Robert Moses

James Trainor looks back at the history of New York's "adventure playgrounds" of the 1960s and 70s, tracing their origin back to the original Central Park dust-up between Robert Moses and local housewives.

June 30, 2012 - CABINET

On the anniversary of Jane Jacobs birth 96 years ago, Anthony Flint explores the striking similarities between the planning doyenne and anti-planning agitators.

May 5, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

There is a certain irony in community stalwarts in testy Greenwich Village wanting to have the stale housing slabs hovering over the bland park composing Washington Square Village declared an architectural landmark that will somehow thwart New York University from overdeveloping further the singular super block. “Fugataboutit,” would be a relative polite New Yorker’s observation by anyone who has ever been to this dance before, as I have. The plea is really just a feint to get the retro-redevelopment realists involved into a backroom of one of the proposal’s big buck backers to splice and dice the project so it can be swallowed by all without choking to a political death.  

April 11, 2012 - Sam Hall Kaplan

February 7, 2012 - John D. Landis

Anthony Flint looks at the legacy of Jane Jacobs upon the 50th anniversary of the release of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities."

November 14, 2011 - The Boston Globe

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that HBO is working with Oliver Stone on a biopic of New York's famous master planner.

October 31, 2011 - The Atlantic

Filmmaker Jim Epstein read "The Power Broker", the biography of Robert Moses, and set out to document one of the communities destroyed by Moses' urban renewal of the 1950s.

October 19, 2011 - MetroFocus

WCPN reporter interviews a commuter who is annoyed by a plan to make her commute longer - but it becomes clear that the suburbanite's faster commute is at the expense of an urban neighborhood.

March 23, 2011 - NPR

Has historic preservation been responsible for making New York a luxury city? A former member of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission argues no.

March 7, 2011 - The Huffington Post

A new musical has been written about Robert Moses and his impact on New York City. Robert A. Caro, Moses' Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, attends a rehearsal.

January 13, 2011 - The New York Times

Jarrett Murphy reviews The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs" by Roberta Brandes Gratz, and concludes that it is a nuanced interpretation of the classic showdown.

January 13, 2011 - City Limits

Esquire profiles New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, highlighting her impact on the city's public spaces.

November 26, 2010 - Esquire

A new exhibit at the Cooper Union revisits architect Paul Rudolph's vision for a megadevelopment built around Robert Moses' expressway project that would have destroyed much of SoHo and Tribeca.

November 10, 2010 - The New Yorker

There are two magnetic poles in the realm of urban planning: Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. But do we have to always be stuck in this tug-of-war?

October 30, 2010 - Urban Omnibus

The local environmental justice movement to remove a short, recently renovated Bronx expressway has taken on national prominence. On July 13, NY DOT is expected to release three options that may decide its future, including one to remove it.

July 13, 2010 - The New York Times - N.Y. / Region

Roberta Brandes Gratz has released her own account of the showdown between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses, with her own history of growing up in New York interwoven. George Beane has this review.

April 2, 2010 - Metropolis Magazine

Architectural historian Keith Eggener draws a fascinating connection between the film Death Wish and architecture -- and also links the movie's main character with Robert Moses.

February 17, 2010 - Places

This article from Triple Canopy looks at the unrealized urban planning ideas of former New York City Mayor John Lindsay, which were somewhere in between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses.

August 24, 2009 - Triple Canopy

The New Yorker offers a long profile of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and highlights his efforts to "undo" the work of Robert Moses.

August 19, 2009 - The New Yorker

A review by John King of Anthony Flint's new book, Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City.

July 29, 2009 - The San Francisco Chronicle