Robert Moses accumulated immense power in the planning and construction of highways, bridges, housing and parkland by bribing politicians and destroying anyone who opposed him. He was very involved in the inner circle of politics because of his close ties with politicians. His wealthy authorities helped fund politicians in return for their approval of the current project Moses was working on. Robert Caro writes, “It was the men who received Moses’ turkey baskets who fought against any diminution in Moses’ power” (18). Politicians who received Moses’ help supported Moses in any opposition he faced in his work. By dealing with politicians, he influenced many aspects of the city such as the city’s labor unions, contractors, insurance firms, banks, and real estate manipulators. He funneled more than a million dollars into the pockets of city and state officials. Even though the public did not know it, Moses was a politician behind the scenes.

Moses accumulated more power by destroying the careers of everyone who opposed him. He had skilled investigators working for him who knew secrets of city officials. If one official crossed him, Moses would blackmail the official into complying. If an official did not have any secrets, he would leak a lie to a newspaper that would turn all public opinion against the official, such as being a follower of the Soviet Union’s secret police, and force the official to resign. Since Moses had virtually no opponents, he was unstoppable in his desire to plan and build.

Rosa Kyung

Robert Moses’ ineffable power stemmed from one source: dishonesty. In The Power Broker‘s opening scene, Moses describes to the captain of his Yale swimming team how he plans to manipulate Og Reid, the team’s financial backbone, into putting his money into Moses’ newly conceived “Minority Sports Association” by lying to him that he would be, as usual, giving it directly to the swimming team. This association, Moses believes, is the solution to the team’s financial woes; he’s afraid Og Reid will see it differently. The captain, uncomfortable with dishonesty, prevents Moses from going forward with his plan. Moses, in a fit of self-righteous fury, resigns immediately. This anger stems from a second falsehood present in the scene, unspoken by either character. The falsehood that Robert Moses is infallible. This was the lie that would make the boy who conceived of the Minority Sports Association into the man who’d level New York and raise it back up in his own image.

When, early in his career, idealism failed him, Robert Moses turned instead to this belief in himself. He lied plain-faced to the press and the public that he was above the dishonest tactics of politicians when it was textbook political maneuvering which burgeoned him to the top of the public authority’s pecking order. But this was justified, because Robert Moses knew he saw the way. He maneuvered public funds into politicians’s pockets, silenced rivals with blackmail, lived and ruled with the wealth and impunity of a Roman emperor. But all of this was justified, because Robert Moses knew he saw the way.

Some might say it was money that granted Moses his power. And it’s true that it was money which lubricated his titanic political machine, bought materials and laborers enough to raise his innumerable public works, and allowed him to circumnavigate the laws of the land from his headquarters at Triborough. But this money was not Robert Moses’s. It was the taxpayers’. Taxpayers who entrusted it to Robert Moses because they believed in the lie he told them: that he was a man above corruption, negligence, and deceit. Perhaps this lie was so convincingly told because Moses believed it himself. Regardless, it was of this lie that the power and empire of Robert Moses were born.

Robert Mayo

Based solely on the introduction, I’m not sure that the assessment that Moses “damaged” New York City is a fair one. To displace thousands of New Yorkers and, moreover, those already marginalized in society, the poor and the minorities, is wrong. To kill off complete neighborhoods to facilitate migration to the suburbs designed for the wealthy and elite is wrong. However, in many ways it is Robert Moses who laid the groundwork, quite literally, for the cultural and global capitol of the world that New York represents. Lincoln Center, the United Nations, and the miles and miles of highways, parkways, and expressways that lead to the buzzing metropolis are only a handful of his achievements. As an icon, Moses’ reconstruction of New York City proved an asset. However, as a residence, Moses’ construction irreversibly damaged the city by pushing the poor to the fringes and intensifying class divide. New York in its multidimensionality will interpret Moses’ building record on the city in multiple ways, but the irony is that New York’s multidimensionality is a product of Moses’ building record.

Robert Moses was able to accumulate the power to build all of the highways, bridges, housing and parkland he did by hiding behind what the New York public authority stood for. While Moses wanted to dedicate his life to public service from a young age, his motives changed along the way and he no longer had the public welfare in mind. Although he wore the face of a public service servant, behind the scenes, he ran a corrupted political system — giving people what they wanted as long as they fulfilled his requests. Moses was able to manipulate the public and other city officials to serve his own interests by airing the dirty laundry of his adversaries with the help of the media. During his reign, Moses’ power over the people and city officials allowed him to step on the people he was supposed to serve and spend money carelessly, without consequence. At the expense of the poor, Moses was able to seize property, and build the face of New York City. Behind the walls of the public authority, Moses used his skills of manipulation, blackmail, business, and organization to erect the infrastructure that defines New York to this day.

Dear Seminarians: As we discussed in class, kindly find the assignment below. / AO

Briefly respond (250 words max.) to one of the two questions below.

1. Based on your reading of the book’s introduction, how did Robert Moses accumulate the power to build all of the  highways, bridges, housing and parkland he did?
2. Robert Caro clearly thinks that overall Moses’ record of building damaged New York City, its suburbs and its inhabitants. Is his assessment a fair one or do you think that what he built was an overall asset for New York?