Robert Moses was one of the most polarizing and fascinating people in New York City’s history. On the one hand he helped modernize a City and set a model for a the 20th Century friendly to cars, on the other hand he set a model  for a 20th century too friendly to cars.  He managed to be one of the most powerful people in New York without ever holding a public office.  Before he was the head of over 10 public agencies, Robert Moses was in charge of Central Park.  The Park was showing its age and needed some TLC but Robert Moses demonstrated the utilitarian tendencies and the compulsion to pointlessly flash his power that would make him famous and make him hated.  He tore down the Ladies Pavilion near Bethesda Terrace which had been renovated by the previous mayor, Jimmy Walk who had turner it into a restaurant called the Casino.  

The Central Park Conservancy simply renovated places that don’t need renovating. Perhaps a new goal for the Conservancy would be to remove Robert Moses as much as possible from the Park – restoring some of the building’s he created and replacing those that are too ugly to be in such a beautiful Park.