Moses-era road and park building starved city hospitals and schools of funds

Evidence

During his interim appointment, in 1934, the Comptroller had listened to local delegations pleading for better hospitals, better schools, better libraries, and for the creation of desperately needed child health care centers in the slums. Now, back on the Board of Estimate after three years, he was listening to the same groups plead for the same things—and it was glaringly apparent to him that the city’s progress in building roads and parks had not been matched in other areas in which physical construction was needed. Hospitals, he felt, were “a disgrace.” “Many schools were fairly ancient; we had some that had been built right after the Civil War and were still in use. We had schools ninety years old. We had one school—PS 35—that was a hundred years old.” In the wealthiest city of the wealthiest nation in the world, 290 schools were not even fireproof. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 2722

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lack of funds caused the collapse of the army hospital system — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1086; Wealthy, well-connected neighborhoods could fight Moses where poor ones could not — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4056

Broader Connections

• Lack of funds caused the collapse of the army hospital system #corroborates (0.92) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1086
• Wealthy, well-connected neighborhoods could fight Moses where poor ones could not #complicates (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4056