Robert Moses: The Man Who Built the Modern New York

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Source/Further reading:
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“The Power Broker” by Robert A. Caro
“The Death and Life of American Cities” by Jane Jacobs
“New York: A Documentary Film”, Directed by Ric Burns

[@Biographics]

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[@sparky6086]

The worst part of his legacy is, that he helped the UN!

[@aragos32727]

How did the Great Depression affect the rest of the world?

[@historyforlife1019]

Just like Simon I’m a history buff so the Great Depression went global because the stock market crashed in 1929 so the US started raising taxes on shipping and that is how the Great Depression went globally

[@aragos32727]

@@historyforlife1019 thank you for that. And I understand that as that's basic history and economics 101. I guess I need to be more specific with my question. How did it affect people in other countries might be a better way of asking.

[@jackjones3703]

Can we have a video on Jordan Belfort please

[@found_documents]

“...Caro said years later. It led him to think about Moses for the first time. "I got in the car and drove home to Long Island, and I kept thinking to myself: 'Everything you've been doing is baloney. You've been writing under the belief that power in a democracy comes from the ballot box. But here's a guy who has never been elected to anything, who has enough power to turn the entire state around, and you don't have the slightest idea how he got it.'"

[@aaronbonogofsky4463]

Robert Caro is one of my favorite writers.

[@quanbrooklynkid7776]

damn

[@Wrz2e]

The deliberate neglect of public transport in favour of cars has been one of the most destructive trends in modern American cities.

[@goldenageofdinosaurs7192]

Yep. That & the 24 hr news cycle

[@Wrz2e]

@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 true!

[@drscopeify]

It's not neglected there is light rail always adding new stations, electric buses, dedicated lanes for buses and streetcars inside the city core here in Seattle so it is definitely not neglected. They have free garages at transit hubs in the suburbs and even inside the city so you can drive to it from your house and park for free for the day while you use buses or light rail and you pay with the same card for everything and it is pretty cheap. That said, almost everyone has a car and many have electric cars and it is usually less headache and cheaper to drive.

[@cathycasuccio3227]

@@drscopeify they’re talking NY, not washington state dear. can’t compare apples and oranges.

[@staringcorgi6475]

It’s because Moses hated the poor people like blacks, and puerto ricans

[@adamstevens5070]

The man did more to push the Dodgers out of Brooklyn than any single person...his refusal to let the Dodgers build their own stadium in Brooklyn when Ebbets Field didn't work anymore was the final nail in the coffin. Wanting to move the Brooklyn Dodgers to Queens was what Moses wanted...but no one else. He ruined one of the most unifying institutions in New York at the time.

[@kevinbergin9971]

The Dodgers wanted the land where the Barkley Center (Nets) is now. But it seems a little arrogant when Flushing has both a subway stop and an LIRR stop as well as plenty of room for parking and was a relatively safe neighborhood. Hey, the Mets have done fine out there. See my comments above for more.

[@anthonyperno1348]

Moses had good reason for wanting the Dodgers to play in Flushing. The new stadium (Shea) was to be part of the New York (Unofficial) World's Fair construction (to open in 1964). Flushing Queens was swamp land and the buying up of the land meant a considerably cheaper price than tearing down existing structures in Brooklyn. Also O'Malley wanted the mass transit system in Brooklyn upgraded, a project Mosses did have on the back burner, but only after a new system, that would run out to the World's Fair and Shea Stadium, was to be completed first, before the Brooklyn system was to be upgraded. (It was just a few years later.) RE LA: O'Malley started talking to a Congresswoman from the LA area (most believe as merely a threat to leverage Mosses) who kept sweetening the deal for O'Malley after each of Mosses rejections. They say what actually closed the deal with LA was that O'Malley would be a part owner/investor of a new (promised) Dodger Stadium. Thus, when O'Malley Dodger's paid their stadium rent, part of the proceeds went back into O'Malley pocket. Added to the dispute with Mosses, O'Malley was also running about with some new fangled plans for a domed stadium. (This stadium would become the Astrodome a few years later, and considering all the problems and failures the Astrodome suffered during construction in Houston, had it been built in Brooklyn seven years earlier it likely would have been a serious disaster.) Finally, what separates Brooklyn from Queens is merely a mental border, not a natural one. Miss the sign, and you won't know you left Brooklyn. Flushing was a reasonable compromise. It's not like Flushing even felt a part of Queens at that time. I don't particularly want to defend Mosses. He was a dick. But O'Malley demands, based on his timetable, were just not realistic.

[@AC-ih7jc]

Bonus Fact(TM): The tenements that served as the backdrop for outdoor scenes in West Side Story were abandoned neighborhoods that were about to be demolished so that Robert Moses could build Lincoln Center. The residents had been given only 30 days to vacate, and filming was done in a hurry just ahead of the wrecking ball.

[@kevinbergin9971]

The film producers were told they could spray paint the building with graffiti, if they wanted, since they were going to be demolished.

[@murdelabop]

Now that you've done Moses, do his nemesis, Jane Jacobs.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

Yes! Please do Jane Jacobs. I'm a born and bred New Yorker, and I remember when Robert Moses's downfall began in the mid 60s, mainly due to Jane Jacobs.. She was FIERCE!

[@DS-uh6ss]

@@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944 "someone needs to tell this rich old man 'no.'" THAT'S RIGHT!

[@wmeemw994]

Christopher Stephen Jenks, BSG, for people who do not know, Robert Moses did much for the city & state highways, but he clearly manipulated his ‘eminent domain’ projects in acquiring lands to build the highways in/around NYC. He also built the ‘Parkways’ of NY City (‘Belt Parkway’) and Long Island (Northern, Southern, Sagtikos & Meadowbrook) for wealthy & elite but not for buses of the poor & low-income to get to Long Island beaches via his parkways (faster moving) to speed their presence on Long Island Beaches. He specifically built arched overpasses of intersecting roadways with limited height of archways (8’-9’) to lower clearance for buses needed (1o’-11’) to limit lower income people access to the NY state beaches & parks via parkways. He also gerrymandered LI Parkways to skirt along property lines of wealthy gilded estate holders (Aster, (Vanderbilt, Morgan & Rockefeller) owned by wealthy & powerful friends taking forty miles overall to travel just thirty miles from West to East.

[@chrisclarke619]

@PatchesRips I'm from Toronto wut dat mean

[@Elainerulesutube]

Never heard of him.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:05 - Chapter 1 - A depressing city 3:50 - Chapter 2 - The Master builder 5:50 - Chapter 3 - The bridge to somewhere 7:55 - Mid roll ads 9:25 - Chapter 4 - Moses ascendant 12:45 - Chapter 5 - The coronation of the car 16:25 - Chapter 6 - Downfall 20:00 - Chapter 7 - Legacy

[@bigf0ot25]

New Yorker here: robert moses is an extremely difficult subject to tackle but I think you guys handled it well. It's important to acknowledge his accomplishments but I think a far more valuable social history lesson lies in the true (and overtly racist) cost to human life and well being that his ambitions covered.

[@aidanbagwell9590]

Every new yorker seems to hate this guy

[@DavidGonzalez-zg5ux]

He also can be directly contributed towards the popularization of Rap music

[@bigf0ot25]

@@DavidGonzalez-zg5ux what

[@DavidGonzalez-zg5ux]

@@bigf0ot25 Basically the isolation of South Bronx lead directly to the The creation of rap music in the 1980s with grandmaster flash and all those hip-hop influence origins. The housing projects at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. Can be attributed to some of the earliest forms of hip-hop in this nation, so indirectly Robert Moses caused, And led to the Beginning of hip-hop as we know it today

[@yankees29]

@@DavidGonzalez-zg5ux that’s a huuuuge reach right there.🤣

[@juliadagnall5816]

A biography on Al Smith would be interesting. He was a rare Tammany Hall man who wasn’t involved in corruption and actually cared about his constituents. I highly recommend reading The Power Broker. It’s not for the faint of heart (seriously, the book is massive) but it paints a vivid and engaging picture of Robert Moses, New York and how it changed with time, and of the neighborhoods that were destroyed by his monomania

[@SRosenberg203]

Yeah I'd be really interested to hear a Biographics on Al Smith too, he's a very fascinating figure from NY politics.

[@mechamoto6102]

Ordered The Power Broker after reading your comment. Just shy of 1400 pages is a great size book.

[@LIEgabrag]

Being a Mets fan, hearing Simon say "...it was a poor substitute for what they had lost" really hits home 😭

[@jcngokai-76]

That’s because Robert Moses forced out both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers out of New York City … TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!!!

[@stephenwright8824]

@@jcngokai-76 Walter O'Malley would have left anyway and the Giants were only hanging around until they did. Moses may have refused to build the Dodgers the stadium O'Malley wanted him to, but it was a clash of egos in that case.

[@petenielsen6683]

@@stephenwright8824 My father grew up cheering for the Dodgers and still cheers when he hears the Yankees have lost. And he is a (Syracuse) Mets fan.

[@rockintetster]

The best thing that ever happened to the Dodgers and the Giants was leaving New York City, both franchises did much better in California!

[@victormarrotti2575]

@@petenielsen6683 Your father's team received many defeats by the Yankees.

[@andrewfischer8564]

he paved over where my father lived.. he never failed to point out the spot when we drove over it. divided some neighborhoods that have never recovered and now the city is trying to reverse some of moses routes. he did much good but he made some large mistakes.... also making parkways so busses could travel to the burbs.. jones beach one of the greatest creations of all times

[@murdelabop]

One of the neighborhoods Moses paved over was the street on which my great grandparents and their ten children lived. It's now under an expressway.

[@petercarioscia9189]

Thanks for the land, grandpa

[@jamestomvargas6471]

Went into an Urban Planning program. Learnt about Moses from Simon before the prof went over him. We also learnt about Jane Jacobs and the whole profession changed more or less thanks to her. She also saved old city hall in Toronto. Thanks Simon! Loved the vid.

[@MIKELIN8]

On a side not, Robert Moses is also the man who drove the Dodgers out of Brooklyn. It's too bad that old-time Brooklyn fans demonized Walter O'Malley, who genuinely wanted to build a domed stadium in Brooklyn, but Moses wouldn't let him buy the land parcel he wanted.

[@kevinbergin9971]

Hold on, O'Malley, who had the California deal in his back pocket. He would not have paid fair market value for the land that would have been picked up via Eminent Domain. So should the taxpayers have paid the difference? Should Eminent Dmain be used for a sports team? See Definitely Delish above on that last one.

[@nordisk1874]

You skimmed over what he did in Throgs Neck! He was so vindictive against New York Merchant Marine Academy now SUNY Maritime the oldest maritime school in the country. They refused to give him an office in Fort Schuyler an fort dating back to post war of 1812. In retaliation he built the bridge through the middle of the campus impeding any further growth for the school. It also created a lovely wind tunnel that makes life difficult for the underclassmen taking the forth class walk to the fort every winter. Not to mention a very cold sports complex.

[@teto85]

My uncle (RIP Billy) was from Brooklyn. He said that if he were ever in a room with Hitler, Stalin and Moses and had a gun but only two bullets, he would shoot Moses. twice.

[@mechamoto6102]

I remember hearing his name in this same statement but didn’t know who he was until recently. I’m a Michigander, great uncle was an iron worker in NYC in his younger years.

[@jfournerat1274]

Robert was actually in many ways no better than Hitler which is ironic since his parents were Jewish the very people that Hitler imfamously hated and imfamously targeted and killed millions of them during the holocaust. He segregated and mistreated African Americans which if you know your history is ironic because often throughout history such as during the medieval period and during the holocaust Jewish people were often segregated into ghettoes and were often subjected to constant violence just like how after slavery was abolished African Americans were segregated and also often subjected to constant violence called lynchings. You would think that Robert would know Jewish history and would see similarities between the discrimination of Jewish people and African Americans throughout history but racism doesn’t have any logic. In another life maybe he would have been a civil rights activist fighting for the rights of all Americans including African Americans. This still doesn’t justify antisemitism. Jewish people and African Americans have had a complicated relationship between each other with both division and collaboration with each other such as during the civil rights movement many Jewish Americans including many Holocaust survivors recognizing the similar historic prejudice and discrimination between them and African Americans marched alongside civil rights activists fighting against segregation.

[@teto85]

@@jfournerat1274 Thank you fror repeating what most of us already know.

[@naftalibendavid]

Lagwadia. Like the airport that always loses my luggage. Nice work!

[@SRosenberg203]

When they started construction on LaGuardia, it was the biggest and best equipped airport in the world. By the time it was finished being built, however, only a few years later, it was almost completely obsolete given the booming expansion of air travel, and they started building what would later be renamed JFK airport only a few years after LaGuardia was finished.

[@davidoreilly7328]

I heard Robert Moses was the inspiration for the Marvel villain Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin). There is a video on KZbin called The Real Life Wilson Fisk that discusses it

[@jimihanlon5544]

The movie; Motherless Brooklyn too

[@JPKnapp-ro6xm]

Keep in mind that everything that happened in New York also happened in Chicago without Robert Moses. The Eisenhower and Dan Ryan Expressways leveled tens of thousands of homes, huge ugly housing projects were built (especially along the Dan Ryan), and public transit was left to decay. There were larger forces at work.

[@michaelsinger4638]

Robert Caro’s book about Moses is very good.

[@petenielsen6683]

To this day my nearly 90 year old father still blames the loss of his favorite baseball team on the owner's greed and not Robert Moses. And he cheers when the Yankees lose even though there is no team in Brooklyn. And he still has nostalgia for the good ol' days of the 2nd World War going to double features including the round trip train rides for 50 cents and maybe going to cheer on The Dodgers or fishing off the Tonnenville peer for dinner.

[@kevinbergin9971]

Glad that you can share those memories with him.

[@davoz9773]

Robert Moses was trending on Twitter today and it’s insane the amount of Poole who seem to have never heard of him. He truly left both good marks and bad ones on this world

[@gradyrm237]

Cat lived 92 years and you've shown a single photo of him 33 times. Also, how is the mafia not mentioned?

[@chalkywhitelll8448]

The mafia did have anything to do with the story

[@cassandraralph5906]

Great video. I learned a lot about New York City, and its history today. I would like to see a biography of Jane Jacobs please. Thanks!

[@LightHalcyon]

Fun fact: those parkways also wind a lot. He’d avoid planning it through nice neighborhoods. They are fun to drive though.

[@cathycasuccio3227]

yeah, ask Niagara Falls NY.

[@stuartsmellie4966]

I first learned about him after watching Motherless Brooklyn, so imagine my surprise when I learned he was a real man. Excellent work as usual Simon.

[@jimihanlon5544]

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro.

[@dandingfelder6763]

What a fantastic movie Motherless Brooklyn is and it is also very underrated.

[@ecchicharmed]

Same with me, but Dimension 20's The Unsleeping City. Never thought someone whose last name is Moses could exist.

[@MichaelAMacomber]

Fantastic. Wish it was a longer ditty.

[@manhattanrats]

I live in Manhattan at the intersection of 125th Street and Amsterdam Ave. The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (nee Triboro Bridge) terminates perhaps 60 ft. in the air and comes down to the street level of 125th Street today at its extreme eastern end in Manhattan. Had Robert Moses had his way, 125th St. in Harlem, Manhattan, would have been obliterated by the construction of an elevated highway (the same 60 ft. in the air) running the length of 125th Street to the West Side Highway, thence running to the George Washington Bridge and the crossing into NJ to the west. It would have taken out multiple blocks of active, viable, vibrant Harlem life should it have been completed. This would have included the famed Apollo Theater, which is alive and well today as well as an active and vibrant street life along 125th Street. I walk along this active and vibrant Harlem community on 125th Street daily. I am so very happy that Robert Moses did not have the chance to replace Harlem's 125th Street life with an Interstate flyover highway.

[@kevinbergin9971]

There were plans on the board for the CBE as far back as the 1920s (before Moses came into office) when the George Washington Bridge first opened. Trucks came across and snarled Bronx traffic all day long. They were often not even stopping in New York or L.I. just heading up to New England. Not saying he did it right, far from it, but something was going to be put in place.

[@jinunited7800]

It is interesting learning how the borough of queens that I grew up in came to be. Came about knowing Robert Moses by watching a video about the the worlds fair. Great video

[@stevenbodo965]

At least he did something productive with his power, instead of just pocketing the money.

[@Mr._E]

Fun fact: On all parkways that Moses built, the bridges are too low to accommodate buses. This was to keep anyone who didn't own a car (anyone not white) from using them. This way he could keep places like Jones Beach segregated covertly.

[@anthonyC214]

And today, with GPS, out of state truckers and buses are getting stuck under these lower cross over bridges

[@jasonphillips9281]

Anyone not white didn’t own a car 👀🙄😂 swear some people have no idea how clueless they really are

[@TheItalianTrash]

@@anthonyC214 Judging by last time I was at Jones Beach I'd say that Moses apparently failed at keeping minorities out, but the white to minority ratio on the North Shore was a resounding success.

[@Mr._E]

@@jasonphillips9281 Take a look at the demographics of NYC in the 40s and 50s.... very few people overall owned a car, but those that did were overwhelmingly white.

[@crencottrell7849]

Reading the comments, this man sounds more like a villain than a hero 😬😅

[@petercarioscia9189]

Only a villain to idiots. The construction works done by Moses are far more beneficial to the city and state of New York than any perceived "evil" His parkways on long island have far outlived their usefulness, but they still make the Island far more navigable.

[@jimihanlon5544]

Robert Mosses; early on, prevented subway access to Jones Beach and to further make it impossible to be accessed by Afro-Americans & Latinos, had the overpasses lowered to prevent church groups in buses from venturing into long island. the two city parks constructed in black neighborhoods had only one gated access positioned in the highest peak corner, which then opened onto a three-flight-granite-stairway descending into the parks, he relished watching black mothers with their prams scale steep sidewalks up to the gates only having to traverse the descending stairs into the parks on opening day.

[@malcolml309]

@@petercarioscia9189 If you wish to drink the Robert Moses Kool-Aid, then that's your business. But resorting to juvenile insults levelled towards those who dare to disagree with you, is not the way to persuade people, toward your way of thinking. On the one hand, you are quite correct that Robert Moses, took a 19th century city and had adapted it for 20th century use. That being said, Moses, did very vile things as well. And for you to treat the destruction of the Bronx, the wholesale displacement of millions of people (mainly Black and Latino), as trivial, is arrogant (to say the least); heartless to say the most, tells me all that I need to know about you as a person.

[@yankees29]

Most of it is made up leftist lies. The roads he built were for passenger vehicles only. No commercial traffic. Had nothing to do with buses or whatever they say his motives were.🤣

[@TheBucketSkill]

@@yankees29 "Leftist lies" Why is it a thing for people to deny racism especially back in those old times lol. It's crazy, like some history will get posted and describes racism toward blacks/hispanics and it's like, whites like you get mad. Like, aren't we supposed to be mad? After all it was us getting fucked. It doesn't effect you, yet it angers you. It should anger us more but idk whites act weird these days.

[@invincibleluis]

Would love if you could perhaps do in the future the biographics of Sasaki Kojiro and John Milton. Awesome videos!

[@twocvbloke]

"Pave paradise, put up a parking lot", pretty much what he did really...

[@carlgreisheimer8701]

Some of his biggest parking lots were in Jones Beach and JONES BEACH is paradise.

[@liviia305]

I was married to a Long Island boy and traveled those highways and bridges many times, but I never learned the backstory. Thank you for the edification, team!

[@jimihanlon5544]

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@thedexterbros]

19:29 arguably yes, but there are two highways in Manhattan now, the West Side Highway / Henry Hudson Parkway and the FDR Drive. Though arguably not "major" as they don't connect any two cities, they couldn't be any longer as far as Manhattan highways are concerned, being that they each run the length of the island

[@christopherharper9932]

LOL! I LOVE the cold as long as I have my house. I still sleep with the AC on in the middle of winter.

[@queenofthewhores]

Fun fact: the bridges over the expressways that Moses built to go out to the beaches in Long Island were deliberately built lower so that Black and Hispanic people from the city wouldn't be able to go out there. Because most black people and Hispanic people didn't have cars so they would have to take the bus out there. And so on the expressway is out to places like Jones Beach the bridges over those expressways have a very low clearance

[@Slikk750Blokk]

Wow

[@yankees29]

Actually it’s because those roads weren’t for commercial trucks and commercial traffic.

[@TOBAPNW_]

Whether intentional or not, the inability for buses to travel the road seems like a major oversight.

[@yankees29]

@@TOBAPNW_ not at all. The roads were built for passenger cars only. Much better for drivers instead of dealing with huge trucks and buses. There are other roads built for commercial traffic. Buses go down to Jones beach so idk what you’re talking about anyway.🤷‍♂️

[@queenofthewhores]

@@yankees29From my house in one of those depressed areas in the Bronx that the cross bronx expressway affected, I would have to take the Cross Island expressway, southern state parkway, and the Meadowbrook parkway to go out to Jones Beach. All of those highways were built as commuter highways. Stop the lies they deliberately built the overpasses on those highways to be lower so that black and brown people could not access the beaches and state parks of Long Island.

[@jakemiller1386]

Loved the music you used in the video. Do you happen to have a list of the songs?

[@sarah-janegalipo3995]

This was great . X

[@Geo_Thermal]

A fair assessment of the man. Thank you.

[@notfadeaway6617]

interesting. thank you! I would like to see jacobs video from you as well!

[@robinsoto2700]

This one was excellent Simon, I wanted to leanr about him and the fact boi does it best

[@jimihanlon5544]

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro.

[@robinsoto2700]

@@jimihanlon5544 is it actually worth reading tho?

[@Galaar]

Pulitzer prize winning author of "The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" Robert A. Caro gave me one of my favorite quotes, "We are taught Lord Acton's axiom, 'All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely' I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true anymore. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals, when you have enough power to do what you always wanted to do, then you see what the guy always wanted to do."

[@kevinbergin9971]

To be fair, he also get things built.

[@cyberi4a]

This was very interesting. I knew the Dodgers & Giants came here from NY, but never knew why.

[@notthatbirdman]

Hey Simon you should make a video about Stu Ungar.

[@FisherKing9633]

I can’t recommend Robert Caro’s the Power Broker enough. I don’t think there’s ever been a book that creates as complete a portrait of so complex a man as Caro did for Moses. I understand some academic consider it a hit piece, and some the greatest biography ever written. Seems to me that a book with such a mixed reputation fits a man with so complex a reputation. If you read it, you’ll hate Moses and pity him at the same time. He is unsparing in his criticism of Moses’ politics and racism, and yet Caro somehow finds a great tragedy in Moses’ life.

[@lawman860]

theres a podcast called the road that ruined a city. its about this guy and hartford connecticut. he built route 84 right through the heart of hartford. destroying neighborhoods and the city just like he wanted to do with manhattan

[@btuesday]

Great book by the way.

[@davebax6467]

I think this could’ve been a much longer and more encompassing video if it included his massive reservoir projects in upstate NY and out in California

[@petenielsen6683]

Those are subjects for another Mega Projects video. He was trying to stick to a time frame.

[@sk1ttlesrb3st]

Would you do an episode on the Rosenberg's either here or on Casual Criminalist?

[@Madafaker92]

Hello, what do you think about making a video about Tsar Dušan the Mighty? Love your channel !

[@joshwhite5407]

Shout out to Ed Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn”

[@NathanDav42]

You spend your childhood knowing trucks and trailers can’t drive on the Northern or Southern State Parkways, but you don’t ask why. Then you read the Power Broker and learn it’s because of racism. Kind of an eye-opener.

[@octaviopla5506]

make a video of Le Corbusier

[@beach81959]

I drive the Long Island parkways he designed on an almost daily basis, they're too narrow for current vehicle size and traffic loads but are a joy when traffic is light

[@saeedhossain6099]

it was very intentional, larger roadways would allow buses and not only private vehicles to operate on them, so only relatively well off people could use them.

[@carlgreisheimer8701]

@@saeedhossain6099 People forget that he also siezed, excused me, used "Emminent domain", to aquire land from the "Gold Coast" people of LONG ISLAND to build the LIE. In other words he screwed over the rich and the poor in the name of the MIDDLE CLASS(THE BACKBONE OF THIS COUNTRY).

[@carlgreisheimer8701]

On Sunday mornings many years ago, while going out too Amityville, I would get my 1986 ALFA ROMEO SPIDER up to 90mph on the twisty, winding, curvy sections of the Southern State Parkway. The road was meant for "pleasure driving". You can't experience that same level of pleasure with commercial sharing the same road. Plus they were designned to get people to JONES BEACH. When they were built in the 1920s and 1930s a good portion of LONG ISLAND was still FARMLAND. It was only after WORLD WAR 2 ended in 1945 and G.I.s came home that whole villages and towns started to be built(the suburbs) that these parkways started to turn into commuter roads. An 8000 pound SUV will not handle those parkways as good as a 2500 lbs. sportscar!

[@carlgreisheimer8701]

Beach 8, can you tell me where FIELD 9 is?

[@carlgreisheimer8701]

I HATE THE NEW WEST END 2!!

[@aspeer]

You should do a video on Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden. He was a gangster in Hot Springs, AR who ran around with Luciano and Capone.

[@ryandrayton3830]

There are two major highways in Manhattan we both ride along the sides do you have the FDR drive in the West Side Highway

[@Truename586]

you should make a geographics video about tammany hall itself

[@juliangreen9930]

"Robert Moses State Park, lamb in the sand/Blam Blam a piggie try to put my fam in the can" - Action Bronson

[@cebosityata8457]

Can you please make a video on John Langalibele Dube 🙏?

[@nellom.8771]

Please, do one on Hellen Hunt Jackson.

[@localman7017]

You should do a video on William S Burroughs

[@jpjpjp453]

Easily the most controversial person in 20th century NYC history. For as many spectacular leaps of progress he ushered in there were as many instances which revealed a supremely petty, stubborn, and vindictive man. The lowest point has to be the ruination of the East Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx by the Cross Bronx Expressway.

[@petercarioscia9189]

The expressway is far more useful

[@SRosenberg203]

@@petercarioscia9189 Not for the people who were displaced from their homes.

[@malcolml309]

@@petercarioscia9189 People, are far MORE important than expressways!

[@kevinbergin9971]

" ...most controversial ..." implies you have pros and cons on the man? Okay, see my comments throughout.

[@alcarbo8613]

19:27 never heard of Interstate 95, Hudson Parkway, or FDR Dr all 3 are major highways that run through Manhattan

[@jack_meoff69]

Westside Highway

[@CaliforniaBushman]

Drove Robert Moses Parkway to Jones Beach many a time.

[@pennsylvanianrrfoamer]

Robert Moses, don't you mean the man who displayed thousands of families?

[@lowerclassbrats77]

In a glass case or on a shelf?

[@gphjr1444]

@@lowerclassbrats77 right after he displaced them ;)

[@petercarioscia9189]

And made travel possible for billions.

[@DaveXXX]

@@petercarioscia9189 yeah as long as they were white

[@skate103]

😂😂😂

[@PandaBear62573]

Robert Moses cleared out the low income homes where Lincoln Center now sits. Fordham University built a 2nd campus next to the Lincoln Center on part of this land.

[@kevinbergin9971]

As a Fordham alumni I kind of have to stick up for him. He was a scoundrel, but he was our scoundrel.

[@PandaBear62573]

@@kevinbergin9971 my daughter went to Fordham at the Lincoln Center campus so yeah I understand.

[@loveClowns8]

Please do one of Olof Palme: The Swedish priminister who's assassination is still unsolved!

[@beestains779]

He also parted the Red Sea. I’m kind of surprised that was left out.

[@wildsmiley]

Yeah, to build a crosstown expressway.

[@carlgreisheimer8701]

@@wildsmiley LOL!

[@piettrified]

Just found out about moses through an ad for a play about his struggle for the highways

[@juistoscrazygames137]

Can you please do one on either Dorothea Dix or the bare foot bandit or maybe both? you rock bro! Thank you for keeping me sane!!!

[@robertewalt7789]

For those outside the US, the Triboro Bridge Authority is one of many agencies somewhat independent of state or federal control. The agency raised funds by issuing bonds, not subject to federal or state income taxes.

[@DrakoDragonis]

♫I'm in with the in crowd♫

[@Gangxisiyu]

God Damn Robert Moses.

[@PaulVanSickle]

Outstanding bio as always, Simon! Just one question though, how did you cover Robert Moses and not say anything at all about the Mafia's "alleged" involvement?

[@JenWith1N]

Robert Moses parkway recently changed its name to Niagara scenic parkway. In Niagara Falls.

[@cathycasuccio3227]

wooo woo! i’m from south of buffalo and was wondering if he’d mention niagara falls. so disappointed

[@SitInTheShayd]

You should do one of these on Archie Belalie, AKA Grey Owl

[@fred3467]

Moses destroyed the Bronx by running expressways through neighborhoods.If it weren’t for protests, he would have done the same to Greenwich Village.

[@kevinbergin9971]

To be fair, there were plans on the board for a CBE in the 1920s as soon as the GW Bridge opened. Trucks snarled in Bronx traffic all day long-many of them were not even going to NYC just passing through on their way to New England. It is hard to justify all of Moses' efforts but make no mistake, something had to be done there.

[@keithharper1470]

O'Malley wanted the new stadium where the Barclay's Center now stands for the same reasons the Nets wanted it you can take most subway lines even LIRR to get there. O'Malley knew to keep some of his fan base that moved to Long Island he needed that spot.

[@jefflewis4]

The Flushing site was the better site, Moses was right on that one.

[@kevinbergin9971]

The Mets have done just fine in Queens which is closer to those L.I. transplants. Oh, there is a LIRR stop in Flushing too, plus more room for parking.

[@RicochetRita]

His Cross-Bronx Expressway would make a good subject for a Megaprojects video.

[@michaellosasso4020]

Top-notch video! Although you didn’t mention the tumult and financial fiasco if the 1964 NY World’s Fair as another key contributor in Moses downfall.

[@Musicradio77Network]

I saw it in a Defunctland episode about the 1964 NY World’s Fair where Walt Disney met Robert Moses. It was a fun episode. There was another episode about the Epcot project and Robert Moses was briefly appeared on that one along with Walt’s final years and his passing in 1966.

[@FRugar7]

The water tower "obelisk" by Jones Beach is another impressive thing that came about because of Moses

[@malcolml309]

And this is supposed to somehow make up for all of the vile things that Robert Moses had done?

[@christopherbrennan9882]

You missed a perfect opportunity to title that segment “Bob the Builder” instead of “The Master Builder.” Shame.

[@cathycasuccio3227]

best comment on this vid!

[@laughingwarlock]

I've been to Jones beach. Nice place.

[@apoll7]

The criticism of him is valid, but to ignore what good he did is not. That's what makes him an interesting character. He is not all good or all bad, like most people. Because of him an enormous stretch of coastal beach is forever off limits to any development and is instead a giant New York State Park, now accessible to all at minimal cost. Yes, he made sure that "his" beaches (there are several actually) were not initially reachable by train or bus, but buses do go there now. Of course they need to leave from points south of the many granite bridges (each one unique, one of kind sculptures actually) on "his" parkways since he foresaw the day when others would want buses to bring people to "his" beaches. For this reason he designed all of those granite bridges intentionally to be too low for any bus to cross under. That may be evil (and ingenious at the same time), but those beaches are today as pristine and absent commercial development as they were 80 years ago, that they will likely be just as pristine 80 years from now. He made that happen, and without him that stretch of beach might have been privately developed into a Hampton's-like manner without any public access whatsoever, or turned into some ugly overly-commercialized giant Coney Island. Go there today and see how many thousands of all types of people enjoy that place. It remains startlingly beautiful and barely 30 miles or so from Manhattan. indeed on a clear day from certain roadway overpasses, you can see the Manhattan skyline.

[@pamelamays4186]

Suggestions: HRH Prince Philip. HRM George VI. Dick Clark, aka America's Oldest Teenager. Richard Pryor. Cartoon artist/animator Chuck Jones. Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Jazz greats Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Count Bassie. Voice actor June Foray. Author Langston Hughes. Sammy Davis, Jr. Dancers and choreographers the Nicholas Brothers.

[@theoutlook55]

Urban planning is so important but so underrated.

[@niamhryan9677]

Hey there Simon. I haven't been here in a while. I'm loving your beard. Wow. It really has grown very long. Very nice I must say. 😊😊👍🤗❤️

[@barbarak2836]

He apparently is going for a bald Civil War general look.

[@eduardoramirezjr4403]

Moses was both a Master builder and a total SOB. He cheated people’s out of their homes with the use of eminent domain and didn’t compensated them properly. In the case of the Central Bronx, he gave residents only 30 days to vacate the homes before tearing down their homes. In some cases, the marshals and police were used to evict folks who refused to move. As for the parkways, he deliberately constructed them with lower overpasses so buses from the city couldn’t get to Jones Beach. He felt most city folks were trash and he didn’t want them to use “his” beach. When it came to public housing, he build many them far from subway stations making it difficult for residents to get to work. Although, I must disagree with Simon’s comment that “public housing is reviled”. In most cases, public housing provided clean, decent and affordable housing for hundreds of thousands of NYers. It was lack maintenance and using them as a dumping ground that change public option towards them. Also, Moses refused to allow for public input and placed many perfectly decent areas under the wrecking ball. One last thing, he also refused to use the assets of the cash rich TBA to help fund capital improvements for public transportation. Assisting in the MTA’s decline throughout the late 50’s until the early ‘90s.

[@jefflewis4]

Moses gave central bronx (E Tremont) residents 90 days (not 30) to vacate. But he knew it wasn't going to be 90 days, the legal/political battles took another year. They didn't begin demolition until about 3 years after they were sent the first vacate letter.

[@murdelabop]

RE: Your bed music, yes, we know you're in with The In Crowd. ;-)

[@selenasalmon7541]

Hey. Can you do a video on Nostradamus please?

[@abnerparel6654]

Please do one for Joseph Smith, the founder of LDS church/ Mormon denomination. A big fan of ur videos and content. Thank you for doing this.

[@truthserum6808]

One correction: There is one high with at does cross Manhattan. I-95 runs through Washington Heights section in Upper Manhattan as the “Trans-Manhattan Expressway”, which enters the Bronx as the “Cross-Bronx Expressway.

[@shadehunter]

That's hella interesting. I've never heard of this guy AT ALL and I feel like I should have.

[@jimihanlon5544]

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro.

[@anthonyC214]

My Grandfather had a 1951 Buick Special and he would put all the grandchildren into it and take us from Queens to Jones Beach on the weekend . We ,the grandchildren, would have a contest who could see the water tower that looked like the Washington Mountment first.

[@michaelfregoe5875]

Do the St. Lawrence Seaway, establshing Americas 4th coast. It's a huge megaproject associated with Moses.

[@cindyharrison8997]

Coming from LI was shocked to see Biographics did a segment on Robert Moses.

[@historyforlife1019]

Simon I think you should write a book on every single person that you did on Biographics

[@christopherharper9932]

Damn, I miss Queens! The Queens of 94, 95, 96. Jamaica Ave, dollar vans, beef patties, incense...