more accessible, more New York workers were commuters from the suburbs of upstate New York or New Jersey, creating a city of traffic, no longer built for its own residents, but for wealthier visitors in their newly affordable cars. A further consequence of Moses’ actions was arguably racially divisive. Moses created highway bridges too low for busses to pass under, denying the working classes, predominantly comprised of Latino or African Americans (a group Moses actively despised), access to parts of the city. This suggested he was building a city for a ‘narrowly constructed public’, in direct opposition to New York’s history as a “melting pot”. Caro suggests that Moses’ prejudices were a heavy influence on his public works stating that he was “the most racist human being I had ever really encountered”. 103 Some disagree with Caro and redeem Moses by pointing out the bus drop off zones put into some parking lots. Despite this, it is clear that, as with other parts of U.S. history, issues of race are as important in considering the effects and impact of city development on its people. Not all development should be seen as negative. One development that was key in throwing New York City into the future was the development of the United Nations Headquarters at Turtle Bay, beside the East River, on land donated by John D. Rockefeller Jr. 104 The USA had emerged from WWII as a global superpower with the richest economy and strongest military in history, with writers such as Luce stating that America had become ‘the most powerful and vital nation in the world”, making it an obvious location for the UN
103 Campanella, How Low Did He Go? 104 Samuel Zipp, Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 35.
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