Robert Moses
- See also Wikipedia's article about "Robert Moses".
Robert Moses PhD 1914 LLD '52 (hon) was an insanely powerful city planner who shaped much of New York City as you know it today. In fact, he wanted to go further, but was stopped by neighborhood activists like Jane Jacobs. Among the less remembered, and more humanist changes he approved was the conversion of 116th Street to College Walk.
The Power Broker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by journalist Robert Caro, largely cast Moses' policies and personalities in negative terms, but a 2006 exhibition by professors Kenneth Jackson and Hilary Ballon at the Wallach Art Gallery, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Queens Museum helped revive his reputation, to some extent.
Some of his projects include: the Triborough Bridge, large scale construction of NYHA public housing, and the Cross-Bronx Expressway.
He is at least as responsible as Walter O'Malley for running the Dodgers out of Brooklyn.