Where is Robert Moses now that we need him?

Few people in the City and State are old enough to remember the quintessential "Builder and Planner" of more major parks, beaches, bridges, parkways, urban renewal housing developments and center city re-developments than any other single figure in most of the years of the 20th Century. Robert Caro authored a wonderful award-winning book on Robert Moses titled "The Power Broker." The book now is about to have a renaissance. It will likely find its way onto the reading lists of an entirely new generation.

Author Caro has become a central source in the recent multi-part documentary about New York City created by the genius Ken Burns for PBS, and shown here on WNET Channel 13.

Though I read the book many, many years ago, my recollection is that Caro's theme and characterization of Robert Moses was probably miscast and that he, Robert Caro, misunderstood Bob Moses. In the first instance, the book's title slants Caro's perceptions and view of this phenomenal giant of a man. Moses was far and away much, much more than a "Power Broker." In fact, the assiduous research Caro produced as material for his 1,000-page tome substantiates my point in great detail.

A quick review of the maps of New York State included in the appendices of Caro's book is mind-boggling and astounding. The list of more than 100 State parks, topped by Robert Moses Power Dam on the St. Lawrence River to the Lake Erie State Park south and west of Buffalo, reveals names, locations and the sweeping spread of this man's gigantic impact from the late Twenties to the late Seventies. Indeed, the subtitle for the book, "Robert Moses and the Fall of New York," is not only mean-spirited, but must be- adjudged as totally untrue. For while Caro's extensive research reveals a fascinating history of the thousands of intricate details in the story of "The Power Broker," it is also fair to conclude that he, Robert Moses, never sought huge personal self-aggrandizement and wealth, and certainly his massive record of achievements during his lifetime cannot be described or evaluated as leading to the "Fall of New York." If anything, one must recognize the great accomplishments as major contributions to economi c and social growth of the City and State, unparalleled and unmatchable before his time and since.

Certainly, there were many, many investigations and disclosures of "favorite treatments" of inner circle "Moses Men" and their business, social and related friends. There was much criticism and fault-finding of his wide panoply of projects garnered over time. The best of all planners, architects and engineers may not stand the test of time and more than a half-century of experiences. But this man stands higher and taller, on a unique pedestal, as the builder of New York for the Twentieth Century. Without this man's talent and aggressive mobilization of city, state and federal resources, New York would never have grown and enjoyed the huge benefits almost all of his projects produced. While some might carp about minor deficiencies or defeats Robert Moses was responsible for (e.g. his loss to Joe Papp in the second battle for Central Park over Shakespeare in the Park,) Robert Caro's own words report his conclusions more accurately:

"To compare the works of Robert Moses to the works of man, one has to compare them not to the works of individual men, but to the combined total work of an era. The yardstick by which his public housing and Title I feats can best be measured, for example, is the Age of Skyscrapers, which reared up great masses of stone and steel and concrete over Manhattan in quantity comparable to him. The yardstick by which the influences of his highways can be gauged is the Age of Railroads. But Robert Moses did not build only housing projects and highways. Robert Moses built parks and playgrounds and beaches and parking lots and cultural centers and civic centers and a United Nations and a Shea Stadium and a Coliseum - and swept away neighborhoods to clear the way for a Lincoln Center and the mid-City campuses of four separate universities. He was a shaper not of sections of a city, but of a city. He was, for the greatest city in the Western world, The City Shaper - the only city shaper. In sheer physical impact on New Y ork and the entire New York Metropolitan region, he is comparable not to the works of any man or group of men, or even generations of men. In the shaping of New York, Robert Moses was comparable only to some elemental force of nature."

New York could use such a force of nature now.

City Planning on the scale which Moses achieved can still be accomplished. I saw an example of this a few years ago in, of all places, the People's Republic of China.

Interestingly enough, despite their leaders professed adherence to the tenets of Karl Marx and world socialism, the leaders actually practice economic policies which spur GNP growth on with a series of wide-ranging joint ventures with multi-national conglomerates in new forms of distinctly capitalist enterprises. Political bureaucracy and military chieftains control the process, but the results are something which New York City might envy.

I was invited by the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU), an official People's Republic of China Agency, to head up a small delegation of builders to conduct a two-week tour of five cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Kweilin, Xian and Shen Zhen.

This proved to be a remarkable experience for all six of us. Besides being offered an amazing view of these five cities, and providing a gustatory delight in a series of traditional banquets in all five, the primary objective of CAFIU was to introduce us to potential joint ventures in two of the five cities - Beijing and Shanghai. Major real estate developments such as large-scale office and commercial buildings, five-star hotels, department stores, retail malls, etc., were presented to our group. In Shanghai, they took us through the new section of the city, Pudong, a city within the City of Shanghai, across the Yangtze River. The Pudong section is reached by either a new bridge (completed in less than three years), or by a new tunnel that was rising from the ashes and rubble of demolition crews.

But the most amazing experience came in our visit to Shen Zhen. Here the PRC had converted a fishing village with a population of less than 100,000 people into a thriving city of 2.8 million in eight years. The transformation included four- and five-star hotels; 50-story office buildings; a new modern airport; a high-speed rail line to the city center; four- and six-lane highways; a freeway linking them to other parts of the city; a wide range of new manufacturing plants with workers' housing nearby; and high-rise construction cranes continuing the work all over the city!

Returning to New York, we were all struck by the contrast in the chaotic and archaic state of planning and engineering of JFK, the Van Wyck Expressway, the Belt Parkway, the West Side Highway, the FDR Drive and the hodge-podge of buildings in between.

All of which brings me back to the point at the beginning of this article.

Where is Robert Moses now that we need him so badly?

Where are the men who shape such activity and vision? The truth is that Moses did have an inner circle of "Moses Men," from William Lebwohl to Jacob Lusk, to a wider range of Moses' allies who aided and abetted his causes.

If nothing else, we should emulate the bold history he provided by fashioning a series of task forces on major projects and focus on the planning of these projects throughout the region.