I agree with many of your arguments about the burden Ms. Burden was on the city. Your analysis on the parallels between her and Moses are spot on; the scale of her projects were enormous and mostly only served the “public” that shared her elitist tastes. Her micromanaging of projects was ridiculous, and her perfectionism was futile and completely wasteful.

There are some points you make, however, that I have to disagree with, namely with your assertion that she overlooked projects’ impacts and placed “much more” concern on “how things looked”. On the contrary, I believe she was very aware of how her actions would impact the city, as evidenced by how she handled the rezoning of Harlem’s 125th Street.

Considering her remark of how there was literally “nowhere” to eat, I agree that her shallowness was definitely a significant factor in her approach. However, considering the way she argued that the rezoning would be for the benefit of Harlem and the they’ll-have-affordable-housing speak and the “charming” grin she gave when questioned about it would affect the Harlem residents, I’m sure she was aware of what impact the rezoning would really have.

Still, overall I think you nailed it with your analysis of Burden’s impact on the city.