Municipal government was the focal point of Progressive reform energy

Evidence

If there was an epicenter of the idealism that was rolling across America, it was the ninth floor of 261 Broadway. The impulse to do good may have been rampant beneath the domes of statehouses and the national capitol, but it reached its zenith in city halls. Perhaps this was because in cities corruption was more visible than in federal politics, issues more succinctly dramatized. Or perhaps it was because the reforming impulse thrived on problems, and it was in the cities, swelling with the immigrant tide, faced with problems of housing, schooling, policing, fire protection, traffic regulation and sewage disposal on a new scale, that America’s problems were beginning to loom largest. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 252

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The municipal reform ethos imported empiricism and scientific management from industry — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 255; Elite Progressive-era philanthropy aimed primarily at social order, not sincere reform. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 738

Broader Connections

• The municipal reform ethos imported empiricism and scientific management from industry #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 255
• Elite Progressive-era philanthropy aimed primarily at social order, not sincere reform. #qualifies (0.75) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 738