A study of power. This is probably the biography of how one person can hold immense power without being the official and elected boss in a democratic system. Robert Moses controlled New York for over forty years. He was more powerful than the mayors of New York - they came and went, he stayed. He was the greatest builder New York ever saw. He held titles such as "Commissioner", "Coordinator", "Planner", seemingly innocent, but immensely powerful in his hands. Robert Moses started as a young, idealistic reformer, and ended up as a ruthless, corrupt and powerful ruler. How did he stay powerful for so long?
Some Notes
He knew about others secrets, but almost nobody knew about his. Moses makes these huge binders full of information about everybody. Then he uses them to put pressure on people at the right time. Just one time somebody uses secret knowledge against him: He once took a bribe from Otto Kahn, a relative, of 10000 dollars to change the path of a road. When he wants to build a street through the territory of the barons, they get this information in their possession and use it as a piece of leverage to get him to follow their alternative route.
Moses often made sure the other side was not being heard. Even more: The relevant decision maker did not even know about their position. He has direct access to the governor/mayor, which others do not. So when he has an argument/ disagreement with someone, he is the one who presents the case to the governor/mayor: he can frame it how he wants to and leave out whatever he wants to. He might even make a "suggestion" how the governor/mayor should decide.
At first Moses pursues power as a means to an end: to build great public works. Later, he pursues power for its own sake.
La Guardia kept Moses in check. But once he left office, Moses could virtually do anything. La Guardia held him, but the system could not.
He hosts lunches where you can't deny him. Then he gets 10 things through that he wants, by having the guests sign them on the spot. Right there, you just couldn't say no to him. There are only very few times, where he loses their goodwill. One is when he runs for governor in 1934. This situation of the media seems very different from today. It feels like the media was the middleman between politics and people, and because there was no direct route of communication, they held a lot of power. They could determine the image and voice of any politician. Todays media has different problems. The traditional media has no monopoly anymore.
He had the press behind him since the beginning, and used this connection to threaten or inflict reputational damage on his opponents. Later on, he obviously had connections into every corner of the city. But the press was with him since day one.
Excerpts
from Chapter 12: Robert Moses and the Creature of the Machine
"Robert Moses had also learned from the Taylor Estate fight, his first use of power, lessons that would govern his behavior for the rest of his life. One, hammered home in his consciousness by the results of his accommodation with G. Wilbur Doughty, was that the simplest method of accomplishing his aims was to use the power he possessed in all its manifestations, even those that as recently as a year previously he had shrunk from using. So thoroughly did he embrace this lesson---and the "creature of the machine" that was its embodiment---that when, in 1927, a vacancy occurred on the Long Island Park Commission, he had Smith appoint McWhinney to it.
The simplicity---combined with the feeling of accomplishment---might well have made Moses ask himself if it really made any difference whether he worked with Tom McWhinney. What difference did it make if the state purchased right-of-way for the Meadowbrook Causewayfrom a bunch of farmers or from a bunch of Republican insiders? [...] If they did, he had learned, the dream would become reality. If they did not, he had learned, it wouldnt. And the dream was the important thing; the dream was what mattered.
Another lesson Moses learned was that, in the eyes of the public, the end, if not justifying the means, at least make them unimportant. [...] This lesson Robert Moses would often recite to associates. He would put it this way: As long as you're fighting for parks, you can be sure of having the public opinion on your side. And as long as you have public opinion on your side, you're safe."
"There were other lessons, too. [...] Once you did something physically, it was very hard for even a judge to undo it." Misleading and underestimating costs were now for him a legitimate, and sometimes the only, way of getting things done.
Another lesson he takes away: Not all are equal in front of the law. He learned: "Justice delayed, the Taylor Estate case proved, was truly justice denied."
The last lesson he learned: Would his dreams ever be realized through the means and within the ranks of the reformers and architects? his answer: NO!
from Chapter 14: Changing
Moses engineers his power by writing it into law: "Moses had written the Parks Council bylaws. At the first meeting after he had been elected chairman, when he was still charming the old park men, they had approved them, believing them only a formality. Now, reading the bylaws, they realized that all power in the council was centralized in its chairman." Power becomes a goal in itself. Moses moves ruthlessly against the old park men, most notably Judge Clearwater and Ansley Wilcox. His tactics are dirty and immoral, and in this way too much for the old public servants.
from Chapter 37: one mile
The story of one mile, and of one neighborhood: East Tremont. Maybe the best chapter in the book. The most graspable in terms of the lives affected by Moses.
Learnings
Generational capture of institutions and power is dangerous. In the latter part of the book, Moses is building streets the way he does, because he still has this antiquated image of cars being for vacation and leisure, while reality has changed dramatically. There is this saying: Die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. In a similar vein we could say: Do good stuff for a limited time, or stay long enough to do bad stuff for a longer time. This is not to take away from his otherwise wrongdoing. But "being from another time" made his late decisions even worse.
Age dynamics are becoming an important factor in today's politics. Some are already speaking of a "Gerontocracy": A rule of the elderly. The collapse of fertility rates skews the age distribution towards the older end. An implicit societal contract is being broken: That those in the adult age make sure that the society keeps existing. On the other end is an explicit societal contract: The young and working population pays for the old and retired population. But if the former gets broken, the latter comes under increasing pressure. How can fewer young people pay for more old people?
Each time creates their own great man (whatever "great" may mean in particular). Would Robert Moses have thrived in today's world? Mr. Beast, with his 451 Mio. followers on Youtube, seems quite different of a type. Lyndon Johnson was able to dominate and tame the senate like no other. But in the new age of television in the 60s, the country wanted a different kind of man - in that world, a young and charismatic JFK eclipsed him. The advent of computers uniquely suited nerds. You could build a company from your garage, and by writing good software instantly get world-wide distribution.