About Robert Moses
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 New York state. 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. He created and led numerous semi-autonomous public authorities, through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issued bonds to fund new ventures with little outside input or oversight. He held as many as 12 titles at once, including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.