Fifty years after Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker” hit the shelves, Robert Moses’ vision for our city continues to profoundly influence our lives. He doubled our park space, added hundreds of playgrounds and miles of beaches that remain destinations for millions. The interstate highway system he stamped on the city has a profound legacy of connectivity but also debilitating health and economic disparities.
These were the acts of one man, yielding incredible exclusive power and the ability to shape New York’s infrastructure into his view of progress — more cars — fracturing neighborhoods and restricting access to the open space he built.
We are deep in the work of reshaping this legacy: rebuilding infrastructure to foster communities rather than break them, providing mobility beyond cars, opening space to all and protecting our city from climate change, something Moses never had to consider.
Where Moses found local communities to be inconveniences best ignored, we know they’re the foundation of strong projects.
Two Moses expressways, the BQE and Cross Bronx, cut dictatorially through low-income neighborhoods, displacing tens of thousands of homes. Combined, the highways see up to 320,000 vehicles per day, thousands more than Moses anticipated. Air and noise pollution remain.
New York City is tackling this discrimination head-on. Our work starts with the pivotal step he never took: listening.
Thousands of community members are informing our work to stitch together neighborhoods around the North and South spans of the BQE. Last week we unveiled more than 30 proposals to improve connectivity along the corridor. The most radical concepts involve capping portions of the highway to bring new life to our public realm. We’re looking to activate open space under the elevated portions and provide new bike and pedestrian connections.
Bulldozing through thousands of homes to build the Cross Bronx, Moses viewed their vocal tenants as background noise. Today, the opposite is true: 11 Bronx organizations provide the foundation for our planning. Yesterday we showcased community-led proposals to create football fields of park space over the highway and dozens of local street connections.
The Biden-Harris administration is funding these endeavors as part of a nationwide effort to reconnect communities scarred by highways: $8 million for engineering and planning to bring these projects to life.
Moses’ legacy includes huge amounts of public space, but many of his hallmark spaces were best reached by parkway. In a city with one of the lowest car ownership rates in the nation, equating car ownership with access is the same as not providing access.
Equalizing is underway. We are expanding the nation’s largest bike lane network, building a record number of protected bike lanes and investing $1 billion to deliver more than 60 miles of greenways — connected bike paths in parks — creating a continuous link to our city’s 30,000 verdant acres.
With more than $100 million in federal funding for a new Inwood Greenway and planned greenway expansions across the city, we’re one step closer to completing the network.
Every borough is getting its due: a $117 million federal investment will transform a blighted railway in Queens into new public space that will connect locals to economic opportunities.
Unlike Moses, we now have to consider climate change in every project. Gone are the days when a park was just a park — now everything must do double duty.
The city is protecting its waterfront with 32,000-pound flood gates along Manhattan’s East Side, which also provide recreation space during blue skies.
Even our roadways and tree beds are doing double duty to supplement our sewers. We’re delivering 100 miles of porous pavement by 2031, absorbing up to 500 million gallons of rainwater per year.
We’re transforming basketball courts and playgrounds into holding tanks for rain bursts. We’re turning wetlands and creeks into “blue belts,” huge stormwater storage centers — with more than 20 in the pipeline. Together, interventions like these will turn NYC into a sponge, saving lives.
Trees beautify our neighborhoods and protect us from the top cause of weather-related deaths: heat. We planted 18,000 new street trees this year — a banner 38% increase.
Moses’ era was defined by the language of control: he hacked through communities to lay highways. He leveraged generational political prowess to remake the city.
Today, we understand something he didn’t: our kaleidoscope of perspectives bring life and color to our miraculous city. Participation is a must have, so that projects reflect the people who use them.
Happy 50th birthday to “The Power Broker” — our next 50 will be more equitable, and worthy of all New Yorkers.
Joshi is New York City’s deputy mayor for operations.
