed shorelines, built roadways in the sky, and transformed vibrant neighborhoods forever. His decisions favoring highways over public transport formed the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation. Moses was not without his critics, however. These critics have pointed to many things that they say taint Moses' legacy. The most common criticisms of Moses include the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in New York City, contributing to the ruin of the South Bronx and the amusement parks of Coney Island, the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the decline of public transport. On the other hand, Moses' projects were also considered by many to be necessary for the region's development, and Moses participated in the construction of two huge World's Fairs, one in 1939 and the other in 1964. To Moses' critics, however, he will always be remembered for believing that "cities are for traffic," and "if the ends don't justify the means, what does?"

Car culture

Moses himself never learned to drive, and his view of the automobile was shaped by the 1920s, when the car was considered more for entertainment than utilitarian purposes. Moses' highways were curving, landscaped "ribbon parks," intended to be pleasures to drive through.

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It is interesting to note that with all of this Moses, a man who never learned to drive, practically predicted the future of the automobile, and influenced it with his own way of design. He seemed to set a precedent for designers in the future in placing the automobile over the human (especially in his destruction of homes for his projects, but more indirectly in the size and scale of the projects). This type and scale has been reproduced time and time again, and is visible not only in the urban environment torn by highways and the sound of cars but also readily seen in suburbia and sprawl. While Moses did not start the age of the automobile, he certainly cleared the way (literally and figuratively speaking) for the mentality that both urban and suburban space are dispensable for the automobile.

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Arguably, some American cities have begun to overturn this strand of thought, perhaps most important among them Portland, Oregon, which has shown that a refocus upon the pedestrian in architecture and city planning can create an environment which is safe, productive, and enjoyable for a more balanced variety of transportation. San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland also saw numerous freeway projects, planned to go through existing neighborhoods, scaled back or cancelled outright.

Related Topics:
Portland, Oregon - San Francisco - Washington, D.C. - Baltimore, Maryland

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