Rapid 1920s development consumed New York’s vacant land that parks would need

Evidence

Now, suddenly, there wasn’t any time. The population of New York City had increased from 4,766,883 to 5,620,048 between 1910 and 1920, and now, in the Twenties, the rate of increase was accelerating, and most of it was occurring outside Manhattan. When Bob Moses had returned to the city from Oxford in 1913, some of Brooklyn, most of the Bronx and practically all of Queens had been woods, meadows or farmland. Now red bricks, like those that had imprisoned the Lower East Side in tenements, were being cemented into walls in Brooklyn’s remaining green fields, and in the Bronx and Queens great stretches of woodland and field were blossoming hideously with developers’ “Spanish stucco haciendas” and “Colonial farmhouses,” all available on the new merchandising gimmick: the installment plan. Vacant land, the first and irreplaceable essential for parks, was vanishing in New York City, and it was vanishing fast. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 630

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the arc of New York parks history and the role of Robert Moses in reshaping the city, echoing themes of urban space as finite. — connects to: New York City already owned thousands of undeveloped acres on Long Island — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 706

Broader Connections

• New York City already owned thousands of undeveloped acres on Long Island #corroborates (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 706