12 MAY 28, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
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, however, 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
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The boardwalk at Jones Beach. Photo via Getty Images
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 “f lagging”
system. Only a handful of non-white
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 lowincome
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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