It’s all hyper focusing on the psychotic minority of people who drive into Manhattan and how hard it is for them, despite having commutes that could easily be done with public transit. There’s a scant few soundbites from strap hangers, the people who are the vast majority of commuters. One of the networks had a long interview with a tourist from Philadelphia who drove in for a Broadway show. She’s going on about how tough it’ll be for commuters, like, shut the fuck up, you are out of your element, you don’t live here, you don’t work here, stop opining on things you know nothing about.
New York NIMBYs when they ghoulishly profited off of a housing scarcity by blocking new housing in one of the most in-demand places to live on the planet…and then they end up getting burned by having to pay to occupy space on some of the most valuable land on the planet.
Even at the very least, I’ll never understand why Long Island willingly has the same planning as Ohio. Robert Moses has done irreparable damage to that place.
LI right before Moses got his new job in the parks dept was part robber-baron vacation playground and scattered white fishermen enclaves. It was ripe for his specific neurotic fantasy of lebensraum for the educated middle-class he occupied.
That giant book on him written by another guy named robert was far too flattering imo. I’m sure he was a diligent worker but it didn’t lay into him hard enough about how he was an expert at acquiescing to rich ppl’s demands to get what he wanted & way too generous about how many hours he supposedly worked, his family life, etc. Maybe i’m recalling it was kinder than it is but i remember after listening to the audio book version thinking that the criticism leveled should’ve been harsher and there was plenty of criticism
The problem is that it may be impossible to be critical enough of Moses. Caro calls him the person who destroyed New York and yet you are still left with that impression (not saying you aren’t justified).
I think it's due to the fact that, since the book attempts to limits itself to the definition of 'biography', Caro can't (or wouldn't) examine the the conditions that allowed Moses to act as he did. It just so happens that all of Moses's grand plans align entirely with capital. Making parks out on Long Island connected by parkways built only to accommodate small vehicles, demolishing public housing, forcibly relocating immigrant neighborhoods to build highway. The way the book presents a lot of these problems, to my memory, gives the reader the impression that he was some exceptionally brilliant negotiator/bully whose extraordinary drive to create a legacy and earn respect caused him and his ill conceived plans to 'destroy new york' out of hubris instead of describing him as a particularly effective bureaucrat who did everything in his power to ensure the suburbs and cars became a fact of life in america according to the will of the biggest companies at the time.
All that said it's a good read or listen. It's called 'The Power Broker'
It’s been a bit since I’ve read it, but I think there were a few throw away lines about the Moses projects dovetailing with the interests of the automobile industry, as well as real estate interests. But yes, it mostly focuses on the bureaucratic machinations Moses employed to carry out his vision.
Probably the biggest acknowledgement of the influence of capital in the book comes at the end with the dismantling of the Moses empire. The thing that allows that to happen is the convergence of a Rockefeller governor and his family’s bank, Chase, being the bond representative for all the Triborough B&T Authority bonds. So it does present capital as having a power that most of the politicians, civic leaders, and bureaucrats that Moses opposed didn’t have.
You're correct. It's been awhile since I'd read/listened to it too and have j ust been firing from the hip loll