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Not really, he was just following the trends of the time. If anything, New York is in a far better place with him than without. Sure, he did some bad things, b
by Tokkemon 7y ago
Not really, he was just following the trends of the time. If anything, New York is in a far better place with him than without. Sure, he did some bad things, but New York wouldn't be able to cope without his expressways and bridges.
- smogcutter 7y agoYes and no! For one thing he was creating the trends of the time, not following them. Carving up the city with expressways was a proactive choice, done specifically because Moses 1) could control them and 2) favored the needs of automobile owners over the city’s working class. Trains just smelled too much like communism. Building the expressways did an incredible amount of harm and destroyed neighborhoods at a stroke. But they also made it practical to get around the city in a car. Bob Moses is an extremely complicated figure - he was corrupt, power hungry, a servant of the wealthy, a monster in his personal life, would destroy anything or anyone in the name of personal power, but also he built a lot of parks and was genuinely loyal to Al Smith. He’s the reason the city is dotted with playgrounds, and also the reason that thousands of people were displaced from their homes or saw their neighborhoods cut off and destroyed.