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

The friendship between Bob Moses and Al Smith grew. They came from very different backgrounds; Al Smith grew up in “slums” and left school at 13 to support his family, working a string of jobs until he ended up in politics. Possessing a natural charm and a desire to help people, Smith established himself as an instinctive politician. Though legislative work confused him at first, he educated himself on the content and context of every single bill until he knew more than his peers. Each evening, he socialized with his colleagues but always left the bar early to study in his room. While people assumed he was part of the corrupt Tammany Hall machine, he turned down job offers and rewards.

In March 1911, 141 people died in a sweatshop fire in New York. The tragedy radicalized Al Smith into fighting for the rights of workers, bringing him into contact with Belle Moskowitz. When he ran for governor, he discovered “the unseen but heavy chains that weighed down the Irish Catholic in America” (127). He triumphed over his reactionary opponents by appealing to women, immigrants, and other marginalized people.

Moses’s friendship with Governor Smith helped change him. Smith hired Moses to work on a “Good Government” project. In this new position, Moses’s reports often explicitly abandoned objectivity and were “propaganda” for Smith’s progressive reform agenda. Under the tutelage of Smith and Moskowitz, Moses changed from a young idealist to “a man willing to deal with practical considerations” (135). He scorned his idealistic youthful self. In part through his efforts, Al Smith was reelected in 1922.

Moses became “a key figure in capitol maneuvering” (137), providing research to Smith and passing the governor’s advice to others on the State Senate floor. He dined with Smith several times a week as a member of the inner circle. For the first time, Moses’s ideas had a legitimate chance of being implemented. He was a key member of the team Smith assembled to reorganize the state government and, in doing so, became “the best bill drafter” in the state (141). For a long time, Moses refused any of Smith’s offers of high-paying government positions. Eventually, however, he told Smith that he wanted “parks” (142).

Parks were not the most pressing issue for most reformers. With the population of New York City growing exponentially, however, the need for public spaces such as parks and beaches was becoming increasingly apparent to Bob Moses. Increased leisure time and the proliferation of cars caused more people to seek out parks, but they found themselves disappointed that many of the most desirable destinations were either inaccessible or in private hands.

Long Island, in particular, seemed to offer space for leisure, but the “endless, beautiful coastline” housed small, insular local communities that shunned outsiders or the vast estates of the rich and wealthy, who employed lawyers and armed guards to “keep the public out” (146,1 51). People from New York City who tried to visit the public spaces on Long Island found themselves stuck, threatened, lost, or otherwise prevented from relaxing. The rich and powerful bought up land and built golf courses and private clubs to keep themselves insulted from poor people.

Moses recognized the need for parks and the vast highway systems that would be needed to support public access to public parks. He visited Long Island and other sites frequently, plotting out his ambitions. He discovered that the government actually owned many properties on Long Island and in the surrounding area. He focused especially on Jones Beach on the South shore, imagining a public beach “less than twenty-five miles from Times Square” (161). To get there, Moses imagined, he could build “the most beautiful road in America” (162). He began to devise a “unified state park system” and put together a report (166), asking for $15 million to launch his ambitious scheme. Smith supported the plan as a good political venture despite the unprecedented scope and cost. He believed that parks were a good political move that “nobody could be against” (169). With this, Moses took over parks.

Moses’s ambitious plans for reform had consistently failed, but he grabbed “for power with both hands” (172) when the opportunity arose. He sought to turn parks into “a separate, self-governing, very independent duchy” with himself as the leader (173). He drafted the bill that created his new position, using arcane definitions and complicated bylaws to give himself powers that were not checked or understood by legislators. As the head of the Long Island State Park Commission, he would have the power—he believed—to appropriate land for his plans and use state police to enforce his acquisitions. He lied to people, assuring them that the bill he drafted was “merely a coordinating agency” (176). At the age of 35, he finally acquired power and set about using it.