Robert Moses, Builder, Left Behind His Power Tool
EDITORIAL OBSERVER
Robert Moses, Builder, Left Behind His Power Tool
By ELEANOR RANDOLPH
Published: February 14, 2007
A series of splendid museum events across New York City has recharged the 50-year debate about the legacy of Robert Moses. Did this powerful planner, who died in 1981, make today’s thriving New York possible? Or did he arrogantly destroy neighborhoods, often the poor and black ones, that got in his way of a grand metropolitan vision?
The latest response is that he did both, as these three exhibitions — at the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art and Columbia University — prove with great depth and intelligence. But as urban thinkers attempt to lend more balance to Moses’ tarnished legacy, city and state officials often ask a more concrete question: Without the vision and the muscle of a Robert Moses, is it possible to build anything big in a city like New York?
Even though Moses has been out of power for a long time, the governmental apparatus that he wielded is still mostly intact. That weapon is usually called an authority, a public-private hybrid that can collect fees, take on debt and build things with little government interference. At last count, New York had about 640 such authorities, some that are bizarrely innocuous, like the state Overcoat Development Corporation, but many that are enormously powerful.
Few dictators exert as much control over public policy as Moses did over his authorities. These quasi corporations made it possible for him to route federal funds into public parks and pools, bulldozing what he called “slums” to make way for the superhighways of his era. Despite efforts to reform the authority system after Moses was pushed out of power in the 1960s, most New York authorities worked in relative secrecy until very recently. When it became apparent a few years ago that the state’s authority system was a way to hide 90 percent of the state debt — or simply to hide, period — state legislators like Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester started pushing important reforms.
Despite these recent improvements, some authorities still retain the kind of clout Moses would have recognized. One is the Empire State Development Corporation, the top building authority in New York State. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has divided the corporation into upstate and downstate sections. That is probably a good idea because the downstate area has a long list of major projects, like revamping Pennsylvania Station and speeding up progress at ground zero. But Mr. Spitzer should make certain that the major public development corporation is accountable to the public.
The most potent authority — the one that still has the Olympian power of old — is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. What gives the port so much, well, authority is that it is controlled by both states and thus, really, by neither.
Public meetings laws do not cover the Port Authority, nor do freedom of information rules. Because of its peculiar legal status, both New York and New Jersey need to pass exactly the same laws to regulate this behemoth, something that neither state has bothered to do.
Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority, has voluntarily opened meetings and promised to be more responsive to the public, especially after Sept. 11, 2001, which he says brought the organization “a renewed sense of mission.”
And the Port Authority does some very good things. For all the delays at ground zero, its choice of Santiago Calatrava to create the transportation hub at the site has been the one decision that has produced steady progress.
And after almost five years of slow going at the former World Trade Center site, the Port Authority finally took more control over construction last year. Since then, there have been more girders, more trucks, more workers — signs of actual progress.
But if Lower Manhattan is now being rebuilt under the same system that Moses used to both advantage and disadvantage New Yorkers, today’s authorities must use their power more responsibly. Governor Spitzer should push for more rules imposing transparency and accountability, like requiring authority directors to sign an oath that they will carry out their fiduciary duties responsibly.
For the Port Authority, the New York and New Jersey Legislatures need to finally pass identical laws requiring public access to its enormous public works operations, which are, after all, the public’s business. Mr. Coscia, like many authority directors, now promises “transparency” at some level. But it is worth worrying that future builders might decide, as Robert Moses did regularly, that the best way to respond to public concerns is to send out the bulldozers at midnight.
More Articles in Opinion »A version of this article appeared in print on February 14, 2007, on page A26 of the New York edition.
Robert Moses, Builder, Left Behind His Power Tool
By ELEANOR RANDOLPH
Published: February 14, 2007
A series of splendid museum events across New York City has recharged the 50-year debate about the legacy of Robert Moses. Did this powerful planner, who died in 1981, make today’s thriving New York possible? Or did he arrogantly destroy neighborhoods, often the poor and black ones, that got in his way of a grand metropolitan vision?
The latest response is that he did both, as these three exhibitions — at the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art and Columbia University — prove with great depth and intelligence. But as urban thinkers attempt to lend more balance to Moses’ tarnished legacy, city and state officials often ask a more concrete question: Without the vision and the muscle of a Robert Moses, is it possible to build anything big in a city like New York?
Even though Moses has been out of power for a long time, the governmental apparatus that he wielded is still mostly intact. That weapon is usually called an authority, a public-private hybrid that can collect fees, take on debt and build things with little government interference. At last count, New York had about 640 such authorities, some that are bizarrely innocuous, like the state Overcoat Development Corporation, but many that are enormously powerful.
Few dictators exert as much control over public policy as Moses did over his authorities. These quasi corporations made it possible for him to route federal funds into public parks and pools, bulldozing what he called “slums” to make way for the superhighways of his era. Despite efforts to reform the authority system after Moses was pushed out of power in the 1960s, most New York authorities worked in relative secrecy until very recently. When it became apparent a few years ago that the state’s authority system was a way to hide 90 percent of the state debt — or simply to hide, period — state legislators like Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester started pushing important reforms.
Despite these recent improvements, some authorities still retain the kind of clout Moses would have recognized. One is the Empire State Development Corporation, the top building authority in New York State. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has divided the corporation into upstate and downstate sections. That is probably a good idea because the downstate area has a long list of major projects, like revamping Pennsylvania Station and speeding up progress at ground zero. But Mr. Spitzer should make certain that the major public development corporation is accountable to the public.
The most potent authority — the one that still has the Olympian power of old — is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. What gives the port so much, well, authority is that it is controlled by both states and thus, really, by neither.
Public meetings laws do not cover the Port Authority, nor do freedom of information rules. Because of its peculiar legal status, both New York and New Jersey need to pass exactly the same laws to regulate this behemoth, something that neither state has bothered to do.
Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority, has voluntarily opened meetings and promised to be more responsive to the public, especially after Sept. 11, 2001, which he says brought the organization “a renewed sense of mission.”
And the Port Authority does some very good things. For all the delays at ground zero, its choice of Santiago Calatrava to create the transportation hub at the site has been the one decision that has produced steady progress.
And after almost five years of slow going at the former World Trade Center site, the Port Authority finally took more control over construction last year. Since then, there have been more girders, more trucks, more workers — signs of actual progress.
But if Lower Manhattan is now being rebuilt under the same system that Moses used to both advantage and disadvantage New Yorkers, today’s authorities must use their power more responsibly. Governor Spitzer should push for more rules imposing transparency and accountability, like requiring authority directors to sign an oath that they will carry out their fiduciary duties responsibly.
For the Port Authority, the New York and New Jersey Legislatures need to finally pass identical laws requiring public access to its enormous public works operations, which are, after all, the public’s business. Mr. Coscia, like many authority directors, now promises “transparency” at some level. But it is worth worrying that future builders might decide, as Robert Moses did regularly, that the best way to respond to public concerns is to send out the bulldozers at midnight.
More Articles in Opinion »A version of this article appeared in print on February 14, 2007, on page A26 of the New York edition.
