Robert Caro Headlines Bronxville Historical Conservancy's 10th Anniversary

Robert Moses, Library of Congress.

Robert Moses was one of the most powerful city planners who ever lived. Believe it or not, the depth of his influence can be best experienced from high above aboard an airplane. From cruising altitude, the New York region appears seamlessly interconnected with its major bridges, highways, and its emerald necklace of scenic public spaces and parkways. His bold, futuristic and daring urban policy and planning practice left an indelible impression on the entire metropolitan area. Robert Caro, one of his most storied critics made an area appearance, and I knew that I had to attend.

Robert CaroThe Bronxville Historical Conservancy recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary, with a special celebration at Sarah Lawrence College. Robert Caro, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author was the event's keynote speaker.

The Bronxville Conservancy was founded in 1998 to preserve Bronxville’s history and life in the village today. The Conservancy annually sponsors a lecture honoring the memory of one of Bronxville’s most renowned residents, the late Brendan Gill.

Mr. Caro discussed his critically acclaimed book, The Power Broker, a biography about the late Robert Moses. Mr. Moses was considered to be the most influential developer, city planner and master builder of all time, who is credited with the modernization of New York’s public infrastructure. In 2001 the Modern Library selected it, “as one of the hundred most important books of the 20th century.”

Mr. Moses’ most famous contributions have included Jones Beach, Robert Moses State Park, and countless public parks, and 13 bridges. Mr. Moses was responsible for the construction of 637 miles of highways, and the development of high-rise tower development for low and moderate-income citizens. His ultimate dream was to have towers in the park, interspersed with highways to make New York the gold standard of the automobile age.

Historically, Mr. Moses had been considered a genius for his remarkable ability to amass a great power structure, chairing as many as 12 public authorities and commissions over time. His city plans were able to come to fruition as a result of visionary thinking, and the capacity to systematically fund projects.

To many historians, Mr. Caro’s biography offers an almost contrarian's view of the achievements of Mr. Moses. Mr. Caro, a former newspaper reporter, decided to examine the genius of Robert Moses, but also delved into the human costs that resulted from Mr. Moses’ strong-armed city planning practices, over the course of his 44 years in power. His tenure spanned the administrations of six governors, and five New York City mayors. Mr. Caro stated, “He was a man who had never been elected to public office. Yet, he had more power than any mayor or governor.”

Mr. Caro said that Moses was unique, because, “the man saw the entire metropolitan region as one single unified canvas. He created a plan in the 1920s, and spent 44 years fulfilling it. I had to show this kind of genius, and had to show it in the book.

Mr. Caro did have the opportunity to interview Mr. Moses in his later years while in retirement on Long Island. “When Robert Moses talked, he was not the mighty Robert Moses, he was the young Robert Moses. He was the dreamer. He told me how he had created Jones Beach, and all of the parkways.”

In the speech, Mr. Caro recounted his early reporting on some of New York’s neighborhoods that had been ultimately decimated by new highway construction projects. Mr. Caro spoke about the book’s famous “One Mile” chapter, about East Tremont, a formerly working-class Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx. Many of the residents there worked in Manhattan’s Garment District. They enjoyed a vibrant commercial area, filled with bakeries, clothing stores, kosher butchers, and seven movie theaters, which met their basic needs. In the shadow of the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Gardens, former residents told Mr. Caro how much they had loved the neighborhood, and how there families had lived there for generations.

On December 4, 1952, many tenants learned that their apartments were being taken, with a 90-day eviction notice given. There were a series of neighborhood meetings, protests, and political support. Eventually, 60,000 people were displaced from more than 54 apartment buildings when 5,000 units of housing were demolished to make way for the Cross-Bronx Expressway. Mr. Caro commented that when Mr. Moses had homes torn down, he often “left rubble to attract rats to make people want to leave. Eventually, the neighborhood became a slum as bad as you can imagine.”

According to Mr. Caro, “More than 500,000 people were evicted for Robert Moses’ expressways. He always promised to relocated them humanely.” Mr. Caro noted that relocation offices were often located far from neighborhoods, with limited hours of availability, and the phones were often busy.

Overall Mr. Caro concluded “the more power that Moses got, the more he wanted to acquire. Projects were built for the power they could give him.”

Westchester County interestingly enough, was the setting for one Mr. Moses' greatest project defeats, the ill-fated bridge crossing that would have linked Oyster Bay in Long Island to Rye. While it was not addressed at the lecture, it was one of the rare times when citizen advocacy, coupled with government intervention managed to stop one of Mr. Moses' plans. Residents on both sides of the Long Island sound denounced the project. The Rye-Oyster Bay Bridge would have been 6.5 miles long in length. The project was left for dead in 1973, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller said there were too many environmental concerns.

In The Power Broker, Mr. Caro talked about the controversial bridge proposal. "Moses would, if he had his way, cover the Sound with bridges as the Tiber was covered with bridges in Rome."

In January, plans were revealed for a 16-mile car tunnel to connect the same two locations. According to Newsday, Vincent Polimeni, a private developer of shopping centers is interested in building the tunnel for $10 billion. However, he contends that the cost would be defrayed by charging drivers $25 toll. To date, Mr. Polimeni has paid $250,000 for engineering studies. Opposition to the project has already been voiced. Many compare it to Mr. Moses' earlier bridge building attempts on the Sound.

When The Power Broker was published in 1974, Mr. Moses quickly denounced both the book and Mr. Caro in a 3,500-word statement. Mr. Moses continued to speak out against the book until his death in 1981.