Basically, Robert Moses launches right into a rant about how many young planners, or "miserable little squirts" who are "trying to play god." He then took my breath away by going on and on about being careful about not ruining a city's heart...which is just kind of bizarre seeing how this is the guy that leveled the Bronx.
The bulk of his essay is deconstructing the zeitgeist of the time: decentralization, but more than that he seems to really be bolstering the fact that he takes on serious problems and doesn't just hide behind pretty pictures.
His arguments:
1. The road to salvation from urban growth and blight is not by super duper charters, regional governments and larger taxing areas, requiring very superior administrators.
2. The civic millennium is not to be achieved over night. (speaking to utopian solutions)
3. High standards in the beginning are problematic. Don't have them.
4. The public feels entitled to things at low prices
5. The drive to make government the sole employer is neither inevitable nor desirable. Its success would spell bureaucracy triumphant and the beginning of the end of private initiative.
6. The city will not be made secure by simply establishing a planning commission to publish reports. You need people with personalities to make it work.
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