Robert moses biography new york

Perhaps no other single person had as great an effect on the development of Jamaica Bay as Robert Moses did throughout the twentieth century. It is certain that he was the primary force behind the building of the highways and bridges in and around the bay, and responsible for most of Jamaica Bay’s lands and waters being preserved as parks.

He was also responsible for many projects in Staten Island, including the creation of the Fresh Kills landfill, the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, and the creation of Great Kills Park (originally named Marine Park).

Robert Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1888. In 1897, when Moses was still a child, his family moved to New York City, where his mother, Bella was very active in the settlement house movement, which aided the large numbers of immigrants arriving in the city. In 1905, he entered Yale University, from which he graduated in 1909. He then did his post – graduate work at Oxford University in England, where he studied the British civil service, and Columbia University in New York, earning his doctorate in political science in 1914.

Moses got his first job in government in 1913 with the New York City Municipal Research Bureau, which was helping to reform the city’s civil service. Moses proposed a plan for reforming the system which was based on merit hires and promotions, rather than on political patronage. Though his plan was not adopted, his work on civil service reform brought him to the attention of Belle Moskowitz, a fellow reformer and close advisor to Alfred E. Smith.

When Smith was elected governor of New York State in 1918, Mrs. Moskowitz recommended that Moses be given the job of chief of staff for a commission that was charged with reorganizing the state’s government. Again, his plans were not adopted, but his work on the project moved Moses into Governor Smith’s inner circle. Moses and Smith were to remain close until Smith’s death in 1946.

It was during the 1920’s that Moses’ interests in parks

1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro

For other uses, see Power broker.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro. The book focuses on the creation and use of power in New York local and state politics, as witnessed through Moses's use of unelected positions to design and implement dozens of highways and bridges, sometimes at great cost to the communities he nominally served. It has been repeatedly named one of the best biographies of the 20th century, and has been highly influential on city planners and politicians throughout the United States. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

Synopsis

The Power Broker describes Robert Moses's strong-willed grandmother and mother before detailing his childhood in Connecticut, studies at Yale and the University of Oxford, and early career promoting progressive reform of New York City's corrupt civil service system. According to Caro, Moses's failures there, and later experience working for future New York MayorJimmy Walker in the State Senate and Governor of New YorkAl Smith taught him how to acquire and wield power to achieve his goals.

By the 1930s, Moses was widely admired as a champion for public parks in the city and state. He then led long-sought projects like the Triborough Bridge (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Bridge), but at the price of his earlier integrity. Caro suggests that Moses's younger, idealistic self would not have been pleased with the ways Moses circumvented limits on his power in his middle and late career, such as creating and expanding New York's public authorities. Moses is portrayed as a bureaucrat who gradually shifted his focus from enacting improvements to exerting control. Because of Moses's positive reputation with citizens, track record of successful projects, and positions on various boards, he became crucial to construction and a key figure elected officials depended on

Robert A Caro’s epic account of the life of Robert Moses, the man central to shaping the physical fabric and governance of 20th century New York, is both scholarly and highly readable. It is considered a definitive account of the play of power in the making of the greatest world city at the height of the American Century. The interplay of history and personality, of grand vision compellingly and painstakingly pursued through the lens of a life story, means The Power Broker can at times evoke the brilliant writing of Philip Roth.

Moses built 14 Expressways, hundreds of public parks, swimming pools and scores of other developments, including Triborough and Verrazano Bridges. He transformed the physical landscape of New York City, commissioning projects that embody some of New York’s finest historical architecture and landscape. His impact on New York draws comparisons with Haussmann’s remodeling of Paris.

The reach of Caro’s research is as remarkable as the extent of the works; the story is told from the inside. Moses’ appointment in 1934 as commissioner of parks and parkway development by newly elected liberal republican Mayor Fiorello La Guardia provided a platform for him to re-engineer the city’s bureaucracy and to begin re-crafting the city itself. The City drew on the Federal Government’s New Deal resources, supplemented by the raising of tolls on bridges, and by issuing bonds. Steadily, Moses influence grew as independent vehicles were created to raise finance, to commission and deliver public works. The reformer set out to end the Tammany Hall systems of patronage in contracts, and took supreme control of jobs, contracts and privileges in a regime as elitist as the system the youthful Moses set out to eradicate. Moses’ determination to drive an expressway through Washington Square, Greenwich Village, and Jane Jacobs’ winning determination to stop him, became the defining moment in establishing the values that inform contemporary urbanism.

Not until the 1

American urban planner (1888–1981)

For other people named Robert Moses, see Robert Moses (disambiguation).

Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York state. The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States.

Never elected to any office, Moses held various positions throughout his more-than-40-year career. He held as many as 12 titles at once, including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission. By working closely with New York governor Al Smith early in his career, he became an expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating the workings of state government. He crea