Enduring in power for decades distinguishes the greatest public builders

Evidence

No project on which Robert Moses had ever embarked was to document more definitively his statement: “It takes more than a good idea to make a great public improvement. The fact is that such things happen when there are leaders available, ready and eager to take advantage of the logic of events. Even then the whole result is accomplished only by a series of limited objectives, over a surprisingly long period of years.” No project was to demonstrate more dramatically that of all the qualities which enabled him to build public works of the first magnitude, none was more important than the simple fact that he endured, that he stayed in power not for years, but for decades. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4414

Categorization

• XREF: This echoes Caro’s recurring frame that Moses’s power came from outlasting rivals (ch22: simultaneous agency headships, ch16 Mary’s ability to end his work sessions) and the ‘Power is an addictive drug’ theme from ch3. — connects to: Great public works throughout history have required autocratic power to build. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 3547; Power, not logic or brilliance, is what actually builds public works — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 376

Broader Connections

• Power, not logic or brilliance, is what actually builds public works #complicates (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 376