Robert Moses State Park - Long Island
Friday, June 27, 2008 - Sunday, June 29, 2008

All Fields celebrate the 100th Anniversary beginning Friday, June 27 through Sunday, June 29, 2008. Activities on Friday include ribbon cutting ceremony at Field #3, celebration cake, family bbq in evening, steel drum band, free ferry boat tours. Saturday and Sunday take part in a treasure hunt/dig, sandcastle contest, and free ferry boat rides. Enjoy children's shows, and local artists' paintings and photographs. For more information, please call 631-669-0470.

Robert Moses (December 18, 1888–July 29, 1981) was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, and other suburbs. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and he was easily the most polarizing figure in the history of urban planning in the United States. Although he never held elected office, Moses was arguably the most powerful person in New York City government from the 1930s to the 1950s. He literally changed shorelines, built roadways in the sky, and transformed vibrant neighborhoods forever. His decisions favoring highways over public transport formed the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation.

Moses and his works remain strongly criticized in certain circles, to the point of tainting his legacy as a public figure. The most common criticisms include the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in New York City, contributing to the ruin of the South Bronx and the amusement parks of Coney Island, the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the decline of public transport through disinvestment and neglect. On the other hand, Moses's projects were also considered by many to be necessary for the region's development, and Moses participated in the construction of two huge World's Fairs: one in 1939 and the other in 1964. Moses was also in large part responsible for the United Nations' decision to headquarter in Manhattan as opposed to San Francisco. To Moses's critics, however, he will always be remembered for believing that "cities are for traffic" and "if the ends don't justify the means, what does?"