Running head: JANE JACOBS AND ROBERT MOSES 1

Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses

Berta Kholdarova
Molloy College






JANE JACOBS AND ROBERT MOSES 2

Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses
When talking about New York City landmarks and expressways, Robert Moses comes to
mind as a visionary that thought outside the box. However, when talking about fighting for the
greater good of New York and standing up for those who could not, a woman by the name of
Jane Jacobs comes to mind. Both these individuals were filled with passionate ideas that
highlighted New York as the greatest city, and for years led to a battle that is still talked about
today.
Jane Jacobs was born on May 4, 1916 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Born to a middle class
family, Jacobs quickly established her own drive for success when after high school she left
Scranton for the adventures in New York (PPS, 2004). For a while Jacobs explored numerous
jobs in New York before she could adapt to an area of interest. Jacobs stated that these various
experiences gave her an idea about New York and how business and people function in the city.
However, Jacobss ultimate goal was to be a writer and to do so, she needed a better grasp of her
environment (Nevius & Nevius, 2014). Around 1952, Jacobs had become an associate of the
Architectural Forum, which allowed her to understand more in depth how the systems of city
planning and urban renewal operated (PPS, 2004). According to Nevius and Nevius (2014),
Jacobs was approached by Rev. William Kirk, a minister from Harlem, who wanted Jacobs to
look into the housing projects in the area. Jacobs soon realized why Harlem was known for its
soul and diversity. With the experience she gained from visiting Harlem, Jacobs wrote an
influential article discussing the housing projects and clearly stated that the projects would not
help the section of Manhattan, but instead reduce its value and degrade its beauty. While
working for the Fortune Magazine around 1958 as an editor, Jacobs released an article called
"Downtown is for People", which later inspired her book Death and Life of Great American
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Cities. With that approach the article presented Jacobs as a woman who appreciated the world
around her and how she valued cities by fighting for them with persistent questioning and
innovations (PPS, 2004). Soon enough most individuals as well as Robert Moses quickly learned
that Jane Jacobs was a women whose determination was a key component to her success.
Robert Moses was born on December 18, 1888 in New Haven, Connecticut. Born to
successful German Jewish immigrants, Moses grew up in the Upper East Side with all the
commodities that define being wealthy (Nevius & Nevius, 2014). According to Nevius and
Nevius (2014), his particular upbringing influenced the man he had become, a man filled with
ideas that would shape New York to be a city with numerous pathways for transportation. Moses
started out in state government in the 1920s, and at the end of World War II had become an
individual who quickly held several positions in public housing and highway construction in
New York City (Gratz, 2010). Moses scored his first achievement in 1924, when he convinced
the legislature to fund and produce a New York State Council of Parks (Nevius & Nevius, 2014).
With this new proposal, Moses' main goal was to improve New York's vast parklands, because
the majority of the public at the time did not have the type of access that was needed for the
parks to flourish. Moses' life-changing and beloved project, according to Nevius and Nevius
(2014), was the building of Jones Beach, which led to Moses being recognized for his hall mark
style of amazing attention to detail. Now with his new title as architectural giant, Moses applied
his next projects over the years to designing the Triborough Bridge, that later came under the
jurisdiction of the Tunnel Authority, which was established in 1933 (Nevius & Nevius, 2014).
As time passed, Moses achieved overwhelming success, which resulted in a number of
individuals migrating to New York. As his success grew, Moses gained more responsibility as
the commissioner of a new proposal, the five-borough parks system that was appointed to him by
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Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (Nevius & Nevius, 2014). In addition to more responsibilities,
Moses' problems stacked up, resulting in greed and the desire for control which consumed him.
When Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs clashed, it was a time when Moses had more power,
but it was also the beginning of Jane Jacobs rise to diminish Moses' influence in New York.
According to Gratz (2010), Jacobs was an individual who understood the value and the logic of
most traditional neighborhoods and wanted those areas to grow rather than impose large projects
that would make them unrecognizable. However, Moses was an individual that liked chaos and
had this overwhelming urge to replace and separate everything around him. With their various
differences, Jacobs being all about observation and common sense and Moses being about
ideology and power, this led to many verbal confrontations between what they believed to be
right or wrong (Gratz, 2010).
Some believed these two individuals were for the same cause, but that was not the case;
Jacobs and Moses were not adversaries. In fact, Jacobs was an individual who successfully
opposed many projects that Moses was promoting in his early years of success (Gratz, 2010).
Jacobs and Moses were completely different when it came to reviving New York; one believed
in massive structured projects, whereas the other wanted natural change without overwhelming
destruction. However, both individuals fought to keep their ideas alive and attacked one another
until their arguments of what made New York so special were heard. Moses' plans involved
cleaning up areas and imposing order through large economic developments, which led to loans
and grants that later on became problems of their own (Gratz, 2010). Jacobs, on the other hand,
believed that Moses' economic developments were really "new work that was added to older
work", which to her meant Moses was arrogantly putting his own spin on those areas that already
had great significance to New York (Gratz, 2010).
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According to Gratz (2010), Jane Jacobs first book was a milestone in an era where males
dominated largely, but in due time Moses would meet his match. Jacobs book expressed her
anti-Moses viewpoints, stressing repeatedly that New York is a city filled with several
individuals with their own stories to tell, in which they leave behind a legacy of their countless
experiences in their neighborhoods. Through her activism, Jacobs proved to be the voice of the
people as she clearly expressed her dislike of Moses use of power that if not controlled could
lead to the downfall of New York (Gratz, 2010). Jacobs stressed on various occasions that Moses
did not care whether or not the places he was tearing down were places where working class
Americans lived, she believed he would accomplish whatever he desired whether or not it was
good for the people (Nevius & Nevius, 2014). The battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs
began in the late 1950s to 1960s when Moses, who was a house hold name, had already
established parks, bridges, and expressways. However, Jane Jacobs drive to preserve the
environment as well as what is best for communities resulted in both individuals being frustrated
on several instances (Gratz, 2010). Around 1962, Jacobs became the chairman of the Joint
Committee to stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. In addition, this project was an initial
reaction to Moses' plans to formulate a highway that would go through Manhattan's Washington
Square Park and the West Village (PPS, 2004). Due to Jacobs persistence to stop the matter, she
was arrested, which until this day is considered one of the turning points in New York Citys
development.
Over time, Jacobs and Moses' clashes extended to an area such as biology, where Jacobs
emphasized the importance of environmental protection. For Moses, his concerns were with
building other highways, which he believed were needed in order to maintain stability of
transportation (Gratz, 2010). In my opinion, even though Moses was a brilliant individual who
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enabled New Yorkers to travel to other places, his biggest problem was that he did not
understand the importance of maintaining natural environments. Around the 1960s, Moses'
power collapsed slowly, which led Jacobs to obtain control such that New York would become a
city that revitalizes urban life rather than break it apart (Gratz, 2010). Although Jacobs did much
for New York communities, Moses also contributed to improving New York. However, because
of his desire for excessive power and control, he in a sense became a man filled with his own
selfish agenda.
According to Greco (2007), author and activist Jane Jacobs until this day, has not only
been the drive for maintaining neighborhoods, but also has had the courage to carry on projects
that were left behind. One area in which she had great influence was the parks, for which Jacobs
emphasized that open space is useless if one does not figure out what to do with it (Greco, 2007).
Most of Jacobs success, according to Wellman (2006), was the result of bringing people
together and allowing them to embrace the areas that are still intact today, in contrast to building
expressways that allowed people the opportunity to leave the city. I believe Jacobs approach in
fighting Moses head on was brave and needed to be done because without environmental
preservation people could not enjoy what makes the city beautiful.
In conclusion, Moses over time became less popular with the public, and the continued
battle with Jacobs did not help the situation either. Moses passed away from heart failure in
1981, and before his death, he was known as an architectural genius but overall, left a legacy as
the master builder with endless creativity (Robert Moses, 2014). Even after Moses' death,
Jacobs continued her fight for environmental issues and the rights of people, which, after her
death in 2006, left a legacy of bravery and courage.
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References
Nevius, J., & Nevius, M. (2014). Footprints in New York: Tracing the lives of four centuries of
New Yorkers.
Gratz, R. B. (2010). The battle for Gotham: New York in the shadow of Robert Moses and Jane
Jacobs. New York, NY: Nation Books.
Greco, J. (2007). Learning from Jane Jacobs. Parks & Recreation, 42(6).
Wellman, B. (2006). Jane Jacobs the Torontonian. City & Community, 5(3), 217-222
PPS. (2004). Jane Jacobs (Project for Public Spaces). Retrieved from
www.pps.org/reference/jjacobs-2
Robert Moses. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 01:33, Jul 24, 2014,
fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/robert-moses-9416268.