notes from the power broker, volume 3

 I have returned with some light reading, and I'm going to tell you about it. 

 so this section is basically about how robert moses sold out to make his park dreams a reality. 

while most politicians were not in favor of his park plan [at first], they stood to make tremendous gains from the parkway he planned to built. 

building parkways required financial contracts, which were awarded by politicians. in return, the construction company would give them "financial remembrances" (Caro 207). 

yeah, not corrupt at all. 

so when Moses is trying to get the park plans approved, he refuses to compromise on his principles (aside from bribing and manipulating small farmers to give their land to him lol). 

but then he meets G. Wilbur Doughty. 

Caro describes Doughty as the man behind one of the "the most corrupt political machines in the state" (Caro 209). His brother owned a construction contracting firm, and Doughty liked to keep his business in the family so to speak. Moses was not a fan of Doughty at this time, nor of his co-worker assemblyman Thomas McWhinney; he considered him corrupt and described his attempt at covering his corruption as "legislative brigandry" and nominated said bill as "Worst Bill of the Session." He knew that working with Doughty and McWhinney was essential in making his park plans a reality, but he was unwilling to work with such a "creature of the machine."

things change in late 1925. out of sheer desperation most likely, Moses holds several private meetings with Doughty. and while there isn't a record as to what exactly transpired, Caro gives us the gist: 

• Moses says that planning for Jones Beach would go in partnership with a delegation from Hempstead Township. the chairman of the delegation was McWhinney, and they started to meet regularly on an "extremely friendly" basis. 
• GOP tomfoolery begins within two months of Moses' and McWhinney's meeting---a GOP lawyer creates a corporation for the sole purpose of transaction the land that would become the Meadowbrook Causeway, with some leftover land that would be sold to private developers 
  (likely politicians) once the causeway was built and raised property values around it.
• Doughty begins to support every one of Moses' proposals

so now that Moses had Doughty on his side, he's able to pass his Jones Beach proposal, which was "soundly defeated" (Caro 210) in the 1925 referendum now passes with flying colors. 

some other political shifts, in addition to Moses' and Doughty's new friendship, occur to help get his park planned passed. Republican assembly men were getting a lot of pressure from their constituents to create new parks, and the new democratic mayor of nyc was in support of acquiring more land for parks. It was getting harder to oppose them. A compromise on the park plan was in order, and it looked like the Taylor estate was going to be sacrificed (much to the chagrin of Macy, who if you remember, took Moses to court). 

Ok but then the republicans fuck up quite a bit and it's actually kind of funny. basically, the GOP legislature approves funds of $15 million for parks/to purchase land from the robber barons. They plan was that they would postpone work on the Northern State Parkway until fifteen miles of the Southern State Parkway were built. Constriction for the 15-mile-long Bronx River Parkway took 14 years, they thought they could out-vote governor Smith before it was completed. What they didn't know was that Moses had a new alliance with Doughty and the Nassau County Board of Supervisors who were "suddenly, and mysteriously, enthusiastic over Moses' projects," (Caro 212), purchased additional miles and gifted them to Moses. And so within a year, Moses acquires basically all 15 miles he needs for the Southern State in order to trigger work on the Northern State. 

The two republicans overseeing the park project, Hewitt and Hutchinson, go to Smith to complain. Smith gets them drunk, teaches them to dance, and parties with them until 2 am. (Caro tells us they were incredibly nauseous and hungover the next morning). Smith basically charms them and gets in their good graces so they'd support the park plan, and it worked. 

Last thing: the court fight. Remember how Moses tried to steal a bunch of land and got sued for it? Well, Gov. Smith helps him get out of that pickle too. 

Caro tells us that in 1926, Moses' last appeal runs out, and the case is forced to go to trial. The jury finds the appropriation of the Taylor estate illegal. 

Moses gets fined $22,000 for damages, and we get this gem from Caro:

"Bella and Emanuel Moses were at their summer lodge at Camp Madison. Every morning a Madison House social worker delivered a New York Times and they leafed through it --all the trial stories were on the inside pages now--and learned of the @22,000 judgement against their son, they groaned, and Bella Moses said, "Oh, he never earned a dollar in his life and now we'll have to pay this." The social worker recalls: "It was just assumed they would pay it. They always paid all his debts."

lmaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

okay, I'm stopping here. there's some more stuff about Macy and how he ran out of money to  keep up the legal fights and all that jazz. to be honest, it's a bit weeds-y for me, and I don't really care that much (sry robert caro). good night y'all.