The power broker : Robert Moses and the fall of New York
Page 188
Notes for pages 473-495
LaG Papers. "Disowning him": Sayre. "Communist" investigation; "OGPU":
RM quoted in NYT and HT, Nov. 21, 1939. "A good Roman Catholic": Kern. Father Coughlin: Social Justice, Sept. 11, 1939. William O'Dwyer joined in the attack; during his first campaign for mayor—against LaG—in 1941, he pointed to Kern as proof that LaG had filled his administration with "left-wingers." Council investigation: S. Burton Heath, "Investigation by Innuendo," Survey Graphic, Oct. 1941. "Don't let Kern set up an OGPU in New York": RM to LaG, Oct. 14, 1939, LaG Papers. LaG's fear of being called "Communist": Windels, Lazarus, McGoldrick, Kern, among others. Fired him: Sayre is also convinced that the "Communist" charge was the underlying reason. "His hatred of me": Kern. No more interference: O'D, Impy, Wagner Papers.
Bullying commissioners: Chanler. Refusing to attend luncheons: McGoldrick. Having one aide in each department designated: One with whom RM did this was Jeremiah Evarts, an Assistant Corporation Counsel; Chanler, Evarts, Lazarus.
Chrystie-Forsyth: Windels; WT, Dec. 14, 1934. Driving wedges: First—$3,600,-000—estimate is NYT, Sept. 12, 1934. Others come from various articles and RM brochures over the years. Deceptions: "Not a penny": New York American, Mar. 22, 1935; $250,000: Apr. 11, 1935; $8,000,000: July 7, 1935. Single press release on Zoo has two estimates: And NYT, Mar. 9, 1934, included them both in the same story without mentioning or attempting to explain the discrepancy.
Just as one borough president learned never to trust: McGoldrick, sitting on the Board as Comptroller, saw this happening again and again; McGoldrick. "Graceful malice": "Moses," Fortune, June 1938. "A couple of jobs": Lazarus. "Brazen attempt": NYT, June 9, 1939-
No provision for baby carriages: Weinberg, interview and various memos to Exton, 1936, 1937, Exton Papers.
RM pleading with WPA: RM to WPA Regional Administrator Brehon Somervell, July 3, 1937, is only one of a hundred such letters in PD Files. $2,500 for clocks: Somervell to RM, July 23, 1937; RM to Somervell, July 27; RM to LaG, Aug. 7; LaG to RM, Aug. 9; all in LaG Papers.
A standard playground design: Weinberg was one WPA-paid Park Depart-
ment architect w ilwiyt t
to make innovatioi 1 nd w inly
rebuffed by his superiors, who told frankly that theil superiors, top "M<
Men" such as Andrews, i imam ami
Stuart Constable, would not even con sider irritating RM by deviating from the standard design.
Playgrounds into animal cages: Latham, Shapiro, various correspondence in PI) Files.
Vest-pocket parks: "That's a little job": Confidential source. Refuses 1936 Transportation Board offer: RM to Kern, July 7, 1936, LaG Papers. No parks in slums: The Park Department's own maps, in PD Files, show this, as does "New York Youth Tells Its Story" (for which, see "Sources," Chapter 25). Reformers' views: Exton, Orton, Weinberg. Negro immigration: Description, and of Harlem during the 1930's, in WPA, New York City Guide, pp. 52, 132-40, and WPA, New York Panorama, pp. 257-64, and in "Harlem," Fortune, July 1939. $850 per year; "slave market": "Harlem," Fortune. Not a single bank, not a new school: New York Panorama, p. 147. One clinic, one hospital: New York Panorama, pp. 147, 262, 263. Maternity death rate: New York Panorama, p. 258. "The question of what will happen": New York Panorama,
p. 151.
"Easily accessible": RM, "Parks and Recreation in Harlem," Oct. 6, 1944, LaG Papers. Three acres the smallest: RM, NYT, Mar. 11, 1934. The definitive statement from him that he built parks in slums—that he had, in fact, given them more attention than other areas of the city—was the Oct. 6, 1944, statement, after a grand jury investigating slum conditions criticized the city's failure to provide adequate recreational facilities in slums.
"We shall provide one playground": RM to Alderman Conrad A. Johnson, Mar. 21, 1934, LaG Papers.
Reformers and the implications of his park policies: Exton, Orton, Weinberg; Minutes, City Club Park and Recreation Committee, 1934-36.
25. Changing
SOURCES
Books, articles and documents:
Moses, Dangerous Trade and Six Years of Park Progress; Rodgers, Robert Moses; Ickes, The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, Vol. I: The First Thousand Days,
Notes for pages 499-509
1206
1933-1936; Strunsky, No Mean City. See also "Sources" for Chapter 23.
The basic sources for the history and financing of the West Side Improvement are three long brochures edited and to large extent written by RM and published by the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority: "Opening of the Henry Hudson Parkway and Progress on the West Side Improvement," Dec. 12, 1936; "Opening of the West Side Improvement," Oct. 12, 1937; and "Completion of the Henry Hudson Bridge and Henry Hudson Memorial Park," May 7, 1938.
The basic sources for the effect of the Improvement on Inwood Hill Park, Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale—and the differences in the effect on these locales of the proposed alternate route—are James E. Briggs, Sproul Braden, William S. Ladd and Lawrence M. Orton, "Planning Northern Riverdale," Sept. 23, 1930; Regional Plan Association, "Proposed Parkway Connecting a Drive with Van Cort-landt Park—to Mr. Weinberg, Confidential," June 1934; The Rev. William A. Tieck, Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Spuyten Duyvil — A Historical Epitome of the Northwest Bronx; Robert C. Weinberg to William Exton, chairman, Parks and Recreation Committee, City Club, "Report to the Committee in regard to design of portions of the Henry Hudson Parkway and other matters of Park design of recent date," Dec. 4, 1939.
For the recreation needs of the poor and the effect of RM's policies, "New York Youth Tells Its Story," transcript of the testimony given at hearings held by the City Council's Committee on Youth Welfare, May 13, 17, 31, 1938; American Youth Congress, "The Case for the Use of Schools as Recreation Centers," 1938; Shirley Jenkins, Comparative Recreation Needs and Services in New York Neighborhoods.
Author's interviews:
Walter D. Binger, William C. Chanler, William Exton, Jr., William Latham, Michael J. Madigan, Joseph D. McGold-rick, Lawrence M. Orton, Sidney M. Shapiro, Robert C. Weinberg and confidential sources.
Interviews on matters other than the West Side Improvement with Israel Ben Scheiber, John A. Coleman, Mrs. James B. Cooper, James B. Cooper, Jr.. Howard S. Cullman, Melvin Daus, F. Trubee Davison, Rev. C. Edward Harrison, Joseph T. Ingraham, Nettie Green-berg, F. Dodd McHugh, Emily Smith Warner.
NOTES
Antagonizing people: Beal: NYT, Mar. 3, 1934. Architects: HT, Feb 18. 1934. Exton: Exton.
Pearl Bernstein: Her biography, NYT, Dec. 27, 1933. RM to Kern: Apr. 25, 1934, and Oct. 1, 1935, LaG Papers; Kern.
"You're just a swabbie": Ingraham and Ben Scheiber, both present, were among those squirming. Fist fights: Ingraham. Swinging at Isaacs: Binger, McGoldrick.
False charges against Weinberg: Exton, Orton, Weinberg. Wrecking the Leader: Mrs. James B. Cooper, James B. Cooper, Jr.; confirmed, with a sly smile at this proof of the unwisdom of getting in RM's way, by Shapiro—and by a check of the Leader's legals.
Columbia Yacht Club: History: HT, Mar. 27, 1934. Their only request: Chanler, as Assistant Corporation Counsel, handled most of the negotiations for RM. Says Chanler: "One fellow, a former Tammany surrogate, an old fellow, called me and said, 'They're trying to take our club in May or June and we know they're not going to start building until October. The fleet is coming in July. Let us stay •through then and we'll be glad to go after that.' I spoke to Moses about it. He said they had to be evicted at once. I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Because they were rude to me.' Well, he was the client and we didn't have much choice. We did kick them out, but I didn't like it much." Parks "for the people": RM quoted in NYT, Apr. 20, 1934. "A social racket": HT, Apr. 24. "Influence," "interesting fact": NYT, Apr. 21. "No lease": HT, Apr. 27. Check photostat and club's side: NYT, Apr. 27. Levy ruling: NYT and HT, May 3. Steam shovels: HT, Apr. 29. Electricity: HT, Apr. 30. "Steam-shovel government": NYT, May I. "The whole question": NYT, May 4. Charging a quarter: HT, June 13. "Because they wer
e rude to me": Chanler.
And the dream unrolled: An over-all description of RM's accomplishments during this period is found in his biannual Park Progress reports; in Moses, Dangerous Trade, pp. 1-74, 161-90; in Rod-gers, pp. 82-95, and in the magazine articles cited in the "Sources" for Chapter 23. 5,000 acres: Six Years of Park Progress, pp. 12-15. Adding to Manhattan: Six Years, p. 14.
Distribution of playgrounds uneven: Author's analysis of a huge map, labeled "Playgrounds—Present and Future," pre-
Notes for pages 510-527
pared by RM for LaG, dated Oct. 1939, LaG Papers; Shirley Jenkins, Comparative Recreation Needs.
"We have to work all day": "They were begging": Harrison interview with author, Feb. 17, 1969. Playground supervisors: Daus. "The police just keep the kids moving"; "Harlem is a poor section": "Junior City Government of New York to Hon. Fiorello H. La Guardia," Aug. 31, 1937, LaG Papers. "Caged tigers": Father Bishop. "The fact is that": RM, "Parks and Recreation in Harlem, Past, Present, and Future," Oct. 6, 1944. United Parents Association: Its study quoted in NYT, Brooklyn Eagle, Mar. 2, 1941. Grand jury: HT, Nov. 28, 1943. Took fourteen years: Bishop's letters-to-the-editor, to the NYT, none of which the NYT printed, were found in the Stanley Isaacs Papers, 1950 NYT article: May 6. RM sowing playgrounds: NYT, Apr. 24, I935-
Swimming pools: Under his prodding: Latham; "Patterns for Parks," Architectural Forum, Dec. 1936. "You know how RM felt": Confidential source. "They don't like cold water": Windels told the author that RM said this to him. That this was RM's view is confirmed by confidential source. Shapiro, who echoed RM's views, told the author confidentially that "you can pretty well keep them out of any pool if you keep the water cold enough." Never once mentioned: Author's survey of NYT, HT and Brooklyn Eagle, 1934-39.
Stadium empty: Attendance figures nowhere to be found, but McGoldrick, who, as Comptroller, had to study the stadium's finances, recalls its emptiness.
"Three weeks": Windels. RM's solution: Moses, "New Parkways in New York City," Summer, 1936. Planners' doubts: Orton, Planning Commission staffer F. Dodd McHugh; doubts find a voice in HT editorials such as Aug. 18, 1936, and articles such as Nov. 22, 1936, and NYT, Jan. 2, 1938.
Triborough: Ickes, p. 637; Hugh Johnson column in WT, July 15, 1936; LaG and Hopkins, HT, July 12, 1936; NYT editorial July n, 1936; NYT article, July 10, 1936; Valentine, HT, Aug. 12, 1936.
"Cross-country traffic jam": HT, Aug. 18, 1936. Ingersoll: NYT, Sept. 19, 1937-RM said he knew what to do: "Moses Is Building a City of the Future," New York Sun, Jan. 8, 1938.
"Today we are well on our way": RM, introduction to "Northern and Wan-
1207
tagh State Parkwa) i [tension," publi
Dec. 17, 1938, b LI I isi'(
New York St V, pp. 2, | In-
thusiastic appiaus Brooklyn Eagle, I
18, 1938. Ammann speech: AT 7, v
19, 1936. Traffic count- All traffic counts on Triborough facilities from I HA, 'Tilth Anniversary." The counts on other bridge! from various newspaper articles. Orton recalls the experts' puzzlement. RPA'l plea for transit on Bronx-Whitestone: NYT, June 28, 1936.
Gowanus Parkway: The picture of the Sunset Park neighborhood and of the effect on it of the parkway is drawn from interviews with a score of residents of the neighborhood conducted by Ina Joan Caro; and from WPA, New York Panorama, pp. 68, 87, 115-16, and WPA New York City Guide, p. 468. NYT editorial: Nov. 1, 1 94 1. Brooklyn borough president: John Cashmore, quoted in Eagle, Nov. 2, 1941. Board of Estimate had been under the impression: McGoldrick. 1,300 families: NYT, July 9, 1940. RM frightened many of them away by sending them an initial notice which gave them ten days to move.
West Side Improvement: The three brochures cited in the "Sources" provide the basic information on RM's plans. They do not provide information on the cost of those plans. That information can be found in no public document, nor in any newspaper or magazine. Because he feared that his plans would not be approved if their true cost was known— or even hinted at—he never let even a hint get out. The highest figure he ever put on them was $24,000,000—a fraction of their true cost. The total—$109,000,-000—which the author uses is to be found nowhere. The author has compiled this figure by adding together and analyzing a multitude of figures in letters, confidential memoranda obtained from PD Files, from the LaG Papers and a confidential source, and from interpretation of these data by Jack Madigan and Sidney M. Shapiro. The brochures will be identified by the dates on which they were published.
$109,000,000 already spent: Various newspapers, 1932-33. Railroad in no position to pay: Railroad bonds in general were in so precarious a position during the Depression that in July 1938 the Banking Department would remove more than $3 billion of them from the list of legal investments for savings banks. They watched RM: Madigan, Shapiro. New York Central financing: NYT, Mar. 30, Apr. 16, 1934; explanation of the facts
Notes for pages 530-564
1208
behind the stories, and maneuvering with Lehman: Madigan.
Using railroad's landfill: Shapiro.
"RM has this mind": Shapiro.
Seventy-ninth Street boat basin: Shapiro, Madigan. Ickes suggesting grade crossings: Quoted in NYT, Nov. 17, 1934. RM whipsawing LaG and CWA: RM; various memos, PD Files.
State aid for railroads, etc.: Shapiro.
Whipsawing the Board of Estimate for $10,000,000: NYT, Apr. 27, 1934; J-A, NYT, HT, June 19-21, 1934, contain misleading RM figures. Whipsawing the CWA for $20,000,000: Madigan.
Selecting the new route through Fort Tryon and Inwood Hill; bankers 5 caution: RM, Madigan. Not a single new issue: Brochure, Dec. 12, 1936. Madigan biography: Madigan; Moses, Dangerous Trade, pp. 919-20. Madigan's inspiration: Madigan.
Inwood Hill Park: WPA, New York Panorama, p. 28 ("perhaps the finest," p. 28); Exton. "Only a few trees": RM in NYT, Mar. 23, 1935.
Spuyten Duyvil: Tieck, A Historical Epitome. A "village": HT, June 23, 1935. "It will be the end": Francis C. Williams to HT, July 11, 1935.
The alternate route: Exton, Weinberg, Orton, and McGoldrick, whom Exton escorted along it. Weinberg to Exton: Dec. 4, 1939, Exton Papers. RM would not allow anyone else to do any planning: An "Ad Hoc Committee for Planning Northern Riverdale" conceived a plan for running the parkway through the Marble Hill shanty town and for accommodating the increased residential development that would be brought to Riverdale anyway by careful zoning. The plan was printed as "Planning Northern Riverdale." But RM would not discuss it with the community group, and the City Planning Commission he dominated would not take it up seriously: Orton.
Van Cortlandt Park: The biology teachers' protest and the response from RM's aide is described in Jeanne Morse to Exton, Apr. 6 and June 15, 1939, Exton Papers.
"It didn't require much brains to see": Weinberg. RM's values: They emerged clearly during his interviews with the author. "Laughing at you": Exton. McGoldrick was convinced: McGoldrick.
Building the bridges too low for buses: Why he did so on LI: Shapiro. Doing so on the Henry Hudson Parkway: Farley report paraphrased in Chapin to RM, Feb. 2, 1936 (given to author by Shapiro). RM reply in memo to Board of Esti-
mate, Feb. 27, 1936, LaG Papers. "He would brook no change": McGoldrick.
RM's charge against Weinberg; Selig-man called Exton in: Weinberg, Exton, McGoldrick. City Club committee report: Sun, Mar. 22, 1935. Mrs. Sulzberger to RM: May 24, 1935; printed in NYT — in a story on the West Side Improvement— May 28, 1935. City Club disowning report: NYT, Mar. 23, 1935.
Cutting down trees before public hearing: NYT, Sun, Mar. 17, 22, 1935. "He knew how to handle them": Madigan. RM's boast about "ingenious device": Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 187.
$34,000,000 vs. $6,000,000: NYT, HT, Sun, various issues between Apr. 27 and June 20, 1935. LaG wanted it built before election: Madigan.
The overnight bridge: WT, July 12,
1935.
Reasons for RM's reluctance to talk to Exton: Madigan.
Henry H
udson Bridge opening: RM, Madigan. In the moonlight: Rodgers, p. 88. On Madigan's yacht: Madigan. 'This, then, is the Hudson waterfront": Quoted in Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 188.
"The most beautiful drive in the world": DN, Oct. 12, 1937. "Always the man in the car": NYT, Oct. 10, 1937. Strunsky: NYT, Oct. 9, 1937. "The poet Wordsworth": Strunsky, No Mean City, p. 165. RM promises it will eliminate jams: For example, in Bronxboro (a local newspaper), Dec. 1936. Only twenty-six minutes: RM, brochure, May 7, 1938, pp. 10-11. "A veritable motorist's dream": J-A, Oct. 12, 1937. "Much more": Sun, Oct. 12, 1937. "A fountain": J-A, Oct.
13, 1937.
Statistics: Primarily the three brochures. "The most extensive alteration": NYT, Oct. 10, 1937. Cost: NYT, June 26, 1941.
Built Harlem recreational area only because LaG insisted: Windels.
Gigantic viaducts: Peter Blake, "How to Destroy a City," HT, Mar. 13, 1964. "Monstrous misstatements," RM called Blake's opinions, in the brochure he issued in reply, The Expanding New York Waterfront, Aug. 1964.
Traffic on the Henry Hudson Bridge: A chart detailing it day by day—prepared for RM by one of his aides—was sent by RM to LaG and was found in the LaG Papers.
"Motorists launching gaily": NYT editorial, Nov. 2, 1937. 1938, 1939, 1941 traffic counts: "Fifth Anniversary." 26,-000,000; traffic cut in half in 1956: TBTA Annual Report, 1956.
Notes for pages 566-581
Scrapbooks: NYT, Oct. 3, 1936. Richmond HS Arista: HT, Nov. 14, 1936. McCarren Park opening: Brooklyn Eagle, Aug. 1, 1936. Park Association comes to him: HT, Jan. 19, 1936. Price comes to his apartment: NYT, May 22, 1937. Rename West Side Highway: HT, July 3, 1935. Dinners: Descriptions of two typical affairs at which RM was honored are NYT, Apr. 4 and Dec. 7, 1937. "Never in the history of philanthropy": Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 50; confirmed by F. Trubee Davison interview. Jesse Jones later confided confidentially that one member of the RFC had voted to give the money for the planetarium thinking it was a cafeteria. Award from 16 organizations: NYT, May 26, 1935. Typical newspaper supplements or series: William P. Vogel, PM's Weekly, Aug. 3, 1941, for example, or Floyd Taylor, "Danger! Man at Work," WT, Jan. 3-8, 1938.