Summer Reading: The Power Broker
Why Robert Caro's epic biography of Robert Moses matters to the Triangle today.
The CITYBUILDER Book Club is taking the month of July off -- but we will be back in August with a whopper! We're going to tackle The Power Broker, Robert Caro's epic biography of Robert Moses.
Why it matters to NC today
The Power Broker is very much a monument of a prior era of urban planning, but it reveals timeless patterns of how politics and policy intersect to make infrastructure decisions that shape communities. Grand new parks in central Raleigh and Cary are a testament to the placemaking power of parks, something that Moses understood early in his career.
We might think that the Moses era of unbridled, toll-funded highway expansion is a relic of the mid-20th century -- yet at this very moment there are still bulldozers chopping away at trees between Garner and Knightdale to extend the Outer Loop and cement (as Moses' Long Island expressways did) sprawling housing patterns for tens of thousands. Those early infrastructure choices create irreversible consequences that our growing state will have to confront as we decide whether to further car-dependent sprawl or more sustainable communities.
Moses' systematic displacement of poor and minority neighborhoods for highway construction finds uncomfortable parallels in North Carolina's history, such as the construction of the Durham Freeway which destroyed the thriving Black business district of Hayti.
The Power Broker serves as both a warning and guide for engaged citizens, showing how "organized community groups can defeat even the most powerful leaders," as our board member Eric Braun says.
How to read it (or not read it)
Because this is a five-pound monster of a book, you have several options:
1. You could read all of it, of course! It's widely available at used bookstores if you are seeking an arm workout, or as an ebook (at last!), or as an 3-day-long audiobook. (It's narrated slowly, so ramp up the speed as needed.)
2. You can read parts of it -- I suggest 3-5 contiguous chapters of your choosing.
3. You can check out the 99% Invisible Breakdown: The Power Broker podcast series, which has 12 episodes covering the entire book chapter by chapter. Or, if you really want just the highest-level overview, you can listen to the audio plot summaries condensed into a single episode.
Be sure to join us for this exciting Book Club, on Wednesday August 27th, from 12-1PM at Press Cafe in Raleigh. More information can be found at the CITYBUILDER events page. We hope to see you there!
It took me a year to read The Power Broker.
Moses early work developing parks was admirable, but everything else was to society's detriment.