The book parallels the actions of President Roosevelt and Mayor LaGuardia. During this section of the book both men came into very important roles. They came in at a time when the economy of the state and the country was in desperate state. This part of the book highlights a lot of the laws and changes that took place during the New Deal and the challenges they faced in their attempts to improve the country’s economy and to help the lower class.  What drew my attention the most was a section where they were talking about the amount of money they would need for the country to recover.  Because of the relationship that the two had New York was given a bit more funding than other areas. Which I see as a rational idea, as New York plays a very important role in the country’s economy and the faster it recovers the more the state could contribute.  Also very important was La Guardia efforts to appeal to other groups and he made decisions that didn’t favor solely his party.

In the second part of City of Ambition, there is much focus on the New Deal and Roosevelt’s plan to emerge from the Great Depression. It’s interesting to note the way in which La Guardia wove his administrative ideas into the projects involved with the New Deal. Similarly, the situation created by Roosevelt’s plans enabled La Guardia to “expand the organizational bases of his coalition beyond the fusion movement.” It seems that were it not for the tragedy of the Great Depression, progressive ideas posed by those such as La Guardia or Roosevelt would have fallen on deaf ears. Though it’s no secret that the Depression devastated the country, it may have also bettered the country in the long term (or rather, it allowed for progressive thought to be heard and seriously considered). I wonder if any other times in history have allowed for such progressive ideas to be considered – or if any other situations in history allowed for thoughts that usually wouldn’t be considered to be so.

Also, it was very intriguing that La Guardia appealed to multiple minority groups (Jewish community, Italian immigrants, black men and women, etc) instead of trying to appeal to the white male majority. I wonder if this caused him to have many enemies in the political pool; also, I wonder if this was partially the reason for such tension amongst party lines and the challenges he faced in that vein (being that he wasn’t only a democrat but also a more liberal democrat than others in his political party).

The second section of City of Ambition dealt mainly with the New Deal, its program, and their controversies and effectiveness. Reading through this section, I was amazed to see how similar President Roosevelt’s and Mayor La Guardia’s ideas where on trying to fix the economic crisis that plagued the countries. The two leaders, in trying to solve the issues, didn’t try to do something crazy to pull the country out the Depression. They were also not concerned with just getting the country out of it, but as many people as they could out of the Depression. Hence, they provided as many people as they could with decent, respectable jobs, tailored to their specialties, which didn’t put a burden on the unemployed or on the system, but actually helped.

I only realized once I read everyone else’s posts that I had read ahead in my last response and mentioned Roosevelt and the New Deal.

I thought it made a lot of sense throughout the book that Roosevelt and La Guardia would be such great companions, even though they came form such different political backgrounds. The New Deal was obviously a huge change in America and was Roosevelt’s way of pushing the US out of the Great Depression. La Guardia’s politics reflected many of these ideals, namely, city governments being funded and supported by the federal government. This proved to be a huge factor in La Guardia’s rebuilding and support of the growth of New York City. The city became a great central model of New Deal operations, such as welfare programs and public work (parks, affordable housing), all of which proved to help the city tremendously and put La Guardia high on the list of the city’s best mayors.

This part of the book was mainly about the New Deal and how both La Guardia and Roosevelt contributed to saving society from the crisis at the time. What mainly caught my attention was how each of them had a specific goal and viewpoint when coming into office. Automatically, La Guardia focused on restoring credit since he believed ” a city simply cannot do the things it would like to do unless financially able.” I agree with this statement, the city needs money in order to prosper and produce more capital. Roosevelt’s main focus was “putting people to work.” He even desired to move workers out of the city and into the countryside. This once again shows his childhood preceding in his later life. Together, the two, along with other figures such as Robert Moses, built up infrastructure in addition to  political stability and economy. In doing so, they linked the five boroughs together to form a greater state. Overall, I can’t help but wonder, would the city be able to overcome the Great Depression if someone else was in office at that time. Even though this situation is viewed as negative, the book gives off a positive view since the end result, due to the efforts of these figures, made the city so prosperous.

While reading the second part of City of Ambition which discusses the New Deal, I was surprised by the stubbornness of President Roosevelt. From pushing off dealing with unemployment, to constantly pushing for his own reform of decentralization, to his lack of interest in the seemingly sound idea of private subsidiaries, he is constantly ignoring what seems like common sense, to hold on to his principles. This surprised me as I had always viewed FDR’s ability to lead the nation out of the Great Depression as a result of his openness to ideas and more liberal views. However, after looking back I realized this stubbornness is actually what got him the Presidency in the first place. In truth it is not stubbornness it is actually persistence. This persistence is what allowed FDR to get through his own personal hardship with polio as well as the ensuing rough time getting back into politics. Without it, he might never have made a presidential run and be content with the being governor of New York. But this persistence and strong belief in his own reforms is what pushed him on and got him to the place he was in. After realizing this, it made a lot more sense why FDR was so persistent (not stubborn) about doing things his own way.

Part Two of William’s City of Ambition focuses mainly on the New Deal, put into motion by FDR. Having learned about this in the past, I was excited to see how William would portray these facts and learn more about the details and history behind the New Deal. While I had heard of the many letter organizations that were founded to aid in Roosevelt’s plan, I found it interesting to see how they intertwined and overlapped or contrasted in policy and effectiveness. Roosevelt described his plan to relieve America from the Great Depression in three steps: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. While these programs, such as PWA, CCC, CWA, helped to relieve some Americans by providing jobs and help recovery on a small scale, they also worked to improve city infrastructure and environments. After learning about the close relationship between FDR and LaGuardia, it occurred to me that maybe New York was given a little more assistance in these programs from Washington, and my hunch was somewhat correct. However, I’m not sure if it was especially beneficial to New York or America as a whole. If the funds were split more evenly, would it have made it more effective or less? Was the money spent wisely?

Roosevelt’s relationship with LaGuardia came as a surprise to me since I once did a paper on Roosevelt and found no mention of the work they did together but it seems only logical since both politicians came from NY.  Another aspect that stood out to me was how the two were able to get past party politics and work together. Something that is hard to imagine in modern day politics, perhaps a major crises is necessary for that to happen.  It was also fascinating to see how a national crises like the great depression created an opportunity for progressive thinkers like Roosevelt and LaGuardia, turns out one mans lose really is another mans gain.

Williams also talks about how Roosevelt channeled more money into NYC than into any other local government. Is a policy like this justifiable or just an example of how politically skilled LaGuardia was? While the work that was created by public works projects in NYC definitely revitalized the city I am skeptical about how helpful these projects were in terms of creating better city infrastructure.

This book discusses the lives and political aspects of president FDR and mayor La Guardia. After reading this section of this historical novel, the reader is able to compare the two significant New York figures. FDR was proud of his family lineage and certain expectations such as success were bestowed upon him therefore, his path was already set out for him. On the other hand, La Guardia came from a family of immigrants which reflected later in his life when he worked at Ellis Island as an interpreter and when he was partners with two Jews who were specialized in immigrant business. Meanwhile, FDR’s first exposure of the way the Lower East Side lived was when Eleanor, who had long been accustomed to city life, accompanied him there. It was a sight he would never forget. Initially, FDR was raised to believe that his estate entailed a civil custodianship and La Guardia always exhibited an interest in public affairs. Later, their policies and political ideologies become clear, such as during the progressive era and the great depression. It is arguable that FDR’s policies during the great depression such as the New Deal saved society. In addition, he believed that western politics had to achieve the end goal of liberty of the individual therefore, society needed to develop better cooperation. La Guardia was a major figure during the progessive era. Acting on the behalf of the socialists, he opposed prohibition and believed that people had a right to a certain standard of living since they contributed to the wealth of the community. These were a few major details about these two important figures of New York. This book emphasizes how they both contributed to government and shaped it for the better.