North Shore barons deliberately sabotaged roads and rail to keep the public out

Evidence

The officials they controlled allowed all public roads not needed for their own access to their estates to fall into disrepair to discourage public use. Lest the public turn instead to rail transportation, a group of them led by Charles Pratt, who had learned how to handle annoyances from his mentor, Rockefeller, bought sufficient stock in the Long Island Rail Road to control its policies—and saw to it that the railroad’s North Shore lines were kept especially antiquated and rickety. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 661

Categorization

• XREF: A real-world case of privileged groups degrading public infrastructure to preserve exclusion — connects to transport inequality and spatial justice literature. — connects to: North Shore barons hoarded land mainly to keep the public physically away — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 659

Broader Connections

• North Shore barons hoarded land mainly to keep the public physically away #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 659