Rechler Philanthropy Supports New Writing Fellowship

The Gotham Center is pleased to announce that Rechler Philanthropy is supporting a writing fellowship exploring the history of the Long Island Railroad’s  development in relation to New York City. The award supports Elizabeth K. Moore, a freelance journalist with twenty-five years of newspaper experience focused on government and politics. She was a member of the Newsday team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997, and is a former lecturer at Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism. She is now writing her first book, “Getting It Done,” which builds on a study prepared for the Rauch Foundation outlining the troubled history of the Long Island Rail Road’s so-called third track, from the days of ‘power broker’ Robert Moses to the pivotal governorship of Andrew Cuomo. The book explores how the LIRR, America’s busiest commuter railroad, was nearly strangled by the politically influential swing region it helped create, and how a shifting and social and regulatory climate finally allowed the project to advance in a time of radical changes for New York’s commuter suburbs. This fellowship expands on research the Gotham Center has recently begun to support, exploring the history of Long Island as it relates to the greater metropolitan area, currently the only program of its kind.