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. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and the state of New York. Moses' construction projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way urban areas across the United States were designed and built. His philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States.
Never elected to any office, Moses held myriad positions throughout his more-than-40-year career including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission. At various points, Moses held as many as 12 titles simultaneously. Working closely with New York governor Al Smith early in his career, Moses became an expert in writing laws and influencing the operations of state government.
As head of the Triborough Bridge Authority, Moses was instrumental in the construction of major transportation arteries including the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and the Long Island Expressway, as well as major crossings and transportation infrastructure projects such as the Triborough Bridge, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. These highways, roadways, and bridges, alongside other urban renewal efforts, often sacrificed large swaths of low-income housing and replaced them with public housing projects.
As President of the Long Island State Park Commission, Moses oversaw the construction of Jones Beach State Park, the most visited public beach in the United States, and was the primary architect of the New York State Parkway System.
Moses wielded enormous power as he had near-complete control of tolls collected on the various bridge, tunnel, and roadway projects, which he then used to fund additional projects.
Moses' reputation declined throughout the 1960s and 1970s, in part because of his plan for a Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have significantly changed the shape and character of SoHo and the Lower East Side. Community activists, notably Jane Jacobs, and elected officials began to cast doubt over the purported benefits of many of Moses' projects. Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Power Broker (1974) further characterized Moses' practices as controlling, overly focused on car dependency, and having a disproportionately negative effect on poor and minority communities. In large part because of The Power Broker, Moses has come to be regarded as a controversial figure in the history of New York City, New York State, and the urban planning field.
Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 18, 1888, to Isabella "Bella" (née Cohen) and Emanuel Moses. His parents, of German Jewish descent, were adherents of the Ethical Culture Movement who raised Moses in a secular environment; he was uncircumcised and did not have a bar mitzvah. He became an Episcopalian after college, and did not identify as Jewish. Moses spent the first nine years of his life living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven, two blocks from Yale University. In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City, where they lived on East 46th Street off Fifth Avenue. Moses's father was a successful department store owner and real estate speculator in New Haven. To make this move, Moses' father sold his real estate assets and store, and then retired. Moses' mother was active in the settlement movement, with her own love of buildings. Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary and secondary education, including the Dwight School, the Mohegan Lake School, and a military academy near Peekskill.
After graduating from Yale College (B.A., 1909) and Wadham College, Oxford (B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), Moses earned a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1914 with a dissertation titled "The Civil Service of Great Britain". He subsequently became attracted to New York City reform politics.
In 1915, Moses married Mary Louise Sims of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. They had two daughters, Barbara Olds and Jane Rose Moses Collins. Mary Sims Moses, who had remained virtually bedridden in their home from 1952–1966 with arthritis, died on September 6, 1966. Moses subsequently married his secretary Mary Alicia Grady on October 4, 1966. They lived in Manhattan's Gracie Terrace. Grady died in 1993.
In 1918, via his mother's association with the Madison House settlement house, Moses drew the attention of Belle Moskowitz, a friend and trusted advisor to Governor-elect Al Smith. When the office of secretary of state of New York became appointive rather than elective, Smith appointed Moses, who served in the post from 1927 to 1929. Moses himself ran for governor in 1934. He was the Republican nominee against Democratic incumbent Herbert H. Lehman, but was defeated by Lehman in a landslide. After his loss to Lehman, Moses never ran for public office again.
Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1918, and then again in 1922. With Smith's support, Moses set in motion a sweeping consolidation of the New York State government. During that period Moses began his first foray into large-scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smith's political power to enact legislation. This helped create the new Long Island State Park Commission and the State Council of Parks. In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission. 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". At a time when the public was accustomed to Tammany Hall corruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government.
Shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, the federal government found itself with millions of New Deal dollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few local officials who had projects shovel ready. For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significant Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and other Depression-era funding. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions was that of New York City Parks Commissioner, which he held from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960.
The many offices and professional titles that Moses held gave him unusually broad power to shape urban development in the New York metropolitan region. These include, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project:
Long Island State Park Commission (President, 1924–1963)
New York State Council of Parks (Chairman, 1924–1963)
New York Secretary of State (1927–1929)
Bethpage State Park Authority (President, 1933–1963)
Emergency Public Works Commission (Chairman, 1933–1934)