Kremer’s Corner – Robert Moses is long gone but Cuomo is trying

Jerry Kremer

I would guess that if you took a poll of Long Island residents the vast majority of them have never heard of Robert Moses. A few might connect him to the Robert Moses Bridge in Suffolk County but most will give you a blank stare.

Now, 38 years after his death, at age 93, it is worth revisiting some of the history of a man who re-shaped our region and made it into a modern wonder.

If you are a student of history than you are familiar with Robert Caro’s book, “The Power Broker,” which took seven years to write because of Caro’s painstaking attention to facts and detail.

If you boiled down the book into simple numbers Moses built 658 playgrounds, 416 miles of parkways and 13 bridges. He was known to be a good listener but when it came to getting things done but no one got in his way.

Pick any public works project in the downstate region and it wouldn’t be there without Robert Moses making it happen.

His achievements included the Southern and Northern State parkways, Wantagh Parkway, Meadowbrook Parkway and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (Tri-Boro). As for some other bridges you can credit Moses with the Throggs Neck, Bronx Whitestone, Henry Hudson and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. One could write an extra-long essay to cover all of his other achievements.

The miracle of the life of Robert Moses is that if you attempted today to build any one of the projects that I have listed, chances are none of them could be completed due to community opposition.

Long Island could desperately use a bridge linking its shores with Connecticut. That idea was tried in the 1970s when the Rye-to-Oyster Bay Bridge was proposed.

Sadly, Gov. Carey found out how many influential people owned homes in the path of the proposed project and it soon became dead on arrival.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a more modest but significant way, has gotten a number of projects completed that I never thought could happen. The third track proposal for the Long Island Rail Road is a good example of the governor’s determination to get a project moving.

I know from my first-hand experience, how hard it is to get officials in nine villages to agree to support any public works proposal. I was involved with that project at the outset and it ran into a great deal of stubbornness at a time when grade crossing elimination and better train service was badly needed.

The governor took on the challenge of getting the third track plan approved by all of the villages along the right-of-way. His people and the LIRR staff, went area by area, assessed the needs of the locals and came up with plans that gave them some community benefits and dealt with their concerns.

One of the planned grade crossings has already been completed and four are moving along nicely. A number of people have died over the years attempting to cross the active tracks and no doubt, these new crossings will save quite a few lives.

In the not too distant future, the LIRR will have improved rail service and more trains traveling from the city to this area to accommodate the people who commute to the island. When the Penn Station and Grand Central connection is finished, it may entice younger workers to stay in the suburbs and not leave out of frustration.

Another plus for the Nassau-Suffolk region is the proposed stadium at Belmont Park. Belmont has been neglected for many years, even though it is a massive site and one of the prettiest tracks in the Northeast.

For over 75 years proposals have been made to do something at that facility and now finally the governor has helped push it through after extensive community input.

There are other Cuomo-inspired efforts such as the revitalization of La Guardia Airport and the plans for a more modern JFK airport. In these two cases, the governor has used his clout with the Port Authority to get the financing.

I am not equating this governor to Robert Moses. What Moses did in his time was historic and was done at a time when communities couldn’t stop public progress.

But the governor deserves big thanks for doing some big things at a difficult time that will enrich the lives of Long Islanders.

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