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May 13, 2016 1:56 PM   Subscribe

Robert Caro takes Mark Rutte on a tour of Robert Moses' New York. [NYT]

Robert Caro is the biographer of Robert Moses and of Lyndon B. Johnson.
Mark Rutte is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands
posted by chavenet (12 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
For a man so reviled, his handiwork has remarkable sticking power: very little of it demolished, and most of it exceptionally popular by actual measures of use.
posted by MattD at 2:20 PM on May 13, 2016


Great article, thanks. Yeah, going to the city now where the neighborhoods resemble either my local mall or are abandoned because their owners have 12 other residences is not all that fun.
posted by Melismata at 2:32 PM on May 13, 2016 [3 favorites]


Well that was his particular sticking genius wasn't it? A bridge, once built, is hard to unbuilt and if it's too short to allow busses, then no bus lines go there.
posted by The Whelk at 2:34 PM on May 13, 2016 [3 favorites]


Mary Hedge, the archivist for the authority, wore a button that read “I Finished The Power Broker.”

I've long wanted to join this feared cabal.
posted by Collaterly Sisters at 2:54 PM on May 13, 2016 [3 favorites]


I, too, wish to become a member of this elite society, but first Infinite Jest. I first learned about Moses from this Langdon Winner article.
posted by mecran01 at 3:07 PM on May 13, 2016


in new orleans we have the robert moses memorial sinkhole. His legacy long remains.
posted by eustatic at 4:07 PM on May 13, 2016


For a man so reviled, his handiwork has remarkable sticking power: very little of it demolished, and most of it exceptionally popular by actual measures of use.

No one ever faulted him, to my knowledge, on his willingness to build for the ages. Most of the criticism comes from his city planning, not the beauty or efficiency of the individual works.
posted by AdamCSnider at 4:26 PM on May 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


I feel like there should be a Robert Moses memorial placed where it can only be visited by crossing a twelve lane freeway on foot.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 4:36 PM on May 13, 2016 [11 favorites]


“Every building you see here was built by Robert Moses,” Mr. Caro said, gesturing toward the projects. “And there’s not a single architectural element to make them look better. Moses wanted the people living in them to feel poor.”
...
the ugliness of a Harlem playground that Moses had built under duress. On the trellises of the playground’s comfort station, Moses had ordered wrought-iron monkeys, a commentary on the people who might be using it.

Moses was an Olympian among assholes. Where other assholes are content to just make life suck, he constantly strove to find new ways to accomplish that.
posted by Sangermaine at 4:43 PM on May 13, 2016 [6 favorites]


I'm reading "The Power Broker" right now, and the most important takeaway from the book was how got and stayed powerful: First, he had such an encyclopedic knowledge of regulations and statutes that he could use them to leverage himself into positions of power by using statutes pretty much only he knew about; second he created countless public authorities and wrote the by-laws in a way that only he had real power, even if he was, say, only one member of a three-person panel; finally and most importantly, he used those positions to get things built quickly, which made him indispensable to politicians. Politicians mostly despised him, but he was so good at getting things done so the pols could have their ribbon cutting ceremonies that no elected official wanted to be on his bad side.

Anyone who wants to be involved in public service, whether as a bureaucrat or elected official, needs to read "The Power Broker" and understand where power really comes from in government.
posted by dry white toast at 9:51 PM on May 13, 2016 [2 favorites]


I need to finish The Power Broker. His LBJ series (as yet unfinished!) is absolutely incredible. Thousands and thousands of pages, but somehow keeps you engaged the whole time.
posted by ejoey at 5:02 AM on May 14, 2016


> First, he had such an encyclopedic knowledge of regulations and statutes that he could use them to leverage himself into positions of power by using statutes pretty much only he knew about; second he created countless public authorities and wrote the by-laws in a way that only he had real power, even if he was, say, only one member of a three-person panel; finally and most importantly, he used those positions to get things built quickly, which made him indispensable to politicians.

This is exactly the way Stalin came to power, mutatis mutandis; the other top Bolsheviks wanted to lead armies, write articles, and give speeches, so they were happy to leave the boring administrative stuff to him.

> Anyone who wants to be involved in public service, whether as a bureaucrat or elected official, needs to read "The Power Broker" and understand where power really comes from in government.

Yup. That book transformed the way I thought about New York and about how power works.
posted by languagehat at 7:27 AM on May 14, 2016


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