Moses built no parks for the neighborhoods that needed them most

Evidence

Knowing how important small parks were to the city’s poor, the reformers could hardly believe the implications of Moses’ policies when they began to discern them. By banning public transportation, he had barred the poor from the state parks. In the same way, he was barring the poor from the best of the city parks, the big parks on the city’s outskirts such as Jacob Riis and Alley Pond. And now he was saying that he would not provide the poor even with small parks. He was pouring tens of millions of dollars into creating new parks in New York—but he was creating almost none for the people who needed parks most. The philosophy that parks were only for the “comfortable middle class” had been outdated for at least ten years. But, they began to see, that was the philosophy Moses was following. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 2110

Categorization

• XREF: Contradicts the popular framing of Moses as Parks champion — pairs with the earlier chapter claim about exclusion and parallel worlds. — connects to: Reformers warned that neglecting black Harlem’s needs would bring future havoc — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2109; Western parks were originally designed as scenic drives for the wealthy — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2072; Wealthy, well-connected neighborhoods could fight Moses where poor ones could not — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4056 (+1 more)