The Greater Good
ANY BABY BOOMER WHO grew up around New York City is probably familiar with the name Robert Moses. He was the city planner who wielded enormous power over the development of New York from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Having grown up on Long Island, I saw his work firsthand in two main highways, the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State Parkway. They were designed to appear park-like, with arched bridges, wide grass run-offs and trees alongside the entire route.
Then there’s Jones Beach State Park, another Moses project. Alongside wide expanses of sandy beach, there are swimming pools, a two-mile-long boardwalk, refreshment stands and enormous parking lots. I’m among the estimated six million people who visit the park each year. My wedding reception was held at a Jones Beach restaurant.
Moses couldn’t stop the Brooklyn Dodgers from moving to Los Angeles, or the New York Giants going to San Francisco. He did, however, build Shea Stadium on the World’s Fair grounds in Flushing, Queens, to house the New York Mets, a recent expansion team.
Moses’s contributions to the New York region are sweeping—and controversial. He bulldozed neighborhoods to make way for great highways and towering bridges. Few had the power to stand up to his far-reaching plans. I remember the expression used to justify his decisions: “the greater good.”
When you cross the George Washington Bridge into New York City, most of the traffic flows onto the Cross Bronx Expressway. You’ve probably been stuck on the Cross Bronx because its width is no match for the volume of traffic it now gets.
As the name implies, the expressway cuts right through the Bronx. In building the road, Moses leveled many old neighborhoods, sending the South Bronx into steep decline. Before, neighbors talked and played along the avenues. After, they were cut off, and property values fell nearby because of the din and pollution of the expressway.
The justification for this neighborhood’s destruction? It was “the greater good,” according to city planners like Moses. Neighborhoods were leveled so automobiles could pass through the city more rapidly. Drivers were the greater good, apparently, and the city’s residents—often poor and black—were not. This urban highway model was adopted by other cities, wrecking many older neighborhoods.
These roads might have been built above the streets, like the elevated train tracks in Chicago. This wouldn’t have disrupted the lives of so many city residents. The powers that be, namely Robert Moses, decided differently, however.
These overbearing policies still exist today in other forms. We all endured the COVID-19 pandemic. The powers that be decided that, for the greater good, we needed to stay home and shelter in place. I’m not arguing against the need for the lockdown. The public health measures saved many lives.
But what about the individual? We have to live under whatever rules are imposed on us, figuring out how to make these difficult situations work for us. By doing so, each of us can also contribute to the greater good.
Working within the rules and turning them to our advantage isn’t a selfish act—it’s a matter of survival. The more people take care of themselves, the better off we all are. If too many people rely on someone else to look after them, the whole community suffers.
Self-reliance isn’t selfish. It’s a strength. Saving a portion of what you earn is a strength. Learning what benefits your employer provides, and using them to your advantage, is a strength. Understanding how to get a higher Social Security benefit is a strength. Making the right health insurance choice is a strength.
No, we don’t get to decide everything in our lives. But it’s up to each of us to take responsibility for our own well-being, so we don’t become a burden to society. That’s helping the greater good.
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