Eminent domain threats once forced wealthy landowners to donate parkway land

Evidence

The barons dispatched their lawyers to Moses, and Moses did not treat those lawyers with the deference to which they were accustomed. The exact nature of his conversation with Colonel Henry L. Stimson is unknown, but Stimson stormed out of the meeting to write Governor Smith: “I believe thoroughly in the importance of improved highway facilities and parks…. But, my dear Governor, it cannot be done in this country by Napoleonic methods.” Another lawyer told Moses that there was enough power in Wheatley Hills to insure that no parkway would ever run through there. “Well,” Moses replied, “we’re going to teach the Wheatley Hills people a lesson.” To all the barons’ lawyers, he spelled it out bluntly: If their clients were willing to donate land for the parkways, its location could be shifted away from their houses to the borders of their huge estates. But if they weren’t cooperative, the commission had the power to appropriate the land right next to their houses—and it was going to do so. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 802

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the recurring theme in Caro’s work of how legal power, however questionable its use, converts political positions into real-world coercion. — connects to: Landowners’ resistance made large regional parks seem financially and legally impossible — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 691; Park opposition came from wealthy estate owners protecting their private grounds — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 852; Landowners donated right-of-way so their remaining property rose in value — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 931 (+3 more)
• CANDY: Stimson denouncing ‘Napoleonic methods’ and Moses threatening to ‘teach the Wheatley Hills people a lesson’ makes a flavorful anecdote about raw power abuse by a public official.

Broader Connections

• Landowners donated right-of-way so their remaining property rose in value #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 931
• Park opposition came from wealthy estate owners protecting their private grounds #complicates (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 852
• Legislative power cannot take property without the owner’s consent #contradicts (0.75) — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 171
• Eminent domain takings disproportionately target minority neighborhoods today #expands (0.72) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 448
• Black property owners faced escalating tactics from covenants to eminent domain to lynching #expands (0.72) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 325