This month in real estate history: Robert Moses parts the Bronx

1953: Development czar's contentious Cross-Bronx route approved

Robert Moses
Robert Moses

From the May issue: The city approved a fiercely opposed route for the Cross Bronx Expressway that was reviled for destroying tight-knit neighborhoods in the name of modernization and public mobility, 61 years ago this month.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The Board of Estimate, which decided budgetary and land-use issues at the time, voted to back the freeway plan that cleaved through several South Bronx neighborhoods just north of Crotona Park and required demolishing about 1,500 homes and relocating about 5,000 people. [more]