No pre-Moses American official could design and implement large-scale public parks

Evidence

When Robert Moses began building state parks and parkways during the 1920’s, twenty-nine states didn’t have a single state park; six had only one each. Roads uninterrupted by crossings at grade and set off by landscaping were almost nonexistent. Most proposals for parks outside cities were so limited in scope that, even if they had been adopted, they would have been inadequate. The handful of visionaries who dreamed of large parks were utterly unable to translate their dreams into reality. No one in the nation seemed able to conceive of proposals—and methods of implementing them—equal to the scope and complexity of the problem posed by the need of urban masses for countryside parks and a convenient means of getting to them. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 58

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: New York had essentially no real state parks before Moses built them. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 727; Robert Moses reframed American parks from passive nature to active recreation — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 732

Broader Connections

• Robert Moses reframed American parks from passive nature to active recreation #qualifies (0.72) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 732