Comment by hardwaregeek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hardwaregeek | Hacker News Reader

I'm a little less than halfway through The Power Broker. It's a riveting read, especially as a New Yorker (quite possibly living in housing built by him!). I suppose I haven't quite gotten to the part where Moses goes full corrupt. From what I've read so far, he seemed utterly vicious, sneaky and deceptive, but also ridiculously competent. Anybody who's had to sit in committees and meetings spinning their wheels, hearing excuses on why stuff can't be done, will likely find something appealing about Moses' sheer ability to get shit done. It'll be interesting to see how that opinion gets revised as the book goes on.

One area that appears to have come under attack is Caro's accusation that Moses deliberately lowered the bridge heights: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-09/robert-mo...

I found it particularly amusing how Moses—"the best bill drafter in Albany" as Caro dubs him—was able to write bills that gave him far more power than the politicians who passed them expected. Indeed one part where he referenced a niche definition of appropriation in an old 19th century bill felt almost akin to return oriented programming!

The triumph of Jones Beach is probably still fresh in your mind. But don't worry, you'll find plenty to dislike about him by the end. This a reason we try not to give people that much power.

I'm curious: how annoyed are you friends at you for not being able to shut up about Robert Moses? I imagine covid is saving them from the brunt of that. For me, it lasted at least a couple of months after finishing the book.

I found myself doing the same thing. I felt like every conversation could tie back to something in the book.

Haha some of them are probably annoyed. But luckily one friend spent an entire class on the book and wrote a paper on it. So they're sympathetic.

I just finished The World That Moses Built documentary on Vimeo. It's low quality but the only place I could find it. It's my second time watching. Moses was a fascinating man in a fascinating city. https://vimeo.com/340060890

The article you quote mostly concludes that it was probably a correct assertion. While the Moses parkways were certainly based on older ones they were found to also have substantially lower bridge clearances than the ones they imitated.

To be honest, what I find more confusing is that nearly a century later we still cling to the parkways being for no commercial traffic. It wouldn’t be all that radical to, whenever a bridge is up for replacement, replace it with a bridge that does meet Interstate clearance standards, and it would provide a less chokepointy system for trucks and take them off local roads, where they have a worse impact. The days of the bucolic parkway have long passed and they are all heavy commuter routes now.

Oh. No. The bridge clearance on the LI parkways was _very definitely_ intentional, but really aimed at preventing them from being used by commercial truck traffic rather than busses. Local sources for it are legion and predate Caro's book by at least a decade. That's also the reason for the tight turns at exits. A car or minibus can usually negotiate those without difficulty (assuming the driver is paying attention), but they're impossible for tractor-trailers.

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