Robert Caro on how Robert Moses infrastructure projects fueled discrimination

During Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Robert Caro's research into the legacy of Robert Moses, he explored how the so-called "master builder" used public works to advance a discriminatory agenda. For instance, Moses's development of Jones Beach relied heavily on the construction of bridges and parkways that excluded poor people and people of color by preventing the passage of public transit. "This is what public works, public policy, does to the powerless," says Caro.

[@garagedancer122]

Thank you Mr. Caro for writing The Power Broker, I couldn't put it down.

[@jfrorn]

Haven't seen Robert Caro in a long while! Real old school NY author/journalist!

[@dawuduhaneef2122]

This book along with Richard Rothstein COLOR OF LAW will set American free, believe me!

[@kevinshea5819]

America is not free? Explain please. Be specific.

[@altenirjosesilva3920]

We always learn when Mr. Caro writes or speaks.

[@christinabrault]

I was hoping for more numbers regarding how Moses' powers and policies kept black people from buying in Long Island and how the numbers show today....

[@aidanc9838]

Would have been nice if this clip spent less time focusing on him praising Moses’ works and more on the critiques and staunch realities it created for poor folks and BIPOC communities, mass displacement and evictions, creating a massive wave of homeless and pushing public policy that would set precedent for discrimination against homeless folks and poor POCs for the following decades. Still has a lot of implications for today, you’ve got plenty of folks whose parents or grandparents were fucked over because of him in NYC still today.

[@kevinshea5819]

Tell me specifically the implications that are present today. Please be specific.

[@JohnnyNatrium]

So what you're asking for is something that is biased and tailored towards your views when it comes to how another person chooses to talk about something he has intimate knowledge of. Beyond that, you're basing it on presumptions that are completely baseless. Maybe you're a bit simple, because I didn't hear any specific praise directed at Moses' works at all - and that is especially significant and baffling about your point because it shouldn't even matter in the first place if someone expresses their opinion of one aspect of someone's professional accomplishments, without that being their sole opinion on everything regarding this person. I know that must be difficult to grasp for someone who argues in one dimensional post-social media ways.

[@zackerycooper7602]

He spent the entire second half of this clip talking about how Moses prevented people of color from using a beach.

[@andrewperez3849]

That’s my man

[@abcdef-kx2qt]

MAKE A Overseas Highway LIKE FLORIDA has through the long island sound !!

[@cashmoney2898]

I use the word socially engineer. a lot when it comes to Black peoples.

[@crimony3054]

No more public policy!

[@cameronmanning8606]

Fascinating

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Huh?

[@josephkennedy4091]

With a car, anyone could drive to the public Jones beaches. By 1970, anyone who wanted a car could and did buy a car, no matter their race. Problem eliminated without further government interference.

[@josephkennedy4091]

Yes!

[@josephkennedy4091]

Yes.

[@mmucciolo3658]

I see Caro drawing a conclusion to a group and not to the reality of a city. It's well known that Robert Moses didn't like people. It's also well known that the Mayor was one of the most interfaith and inter-racially progressive mayors in the history of the city up to that point. Moses was building (with tax payer and toll money) his architectural dream. In addition he built the parkway for cars alone, he didn't want any commercial traffic tainting that vision. You also need to remember that mass transit was on the decline as is evident with the original Pen station being demolished and the near loss of Grand Central in the 1960's. Moses vision was always for the car, the middle class where just starting to buy into them and the majority of the middle class was white. A minority by the nature of it is rarer then the whole of the population. Mose's plan was also to serve NYC and it's burrows but not native long Islanders who every summer from Jones beach to the Hamptons is invaded by Jitneys buses in the HOV of the LIE to helicopters as locals have to bare with the traffic and the crowds. As a life long Islander I can tell you if commercial traffic was allowed on SSP it would be an even bigger disaster than it already is. Its the most deadly roadway in NY because of the sweeping curves and ability to go fast uninterrupted. Buses and trains especially in NY are taxpayer subsidized forms of transit and in the case of buses specifically for the low income poor, yet only I get to pay the bill for my car. Finally if Moses, truly was a racist (and we can judge him only after his death) without a vision I invite you to go to Jones beach any weekend in July at around noon to 1 o'clock see if he was successful in keeping diversity away from "his" beach.

[@CathyFinnDerecki]

Look at the number of parks he built in white neighborhoods compared with Harlem. Robert Moses was an unapologetic racist. Period.

[@MrCdamainevent]

Just because he was a focal point in building NYC which he was, doesn't mean he was not a racist. I worked at stuy town and I had someone who's been living there for decades tell me first hand that Moses did everything he could to deny black ppl from living there

[@tlaxixincaTV]

he wasnt a true visionary if he didnt see people of all races eventually coming to these parks, he didnt look that far ahead, did he get things done? sure! but he is a full blown racist, he even defends it in his own words that he has to displace minorities to make his dreams happen, guy was not for his people, only himself

[@BE-bk1tb]

Any weekend in July, now. Doesn’t change what his intent was back then.

[@michaelthorne1347]

Sell your car and buy bus tickets, then. There'll be fewer bills to pay and you still get to exercise your fundamental human right to freedom of movement without obstruction ; )

[@jaywon06]

Oh! he was so angry for the blacks and Latinos! What a hero Rob Caro! What would the blacks do with out you?!

[@andrewthen8998]

Uh oh. The white guy forgot how to speak English.

[@blakebrown4060]

Good god this is a stupid comment, both in it's composition and - what appears to be - it's intent (though it's hard to tell given what a failure this is at using English).

[@kevinshea5819]

How is Robert Caro a hero? "What would the blacks do with out you"? What does that even mean?

[@kevinbergin9971]

Though Moses was alive when The Power Broker came out he was not in any position to swing back. Perfect victim.

[@kevinshea5819]

Robert Caro makes many assumptions..and I do mean assumptions without citations. He basically relies on two people for almost all of his "facts" in this book. Robert Moses did not like people, especially poor people. That is not disputed. Moses is the most prolific builder in our nations history.

[@jimpalmer2981]

Spoken like someone who never read the book.

[@kevinshea5819]

@@jimpalmer2981 Read the book and listened to the audio book. So if I don’t agree with your opinion didn’t read the book?….lol

[@jimpalmer2981]

@@kevinshea5819 Well, if you’d read the book, you’d have run across the citations. Which are legion. Or at the very least, a bit more than… two.

[@kevinbergin9971]

It is hard to justify all of Moses's building efforts but at least he got things built.

[@JFerg12]

Anyone here for AP Research?

[@firgasz2920]

I know that he´s old, but he does not look to be in good shape. He´s looking exhausted. I like how much details he´s giving when he responds but sometimes it seems that he is having " a senior moment" 1:05. Hope he finish his last volume of the years of Lyndon Johnson.