The Moses Factor

I’ve always wanted to read “The Power Broker” by Robert A Caro, a Pulitzer Prize winning book dating back to the 70’s, detailing the life of Robert Moses, the master builder and community developer who singlehandedly changed the face of New York City, and the surrounding region, including New Jersey.  Within the last week I picked up a copy, and quickly delved into the over thousand pages of it.

During a break from reading, I turned on Showtime and oddly enough,  I came upon the documentary “The Last Play at Shea”…both a tribute to the ballpark, the great events (i.e. the Beatles playing at Shea)…the teams that played there (the Mets both great and awful, and of course, the Jets); and the final concert held there by Billy Joel.

Where the book and the show coincide is though this one character, Robert Moses…how he influenced the lives of millions of people, and in particular, Billy Joel.  I’d have say, by extension, my life as well.

Moses was the architect of many public works projects going back to the 1930’s.  Among them was developing Jones Beach, the building of parkways, bridges, parks, housing projects, etc.   He was also instrumental in the Dodgers moving out of Brooklyn, since it was at his insistence that the Dodgers relocate to a new stadium he was building in Flushing Meadow…a plan that Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley turned down since his team was the Brooklyn Dodgers, and not the “Queens Dodgers”.  ( Ironic in the sense that today we have two football teams playing in New Jersey that call themselves “New York”…but that’s another discussion.)

One of his projects was the building of the Triboro Bridge, which linked the Bronx to Queens and Manhattan.  Billy was born in the Bronx, and his family lived there for a short while, before they settled on a move to Levittown, Long Island…made possible by the aforementioned bridge and parkway system built by Moses.  Thus began the migration of the middle class out of the Bronx to places beyond.

He also started the western migration out of Brooklyn and Queens, in search of the greener pastures of New Jersey, when he built the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the system of expressways leading to and from the bridge.

1964 was a pivotal year when much of what Moses conceived came together. The Beatles arrived in America, influencing Billy to become a rock star; both Shea and the World’s Fair opened; as did the Verrazano.

Before the bridge, the only way to get to New Jersey was for families like mine to use the Holland Tunnel into Jersey City, over the Pulaski Skyway, down Routes 1 and 9, in order for us to visit my aunt, who, at the time, moved to Metuchen, which seemed like an eternity away!

That bridge cut the travel time into New Jersey substantially…and with it came the hoards of thousands of others like me.

All because of one man, his imagination, and his unquenchable thirst for power!

A great read…and a great show, if you happen to catch it on Showtime!