The ending of Moses era
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The ending of Moses era
Robert Moses was very influential during his New York city reign. Moses spent a lot of public finances transform the city housing, transport system, recreational facilities, and parks. He oversaw the construction of 658 playgrounds, 13 bridges, 416 miles of highway, and 150,000 people housing. Early experiences with New York City parks had taught Moses lessons that he carried long his reign.
There were changes in New York City, state, and society that were taking at the beginning of the 1950s. During the period, people enjoyed an affluent society, but there was widespread poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor was considerably large than it was thought before. There was societal concern about the minority’s struggle for their civil rights. Cities like New York were experiencing both relative and absolute decline. The once prosperous central districts were slipping into retaining, making business irrelevant. Networks of shoe stores, pharmacies, and bakeries were lost during this period (Ballon & Jackson, 2007). Moreover, the streets become broken windows, broken lives, and broken bottles. A sharp decline in industrial employment fuelled human migration.
New York City experienced several problems during this period, just like in other cities. The city’s population declined, and there was a sharp decline in industrial employment. Moreover, new York public schools deteriorated, infrastructure sagged, parks were vandalized, and riders were lost from the public transport system. Also, the city experienced an increase in social crime rates. These issues weakened the ability of Moses to ruthlessly use power to transform New York.
Moses’s loss of power was caused by the 1960s fading reputation. His political acumen started to fail him during this period. He picked many controversial political fights he could not manage to win. He earned negative publicity from his drive against Shakespeare in the Park program. Moreover, he gained many middle-class voters enemies from his attempt to make a parking lot for expensive Tavern on the green restaurant by destroying the central park shaded playground. Pennsylvania station demolition was attributed by the majority as Moses’s development arrangement despite that impoverished Pennsylvania railroad was responsible for necessitated the demolition. The destruction of New York’s greatest architectural landmark made residents be against Moses’s plan to construct the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Moses association with 1964 New York worlds fair tarnished his reputation (Caro, 1974). Moses had wildly and optimistically expected 70 million people to attend the event. Also, issues were economically worsened by generous, fair executives contracts as well as contractors. He publicly denied fair financial difficulties, which triggered both government and press investigation. The investigations identified accounting irregularities. The event failed because Mosses declined to accept BIE ( bureau of international expositions) requirements and restrictions.
New York Governor Rockefeller used a different approach to push Mosses from the office. John Lindsay failed to withdraw Moses because he tried to legislate both TBTA and Moses. Rockefeller knew that he could not legally oust Moses form office. He made Moses believe that he would be an important part of his new MTA (metropolitan transport authority) that would grip both TBTA as well as its revenue flow. Moses believed Rockefeller’s suggestion and agreed not to oppose the metropolitan transport authority proposal. After the formation of MTA, Moses was not given real power but a consultancy that made him keep an office staff, chauffeur, and trapping of power. His career came to an end when TBTA merged with MTA.
References
Ballon, H., & Jackson, K. T. (Eds.). (2007). Robert Moses and the modern city: The
transformation of New York. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Caro, R. A., & Caro, R. A. (1974). The power broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New
York. Alfred a Knopf Incorporated.