EDITORIAL
LEARNING THE LESSONS
OF JONES BEACH
It won’t be enough to restore what the economy lost
during the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Andrew
Cuomo said Sunday. New York’s post-pandemic
economy must be stronger and more equitable for
the people.
Part of creating that scenario, Cuomo noted, would
be large scale public works projects — which the state
and country have conducted during previous economic
crises to help get people back to work.
Cuomo made his remarks at Long Island’s Jones
Beach, one of the finest public works ever built by New
York state. He pointed to Jones Beach as a sterling
example of the great feats New Yorkers could accomplish
if they put their confidence in government and
supported public works.
What was left out, was the original sin of Jones
Beach: It wasn’t built with every New Yorker in mind.
Master builder Robert Moses led the creation of
Jones Beach out of seven miles of marshland on a barrier
island. To get visitors there, he helped design and
build a system of parkways connecting the beach with
New York City — a massive undertaking unto itself.
The parkways were lined with stone-covered overpasses
that were perfectly fine for single-family cars — but
not tall enough to allow a city bus to pass under. This
was not a design flaw.
As noted in Robert A. Caro’s renowned biography
of Moses, “The Power Broker,” the master builder instructed
that the bridges be made too low for buses to
pass. People of color who wanted to charter buses to
Jones Beach had difficulty securing them, at Moses’
order. Jones Beach itself was segregated in an underhanded
way. Caro wrote that people of color “were
discouraged from using ‘white’ beach areas” through
an employee “flagging” system. Only a handful of nonwhite
lifeguards were employed.
Thankfully, Moses’ discriminatory policies at Jones
Beach are gone. Yet there’s a lesson to be learned from
the experience as we move forward with rebuilding
New York state.
New public works must prioritize the elimination
of institutionalized discrimination in New York. That
means ending transportation deserts, building new
hospitals in low-income communities, expanding and
modernizing schools, opening up new parkland and
creating more affordable housing.
Our lawmakers have talked of this in recent years,
and have accomplished little. The rubber must meet
the road now as we strive for a stronger New York, with
greater justice and opportunity for all.
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The boardwalk at Jones Beach. Photo via Getty Images
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