| Much belated. Apologies. > Moses’ empire ultimately saved NYC, as the subways would have been bankrupt without the toll bridges supporting the rail system. Moses did the opposite. As detailed in the book The Power Broker. He looted mass transit to fund sprawl. At one point, he even had a secret deal with the Republican leadership in Albany to redirect subway revenue into some bond finance scheme. (I don't recall the details.) He did much the same with the toll booths. That revenue was used to finance bonds, which were then spent on more sprawl. Very little of it was spent on improving the city's core. He worked very hard to hide the details. In fact, my hunch is that Moses' various finance schemes and exfiltration of monies is directly responsible for NYC's financial troubles, which almost caused that government to default on its debt. I really wish someone would followup on Caro's work, connect those dots. Moses' strategy of looting urban centers to fund sprawl was then replicated everywhere. |