The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Arrogance was a fundamental part of Moses’s personality. His addiction to power was becoming another, equally essential part of him. He sought more and more power as “an end in itself” (499). Power allowed him to mock and antagonize others without fear of reprisal. He enjoyed ruining people, threatening people, and ignoring anyone who tried to restrict his actions. He refused to be constrained by objections, courts, judges, or bureaucracy, which he sliced through “as if it were soft butter” (507).

His force of will reshaped New York City, but the distribution of his changes was “not at all even” (509). Of the 255 playgrounds he builds, for example, only one is in Harlem. People in working-class, African American, or Puerto Rican neighborhoods were routinely ignored or even evicted to make way for his parks and highways, which typically only benefitted the city’s white, wealthy citizens. When people raised this subject, he used his influence with the press to shout them down.

Moses loved water and built many swimming pools, but he designed these pools to deter African Americans from using them. He filled the pools with cold water, for example, because he believed that “[African Americans] don’t like cold water” (514).