Big Apple History . Business and Politics . An Honest Man


	Mayor La Guardia shaking hands with Robert Moses (right).

Even though La Guardia lacked resources, he still made plans for a time when he would have the means to rebuild the city and the ability to conserve those means. La Guardia looked for a man to bring into city government who would be trustworthy enough to create public works with the money given to him rather than use it to fill his own pockets.

Robert Moses had been passed over as a reform candidate for mayor because of his association with the Tammany governor, Al Smith. Yet, in spite of this association, La Guardia recognized in Moses a man of honesty, a true public servant.

Moses, born in Connecticut, was, from the age of nine, raised in the heart of the New York City in a wealthy home. He led an early life of great comfort. While studying at Yale, Columbia, and Oxford, Moses chose to dedicate his life to public service, inspired by his mother who was a reformer. When he began his career, he avidly shared her political ideals: he entered public life as an idealistic young progressive, but his first attempt at making the world a better place was politically naive. In 1914, he proposed standards to measure the abilities of city workers to do their jobs. Those who did not meet the standards would be eliminated.

Through this proposal, Moses tried to stab at the heart of the Tammany political machine. One of the means through which Tammany stayed powerful was to exchange city jobs for immigrants' votes, meaning that many of the workers employed by the city were not up to snuff. Had Moses' measure been implemented, it would have broken Tammany's backbone, but Tammany had been a force in New York politics since the 1860s and was a powerful -- and a popular -- engine of patronage. Moses' efforts were in vain and Tammany stayed strong.

Al Smith became governor of New York State in 1918. Smith's jaunty hat and his fat cigar led Robert Moses to dismiss him as one of a long line of dishonest Tammany men. But though Smith talked like a Tammany politician, he did not walk like one: he wanted to get things done honestly -- he wanted to remake New York State. Smith and Moses became fast friends and strong allies for change.

La Guardia not only recognized Robert Moses as an honest public servant, he knew that Moses was a man who could "get things done." As Parks Commissioner in the Smith government, his first position of leadership, Moses built a series of Long Island parks and parkways, the first state park system in the country and the first system of public highways in the world.


Jones Beach

Moses' biggest Long Island park project was Jones Beach. Jones Beach opened in the summer of 1929 when the stock market had reached its all-time high. Moses designed it almost to the last grain of sand to accentuate light and flow. An unnatural piece of nature, it was serene, orderly, and predictable. A playground, not a funhouse, it did not have the carnival atmosphere of Coney Island.

In 1929, only one in three New Yorkers owned a car. Blue-collar workers could have reached Jones Beach by bus or by train had the park allowed access to vehicles other than cars. Moses stopped train lines from reaching the park and he built the park's bridges too low for buses to pass underneath them. As a result, the working class patrons of Coney Island could not get to Jones Beach. These men and women had been the mainstay of the Tammany machine. They were not on Moses' list of beach-house guests.

That Moses allowed his prejudices to affect his public projects was not a quality that drew La Guardia to the master builder. The complex and fully realized beach and parkways demonstrated to La Guardia that Moses was a man able to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and execute ambitious plans without compromise. La Guardia invited Moses to join him in city government. When Moses accepted, they would form a partnership that would change the face of the city forever and help Moses to attain a near half-century of power.