"Over 44 years in public office, Moses reshaped the city like no other government official had in the 20th century. When he came to the Bronx, his aim was driven solely by moving traffic - and he did not care how many lives he needed to upend, or neighborhoods to bulldoze, to make the traffic move."
"People power was not enough to stop Moses from fulfilling his Cross Bronx dream, which ripped entire neighborhoods apart. It drove away thousands of residents and drove off extended families. It plunged communities into poverty and exposed those living adjacent to the highway to air and noise pollution that made life unbearable."
East Tremont was a thriving, diverse neighborhood until Robert Moses, a powerful government official, prioritized building the Cross Bronx Expressway to facilitate traffic flow between New Jersey and New England. Despite community resistance documented in Robert Caro's biography, Moses proceeded with the seven-mile highway project, demolishing entire neighborhoods and displacing thousands of residents. The expressway and related highways like the Bruckner and Major Deegan created severe consequences including family separation, concentrated poverty, and significant air and noise pollution for adjacent communities. These destructive impacts extended across multiple Bronx neighborhoods over decades, prompting current efforts to address the historical damage and increase public transportation reliance throughout the borough.
#robert-moses #cross-bronx-expressway #urban-development #neighborhood-displacement #environmental-justice
Read at Bronx Times
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