On weekends, Mr. Nersesian often held auditions for his plays in the building, and once even staged a full rehearsal there. By 1940, New York had more miles of highway than the next five largest American citiesChicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Clevelandcombined. Thwarted, Moses dismantled the New York Aquarium on Castle Clinton and moved it to Coney Island in Brooklyn, where it grew much bigger. ARTHUR NERSESIAN, a 49-year-old playwright, poet and novelist whose wavy gray hair gives him the look of a 1960s English professor, rummaged through the black messenger bag lying next to him in a booth at the Moonstruck Diner in the East Village. Moses died of heart disease on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York. Nor would this be the first time the forces of the straight world were surprised by the Bohemian throwback in their midst. Download a free lesson from my premier program Write of Passage course and uncover your strengths, clearly communicate your value, and start building your reputation online today. Caro's The Power Broker also accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways in order to make them innaccesible to public transit buses, thereby restricting "the use of state parks by poor and lower-middle-class families" who did not own cars. By crafting simple narratives, Moses controlled public opinion., The Machiavellian titan spoke with eloquence and vitality. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential individuals in the history of New York City and New York State. Robert didnt care. This didnt come easy to him or the city as he destroyed many old apartments to build his high-rises. Moses claims he is slow of speech. Any politician with a relative who wanted one had only to ask; Robert Moses would provide.. I wasnt the biggest fan of the Beats, but there was an exemplary quality to the artist as citizen. [original research?] Visitors were subject not to city laws, but to Triboroughs, and by extension, Moses. Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out efficiently, such as the development of Jones Beach State Park. Unsurprisingly, though, the protagonists of all his works, which include four plays and six novels apart from the Moses books, are invariably harassed New Yorkers, fending off an all-encompassing city that constantly threatens to devour them. Both the siblings attended multiple schools as boys. In a stroke of political genius, the best bill drafter in Albany got things done by burying costs behind a facade of inspiring messages. In New York City, in the postwar era, the discretionary power resided principally in Robert Moses.. And it wasnt just parks. On Randalls Island, Moses reigned supreme. Nobody knew that vast administrative machine better than Robert Moses. They point out that he displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City and destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building multiple expressways through them. [22][23] The pools would be built using funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects. Robert Moses also supervised the construction of 28,000 apartment units in New York City. Not even the governor. Why do you have to drive all the way up north to 125th street and then drive all the way back south to 96th street? The headline Judge Rules You Cant Go to the Beach with Your Kids Anymore is a career ender and both Moses and the judge knew it. Moses's life was most famously characterized in Robert Caro's 1974 award-winning biography The Power Broker. [49][11] However, Caro also points out that Moses demonstrated racist tendencies. and demolition-heavy ways. [42] This casual destruction of one of New York's greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn against Moses's plans to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have gone through Greenwich Village and what is now SoHo. for instance, that his brother Paul had spent much of his life in poverty. For a twenty-year period that did not end until 1968, Moses was given by the State Department of Public Works a secret veto power over the awarding of all state contracts for public works in the New York metropolitan area. And if increasing Moses responsibilities meant increasing his powergiving him more money to work with, more engineers, architects, draftsmen and police to work withwell, the Governor simply had no choice but to increase that power, There were now seven separate governmental agencies concerned with parks and major roads in the New York metropolitan area. Moses is alleged to have kept the temperature of the water low as he believed colored people didnt like cold water. We had a really big hallway, and we rehearsed in the hallway until a phalanx of security guards came out, seeing these strange goings-on, and threw everybody out., Mr. Nersesians older brother, Burke, a software programmer who lives in Brooklyn Heights, acknowledged that his brother might be viewed as eccentric, but saw him through the prism of close attachment. [11] The New York City architectural intelligentsia of the 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, had supported Moses. That year, in a prescient analysis of the capitol scene in Albany, one New York Tribune headline read: Moses Second in Power to the Governor.. Mr. Caro devotes an entire chapter of The Power Broker to the tortured relationship between the two. When he gave order, they executed them. His first marriage with Mary Sims lasted for about five decades, from 1915 to 1966, until her death. Its using real people.. Eight miles, each way. supported by Adam Hill / Digital Track. Editorial writers chimed in. [31], Moses allegedly fought to keep African American swimmers out of his pools and beaches. [Paul Randolph, engineer brother of Moses]. His stainless, sun-bright image concealed his callous and cavalier approach to building: The important thing is to get things done.. You cant make an omelet without breaking eggs.. He had tried to upstage the Tunnel Authority when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was being planned. People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input, but they had not known that he had allowed his brother Paul to spend much of his life in poverty until the publication of Caro . Its amazing how memory really does become a kind of curse. And when he did, citizens bubbled with bliss and roared with praise: During 1934, Moses was in the New York papers even more than J. Edgar Hoover The Times editorial on Moses, for example, was only one of 29 praising him in that single newspaper that year. No matter what the job was, it seemed, if it was difficult Roosevelt turned to the same man. Sixteen-year-old James and his little brother, Danny, live in Crystal Springs, Louisiana, with their grandmother, mother, and first cousin, Lila. Moses in 1939 with a model of his proposed, Merged into Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, Post-war influence of urban development and projects, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Presentation by Robert Caro on Robert Moses and urban development at the Brookings Institution, September 28, 1998, Robert Moses State Park Thousand Islands, proposed expansion of the New York City Subway, Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation, "Robert Moses, Master Builder, is Dead at 92", "New York City Parks Commissioners: NYC Parks", The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, "23 Bathing Pools Planned by Moses; Nine to Be Begun in a Month to Meet Shortage of Facilities Caused by Pollution", "Public Swimming Facilities in New York City", "City to Construct 9 Pools To Provide Safe Swimming", "Big Chill of '36: Show Celebrates Giant Depression-Era Pools That Cool New York", "Park Work Is Begun on 2 Bathing Pools; Construction Under Way at High Bridge and Hamilton Fish 7 Others to Be Started Soon", "Revisiting The 11 Pools Whose Gala Openings Defined 1936", "A Crumbling Pool Divides a Neighborhood", "After 71 years Astoria Pool is among 10 outdoor public pools that the city is designating as landmarks", "Feb. 4, 1974: Portland kills the Mount Hood Freeway", "Revising the Revisionists: Walter O'Malley, Robert Moses, and the End of the Brooklyn Dodgers", "Environmental and Urban Economics: Robert Moses: New York City's Master Builder? Around this time, Moses's political acumen began to fail him, as he unwisely picked several controversial political battles he could not possibly win. [11] Caro notes that Paul was on bad terms with their mother over a long period and she may have changed the will of her own accord, and implies that Robert's subsequent treatment of Paul may have been legally justifiable but was morally questionable.[11]. It was required by law that he have the funds to pay for any confiscated property immediately, and he did not have it. On March 1, 1968, the TBTA was folded into the MTA and Moses gave up his post as chairman of the TBTA. [65] Politicians are also reconsidering the Moses legacy; in a 2006 speech to the Regional Plan Association on downstate transportation needs, New York Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer stated a biography of Moses written today might be called At Least He Got It Built: "That's what we need today. From a pilgrimage to Moses grave in Woodlawn Cemetery, top right, to a visit to the Cross Bronx Expressway, a Moses project, below, Arthur Nersesian is all Moses all the time. But credit where credits due. [11], From the 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of the Triborough, Marine Parkway, Throgs Neck, Bronx-Whitestone, Henry Hudson, and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridges. [11] A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimated Battery Park and physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason, the bridge was opposed by the Regional Plan Association, historical preservationists, Wall Street financial interests, property owners, various high society people, construction unions, the Manhattan borough president, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, and governor Herbert H. Merciless in his pursuit of power, Moses achievements were visible to anybody and everybody. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions was that of Parks Commissioner of New York City, a role he served from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960. At first glance, this layout made no sense. The slums were profitable for years. He made everyone he met feel loved, valued and appreciated. As Lindberg defied the laws of physics and soared across the skies, Moses accumulated power behind the scenes. Although Mr. Nersesians parents were both professionals his father was a public school English teacher and his mother a social worker his early years were precarious. [17] Moses helped build Long Island's Meadowbrook State Parkway. MR. He was promptly sued by the property owner. And stretch the law the judge did. [21][24], Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. She is survived by husband David McKnight of Williamsburg, Kentucky. Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (the Northern State Parkway, the Southern State Parkway and the Wantagh State Parkway), although the Taconic State Parkway was later completed as well. Stacked one on top of the other, they formed a substantial brick whose spines, in bold red capitals, collectively revealed the title, The Power Broker, Robert Caros 1,100-plus-page 1974 biography of Robert Moses, New Yorks master builder. Photo: Emmanuel Anati. Moses made the machine, fed the machine, steered the machine and naturally, the machine responded to his wishes: Power and accomplishment meant Getting Things Doneand Getting Things Done in New York meant playing ball, paying the price, the money price. Secondly, P's Moses has two biological siblings - a sister called Miriam and a brother called Aaron (Num 26:59). He was a convert to Christianity[53] and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City following services at St. Peter's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Bay Shore, New York. February 04, 2022. His power didnt just come from the people. [11], When Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley sought to replace the outdated and dilapidated Ebbets Field, he proposed building a new stadium near the Long Island Rail Road on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue (next to the present-day Barclays Center, home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets). Moses was a strategy mastermind. Robert and Ina Carothe only research assistant who has worked on any of his five bookswould eventually conduct 522 interviews for The Power Broker. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential individuals in the history of New York City and New York State. Working in the famous building since 1984 has had a definite, if intangible, effect on his writing. And it was not unusual at park and playground opening ceremonies for children, prodded by their parents, to break into the cheer Two, four, six, eight who do we appreciate? I couldnt walk down the street without saying hello to someone. For almost four years from October 3, 1935 to August 3, 1939 Paul Moses had received nothing from the trust fund his mother had left for him He took away from a brother who was poor while he was well off, who was walking the streets with holes in his shoes and sleeping in a Salvation Army lodging house, who was almost literally starving for want of a few dollars.. And she looked at me like I was a nut.. An era where wars were fought not for territories, but for words. Perhaps inevitably, the East Village of today, with its fashionable bars and restaurants and its gleaming glass towers, fills him with despair. Robert Moses is typically seen as a purely negative figure, but more recently there has been some revisionism, where people are attracted to the scale of change he was able to accomplish. Warm with allies, cold with enemies, he operated with a stiff neck, a steel will, and an iron fist. I walked in and the secretary said, Can I help you? And I think I tried to convey to her that this was where I lived for the first 10 years of my life; this space here was where I was bathed in the sink. Paul J. Moses (1 April 1897 - 7 June 1965) was a clinical professor in charge of the Speech and Voice Section, Division of Otolaryngology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, San Francisco, where he conducted research into the psychology of the human voice, seeking . Robert Moses with turning Gotham around, despite his brutal, undemocratic. Next time you fly into La Guardia and hop in a taxi on your way to Manhattan, your driver will probably drive you along Grand Central Parkway (Interstate 278), youll cross the East River at 125th street on the Robert Moses constructed Triborough Bridge. [citation needed] Displaying a strong command of law as well as matters of engineering, Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter in Albany". Paul, unlike his brother, wanted class distinctions eliminated, especially . Moses Mendelssohn was a significant figure in the Age of Enlightenment in Germany. Moses worked in the heart of mass media at the peak of the mass media era. Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. His brother was creating tens of thousands of such apartments: low-income, middle-income. 2. And that causes us to look at our infrastructure," said Jackson. As he painted the canvas of the greatest city in the Western world, Moses built intimate relationships with reporters. 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. Using the same smooth maneuvering that characterized his industrious dedicated, Robert made sure his brother Paul received nothing. Bitterly, Paul accuses Robert of cheating him out of his inheritance, of jealously hoarding the family name by preventing Paul who once had a reputation as a brilliant engineer from making a name for himself in urban projects and eventually, Caro shows, making his brother desolate . MOSES!!!. Half genius, half dictator, Moses maintained a squeaky-clean image. There are other signs of the surviving appreciation held for him by some circles of the public. Even when he engaged in shady, backscratching graft, that cloak protected him: An idea was no good without power behind it, power to make people adopt it, power to reward them when they did, power to crush them when they didnt, No one could disprove Moses reputation without first opening Triboroughs books, and no one could open Triboroughs books without first disproving Moses reputation The magnet which attracts corrupters the natural locus of corruption is always where the discretionary power resides. While citizens applauded Moses, elected officials depended on him. It was one of those things that I really did not get into too quickly and I really had to stay away from until I was ready., New York, in one form or another, has always been Mr. Nersesians subject. Of those six children, only Recha and Joseph retained the Jewish religion. Poor people couldnt afford rent. He also took charge of numerous other commissions, including Jones Beach State Park, Bethpage State Park Authority, and Emergency Public Works Commission, and Jones Beach Parkway Authority. Words leaped out of Moses mouth and landed directly in print without revision. A monstrous injustice directed at his brother. President Roosevelt ordered the War Department to assert that bombing a bridge in that location would block East River access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard upstream. Moses opposed this idea and fought to prevent it. Of this plan, only I-405, its links with I-5, and the Fremont Bridge were built. [19], During the Depression, Moses, along with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in Jacob Riis Park, Jones Beach, and Orchard Beach. My poor girlfriend has had to suffer so much, Arthur Nersesian said of his enchantment with Robert Moses. Inspired by the lessons of a previous post, Ive also tried to mimic Robert Caros writing style. In fact, it was just the opposite. A 'Reconstruction Commission' headed by Moses produced a highly influential report that provided recommendations that would largely be adopted, including the consolidation of 187 existing agencies under eighteen departments, a new executive budget system, and the four-year term limit for the governorship. There were lots of subtle issues at play about under what circumstances the State had the right to seize property and the ruling on the case would set a precedent. You cant just deny all the things he did., The girlfriend in question, a 34-year-old poet and translator named Margarita Shalina, was born in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union and was, he said, far more sensitive to the bully nature of it all, where there were Robert Moseses everywhere.. He playedand he paid. Both parties were over 21 years of . With matchless guile, he turned grand dreams into grand creations. In 1927, the press focused on Charles Lindberg, the first person to fly across the transatlantic solo. [9], After graduating from Yale College (B.A., 1909) and Wadham College, Oxford (B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), and earning a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics. Moses was also given powers over public housing that had eluded him under LaGuardia. Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend. At the entrance to St. Marks Bookshop on Third Avenue, where Ms. Shalina works as the stores small-press buyer, Mr. Nersesian pushed his way in. Moses took charge of the Long Island State Park Commission (as president) and New York State Council of Parks (as chairman) between 1924 and 1963. He led thousands and thousands of laborers, and together, they built 13 bridges and 416 miles of parkways, and by the end of his tenure, New York had 45% of all the state parks in America. $359k CTR Brad Parker and Tolu Koula (CTR/WFB $460k) return to the 17, so Morgan Harper and . At the margins, public opinion wins. As Moses gained influence, he gained power: Not only does a Governor not interfere with an official like Robert Moses; he heaps on him more and more responsibilities. No, not at all, Mr. Caro replied. The dude even invented the parkway., One speaker said that Robert Moses had outdone his biblical namesake because while the Moses of the Israelites had smote a rock in the desert and brought forth water, Moses of New York had smote the citys parks and brought forth not only water but trees, grass, and flowers.. By 1959, he had overseen construction of 28,000 apartment units on hundreds of acres of land. In the words of one government representative: Moses was a devil in May, but an angel in November.. For more than four decades, this particular urban planner was the most powerful man in New York, an unelected emperor who dominated the mayors and governors who were supposedly in charge, and who. Writing there gave me a kind of historical awareness, as well as an added awareness of being a New Yorker, he said. [65], "Every generation writes its own history," said Kenneth T. Jackson, a historian of New York City to the New York Times in 2007. On July 29, 1981, Moses died of heart disease, at the age of 92. Sometimes wed eat in the office and take intermittent naps on the sofa. The legislature's vote to fold the TBTA into the newly created Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) could have led to a lawsuit by the TBTA bondholders. Moses's image suffered a further blow in 1974 with the publication of The Power Broker, a Pulitzer Prizewinning biography by Robert A. Caro. The familys move from their Midtown apartment when Mr. Nersesian was just 10 was the result of an eviction to make way for an office tower, something he described as incredibly traumatic. The following year, his parents separated. [11], Moses had influence outside the New York area as well. Using the same smooth maneuvering that characterized hisindustrious dedicated, Robert made sure his brother Paul received nothing. Born and raised in the city, one of three sons of an Armenian-American father and a fifth-generation Irish-American mother, he lived in a succession of neighborhoods first Midtown and Brooklyn Heights with his family, then Times Square, Chelsea and the Upper West Side on his own with each move being the result of an eviction. Smiths influence and political power helped Moses work on his ideas and establish the Long Island State Park Commission as well as the State Council of Parks. Delusional, they thought a man who worked for free couldnt possibly be corrupt. He served from 1927 to 1929. Knowing this, Moses turned connections into control and publicity into power. When he was building Jones Beach earlier in his career, Moses had confiscated property on Long Island in a way that was almost certainly illegal. An emperor of cash and concrete, he sniffed the scent of dollar bills and danced to the syncopated echoes of coins transferring from taxpayers to toll operators. Robert Moses has made an urban desert bloom, said an editorial in the World-Telegram. Mendelssohn had ten children, of whom six lived to adulthood. By 1930, the attendance at Jones Beach was 1,500,000; by 1931, it was 2,700,000, and by 1932, it was 3,200,000. In 1982, he found stability of sorts in a one-bedroom apartment in the East Village, where he has lived ever since. Moses was responsible in some way for hundreds of highways, parks, bridges, and other public works in New York City and State, including Lincoln Center, the Triborough Bridge, and the United Nations. In 1922, New York Citys parks were few and far between. [citation needed] For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significant Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and other Depression-era funding. He loved swimming and spent his later years attending his health club programs. Later, he completed his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and decided to get involved in public service. Sending drivers across 100th street was more convenient and logical. There were however differences in their idealism. At least on one level, the Moses books seem to be Mr. Nersesians way of dealing with such wholesale loss of memory and the ensuing cultural changes. Moses played chess. Sinai. [18], Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructured New York state's government during the 1920s. [11] Despite this, Moses favored a bridge, which could both carry more automobile traffic and serve as a higher visibility monument than a tunnel. [62][52] However, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design. He also didnt sanction the request of Walter OMalley to build a new stadium for his club which forced one of Brooklyns most celebrated baseball teams to leave the city. But I always felt he was so integral to the history of the city that if I pursued it fully, people would want to read it.. After graduating from Midwood High School in Brooklyn, Mr. Nersesian held a number of temporary jobs, including selling books on West Fourth Street and working as an usher and manager in a series of East Village movie theaters, where, using his portable typewriter, he wrote in the theaters offices during screenings. And the Times also carried 346 separate articles on his activities, an average of almost one per day There were days, in fact, on which there were five separate stories in the Times the nations most respected newspaper read like a Park Department press release, By July, the eight War Memorial Play-grounds had been finished, by Labor Day, there were fifty-two others, including the Chrystie-Forsyth Street complex, which was really a park but which was dubbed the finest playground in the United Statesand a city which in its entire history had managed to build 119 playgrounds had seen its stock of that item increaser by 50 percent in a single year. Nobody could stop Mosesnot the people, not the mayor. [28][29] The eleven WPA pools were considered for New York City landmark status in 1990. Parks, highways, tunnels, bridges, and beacheshe built them all. It was set up that way, see.. You dont really know them. Fictional things should be things viewed as fictional. If I was just coming to the city today, Id probably think, Oh, this is a really interesting place, but its trying to tell people, You know, there was a war fought here, a strange economic, cultural battle that went on, and I saw so many wonderful people lost among the casualties.. To the public, Moses was a hero. And the praise, on front pages and editorial pages alike, continued day after day. The bulk of the bridge traffic 85 percent by one estimate would be coming from, and going to, destinations south of 100th street. Propped up by the media, and shielded by a facade of selflessness, The Master Builder, in a land ruled by public opinion, wore a shield of protection so strong that he could battle and beat just about everybody. He believes himself to be of no importance, a man of slow speech ( Exodus 4:10 ). Robert's slightly older brother shared his personality. The thing you have to understand is we were not a normal family, he said. These include two state parks, Robert Moses State Park Thousand Islands in Massena, New York and Robert Moses State Park Long Island, the Robert Moses Causeway on Long Island, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant in Lewiston, New York. You think about artists today in our society, and theyre kind of removed. [25] Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke, created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. After the death of his first wife, Moses married Mary Alicia Grady. Robert hijacked Pauls inheritance. MR. [43] This plan and the Mid-Manhattan Expressway both failed politically. Wed be watching commercials in the 60s for things like Pepsi and wed go, We dont look like any of those families.. And Id say Arthur was no more different than the rest of us. Parks and beaches were gateways towards power and influence. Thus, he never suffered from the nauseating, headache-inducing smell of exhaust in a traffic jam. Sometimes, when he really needed to win a battle, Moses resorted to blackmail. It was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world. One day, Paul couldnt struggle up the stairs anymore. Then and now, if you want to get things done in New York City, you never, never, never pick a flight with the owner of a major newspaper. In 2005, the theatrical group Les Freres Corbusier tackled Moses legacy in another Off Broadway production, a multimedia revue titled Boozy: The Life, Death and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses. But other than that, the creative arts have oddly remained silent in the face of such a Titanic figure. Moses, originally, rejects this divine commission. Moses's critics charge that he preferred automobiles over people. Like a lengthened shadow, his authorities mirrored his personality, his vision, and his rock-hard toughness. Family second. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses used the revenue to build other toll projects, a cycle that would feed on itself. He was accused of neglecting the poor and the middle class in his urban planning. Moses was of Jewish origin and raised in a secularist manner inspired by the Ethical Culture movement of the late 19th century.