Robert Moses. master builder
from an exhibit at the Queens Museum

Last week my son and I went to the Queens Museum in Flushing, New York, to see a part of an exhibit in various museums in the city on Robert Moses.  If you are not familiar with Robert Moses, suffice it to say he changed the face and infrastructure of New York City and its environs.  He was referred to as the “master builder” of the city.  He was a visionary, who was born in 1888; he was a participant in the construction of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, he was influential in getting the United Nations established in New York City, he erected public parks and playgrounds throughout the city as well as numerous swimming pools, enabling the masses safe places to play and recreate. He was empowered to construct city housing projects and became the chairperson of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel authority.  He brought cultural institutions into the limelight, such as Lincoln Center, and was instrumental in building Shea Stadium.

There is a flip side to Moses’ greatness; some people have criticized that he contributed to urban blight and decay by promoting the culture of automobiles where the haves could get away and the have-nots remained in a ghetto culture.  The overpasses along the highways that run to Jones Beach, were purposely built too low to accommodate bus transit; thus the riff-raff were not able to get to Jones Beach and other summer havens without a car.

Robert Caro’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography on Moses, The Power Broker, is considered tobe a definitive work and a true picture of Moses’s insensitive nature toward people, their needs and aesthetics.Several of his inner city highways tore through neighborhoods and ruined the fibers of communities.

The exhibit was full of bridge models, (The Triborough, The Verrazano), photographs, film clips, and newspaper references.

I had many nostalgic moments viewing old photos of playgrounds and recalling “Murphy Park” on Avenue C and 16^th Street, where I played as a child.As in all the city parks, there were the usual seesaws, swings, a sand box (nobody worried in those days about animals soiling the sand; we made our mud pies and no child that I know of died of salmonella), handball courts, and the sprinkler in the summer.There was also a little brick house in the center of the park that housed restrooms and a park attendant who gave the kids the materials and instruction needed for little projects.

It was all concrete; spare, no softened edges or rubber mats.Soot rained down from the incinerators from the nearby development I lived in, Stuyvesant Town, as well as from the traffic nearby on the East River Drive.It was concrete, metal, and dirt.And every kid loved it.

Lower Manhattan: Queens, upper right; Brooklyn, immediate right The World Trade Center still stands–as a proud model

The museum has my favorite, permanent exhibit, the New York City panorama.Left over from the 1964 World’s Fair, where on would sit in a moving car on tracks and “tour” the city in day and night mode, it remains in an enormous room which the viewer circles on an overhead walkway.If you squint, you feel like you are in an overhead plane; it is perfectly detailed, continually updated, and an indescribably inviting monument.I was happy, sad, and pleased to see that the World Trade Center still stands in scaled miniature, proud and strong, never to be touched.
A few views:

Next:
What I noticed that changed my focus of this visit.

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• heidi b
• Offline

Very very interesting love this kind of info you know I once wanted to be an architect,he was a great one one of the greatest.

Monday May 28, 2007 – 08:50pm (PDT) Remove Comment

• Papa
• Offline IM

Perhaps the most powerful man in New York,loved and despised,but continued for decades in his own bold way designing a great metropolis..remember attending the exciting 1939 World Fair..Old Papa

Tuesday May 29, 2007 – 08:02am (PDT) Remove Comment

• biggy
• Offline IM

Lots of history, past and present!! Thanks for sharing! Most interesting and educating!!

Tuesday May 29, 2007 – 12:45pm (CDT) Remove Comment

• redhe…
• Offline IM

I love this kind of thing and would love to see the museum! I have the same mix of reactions to the World Trade Center still being there … happy and sad. It’s right that they should let it stand I think. Thanks for the informative and interesting blog! 🙂

Tuesday May 29, 2007 – 03:49pm (EDT) Remove Comment

• Frida…
• Offline

Very interesting, and after all, it’s one of the most interesting cities in the world. The World Trade Center buildings also captured my attention, as well as the “Hopperesque” place. 😉

Tuesday May 29, 2007 – 06:44pm (CDT) Remove Comment

reply starfishred wrote on Jul 8, ’08 hehehe where did this come from?

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Jul 8, ’08 starfishred said hehehe where did this come from? I had transferred this over from yahoo but never posted it; it is actually the into to the poem which you probably read. I am busy with house/trip stuff and decided to fish out something from the past as there are so many new people. Please bear with me! xo

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jul 8, ’08, edited on Jul 8, ’08 It’s called the Queens Museum ? Maybe we’ll go ! Great post !

reply theoneandonlybill wrote on Jul 8, ’08 Yes Kid, just like all us ghetto riff-raff we were happy with our lot in life. Visit any poor area in the World and you will see depravation, sure, but through it all comes the smiles on the kids faces.  Happiness is inversely proportional to money, say no more.