https://www.thepowerbiker.nyc/home daily 1.0 2024-03-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/83ac90c1-7acc-4f2e-a6cc-c9d32caaeb65/rfkhighways.jfif Home - Make it stand out Transportation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/652d3f47-4ceb-4511-a5e0-a6b9cd006dcd/gracie-mansion.jpg Home - Make it stand out Power https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/a46c6c9b-e775-4544-8010-fc0ea749f379/housing.jpg Home - Make it stand out Housing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/ac07bc9e-b4c2-4e29-a369-1d62c1528c5f/randallsisland.jfif Home - Make it stand out Parks https://www.thepowerbiker.nyc/about daily 0.75 2024-03-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/b13c5f9a-c9b8-40df-9123-eae61dc5b0d7/PXL_20210507_191439776.jpg About The Power Biker is a passion project inspired by a love for New York City and Robert Caro’s The Power Broker. Jeremy Espenshade conceived of and developed The Power Biker tour while on parental leave with his daughter, Alice, in the spring of 2021. Their long stroller walks around the city offered an opportunity to listen to The Power Broker while seeing many of the described parks, playgrounds, highways, and more firsthand. Jeremy wanted to share this experience with others, in two hours instead of sixty, and is excited to be your tour guide! Jeremy is a licensed NYC Sightseeing Guide (#2101050-DCA), has lived in New York since 2014, studies Urban Planning at NYU, and works on Google Maps as a Senior Staff Software Engineer. https://www.thepowerbiker.nyc/book-a-tour daily 0.75 2025-10-06 https://www.thepowerbiker.nyc/location daily 0.75 2022-01-04 https://www.thepowerbiker.nyc/itinerary daily 0.75 2024-03-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/52703959-c805-414c-80d7-eb096671b42a/secondavesubway.jpg Itinerary - 1.) Intro and Transit Legacy While first proposed in the 1920’s, none of the 2nd Ave Subway was built until 2016. Robert Moses is a big reason why. Who was this man, how did he freeze rail development in its tracks, and why? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/538115fe-cafd-41ac-bbc9-1048dedf740a/fdrdrive.jpg Itinerary - 2.) How did he do it? Moses build nearly every parkway or expressway, most of the bridges and car tunnels, and the vast majority of parks in NYC (including the FDR and Stanley Issacs Playground where we’ll be standing). How did he do it? Who helped him? What happened to those who fought against his goals? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/e5ee26c0-b2a9-43e4-92b9-6bc313760ade/gateway_nra_jamaica_bay_wildlife_refuge__large.jpg Itinerary - 3.) Parks Everyone loves parks. Moses made great parks, so everyone loved Robert Moses! The Wards Island park is a great example we’ll experience firsthand to understand his long-held popularity. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/a6687c4c-b35c-4c4f-b5a6-303d57c7a14e/triboroughconstruction.jpg Itinerary - 4.) Triborough Popularity only gets you so far. Money gets you further. How did Moses turn a bridge into a source and seat of power that held across mayors, governors, and presidents? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/bdc5af43-0558-4e5f-b36f-6e414bf78b83/moseshighways.jpg Itinerary - 5.) Traffic How do you solve a traffic problem? More roads (and bridges, and lanes, and interchanges, etc), obviously! As we look up the East River at the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges, and see planes leaving LGA (all Moses projects), we can start to see the extent of Moses’s ambitions, and the limits of his approach. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/2603991b-6cb5-4a8b-8d22-7d7df6a516b2/robertmosesbuilding.jpg Itinerary - 6.) The Robert Moses Building While Moses was a regular visitor to Gracie Mansion earlier in his career, by the end, he made the mayors come to him. How does someone spending their days separated from the city they’re working in (literally on an island!), surrounded by sycophantic staff, stay in touch with the people they’re supposed to be helping? Hint… they don’t. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/42347f07-8c21-4380-907b-da3106d8d0d6/coopcity.jpg Itinerary - 7.) Housing What happens when someone with all the power to improve something doesn’t care whether it’s improved or degraded? Let’s find out by giving Robert Moses control of the city’s housing programs! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d352c30302a2342ea4386b/061610b2-8102-45c7-9218-a994873434c7/rockefellermoses.png Itinerary - 8.) Calling Bluffs Moses held multiple, overlapping state and local positions, and had successfully resisted politicians’ meddling for decades. How did Moses lose the power he had kept for so long? And where does that leave us, over 50 years later? https://www.thepowerbiker.nyc/useful-info daily 0.75 2024-03-24