I read all 1,200 pages of ‘The Power Broker’ and now I have beef with a dead man

You know how they say you’re never more than six feet from a spider? In New York City, I feel like you’re never more than six feet from Robert Moses.

I mean this both literally and figuratively. Here, for example, is Curbed deep dive about a project in my neighborhood that I read yesterday, where the infamous city planner comes up repeatedly. He’s also name-checked in a recent Atlantic article about abundance politics. I’ve also literally read the document Moses wrote making the case to build the apartment building I now live in. And looking at important, timely topics like congestion pricing, Open Streets, the MTA, and the current mayoral election, let me just tell you…the ghost of Robert Moses is everywhere. (If this guy had been obsessed with trains and tunnels instead of bridges and cars, we’d be living in a very different America right now!)

In both New York and across the U.S., we’re still dealing with* the negative effects of his 40-year (unelected!!!) reign, which is why The Power Broker—Robert Caro’s 1200-page Pulitzer Prize–winning accounting of Robert Moses’s life and work—was such a fascinating and infuriating read. 

I had often heard people talk about The Power Broker because of how long it is, but…no one ever really talks about how good it is! And not just good in the sense of, like, “I’m learning so much from this, it is Important,” though that is also true. But it’s really, really readable. It’s juicy! The stakes are so high and there’s endless drama, gossip, humor, and pettiness, coupled with the kind of epic narrative arcs that feel more like fiction—it really doesn’t feel like reading a history book. (My jaw actually dropped at times.) Robert Caro does an incredible job of making the case for why we all need to know this bastard’s name, and laying out just how destructive, nasty, cruel, and prolific Moses was. One of the worst people to ever do it! I initially decided to just read the intro to see if I wanted to fully commit to the book, and by the time I finished that, I was…panting. I truly couldn’t put it down. (And before you ask: Yes, Moses has replaced Samuel Pepys as my #1 historical enemy.)

Because 2024 was the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication, there’s been a ton of renewed interest and media coverage in it. 99% Invisible (a podcast I love!) did a multipart series on The Power Broker last year, which is definitely a worth a listen if you know in your heart that you’re never going to read the whole book. It’s very light/fun (one of the co-hosts for this miniseries used to write for The Daily Show), and does a great job of communicating the key takeaways. (At minimum, you should definitely listen to the interview they did with AOC, wherein she talks about why the federal government…is the way it is. Her interview starts at 1:51:16 and is so good and will also make you want to scream.)

One of my biggest takeaways from The Power Broker is just how much impact a single person can have. Even in a city as big and as complicated as New York, it’s increasingly evident to me that a few loud NIMBYs with a bone to pick can stall progress for years. And yeah, Robert Moses didn’t do what he did alone…but the book was just a stark reminder that, for better or for worse, people built the world we live in, and people can change it. 

Some related content:

• I’ve really been enjoying The War on Cars podcast. (I loved the free parking, Tesla, and Rick Steves episodes!) 

• I recently picked up City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways from the library. I also have Jane Jacobs and Wrestling With Moses in the queue.

• “Can Andy Byford Save the Subways?” I remember reading this in the New Yorker when it was published, but I re-read it after finishing TPB. And now, just this week…Andy Byford is back! 

• “The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth,” from a three-part Times series on the failures of the MTA. 

• Streetsblog is a great resource if you care about what’s happening in terms of transportation policy; I read the NYC edition daily and it’s very in the weeds (in a good way!) about what is currently happening. 🛣️

*Here’s a very salient example: The Second Avenue Subway comes up a few times in 'The Power Broker;' it was first proposed in 1920 and is mentioned toward the end of the book as something that the city still “desperately” needs (so, in the 1970s). I was curious what ever happened with it so I decided to look it up…and discovered that only the first three stations and two miles of track on the line have been completed to date, and this only happened in…2017.

‘Death Becomes Her’ is everything I want in a Broadway musical

Our friend Ryan came to stay with us last week, and one of the items on the agenda for her visit was the Death Becomes Her musical on Broadway. It was my second time seeing the show, and I already want to see it again. If you’re in New York City—or just near enough to take a weekend trip here—I highly, highly recommend it! It’s campy, stupid (in the best way!), and just a really goddamn good time. 

I saw the show for the first time right before New Year’s, when I won the ticket lottery. I had seen the movie, but I went in knowing literally nothing about the musical or what to expect. And I was surprised and delighted at every bit of it. 

The music? Fantastic, catchy, so funny. The stunts and staging? Excellent, clever, perfect. The cast? Well, this is actually a Megan Hilty stan account now, and I just loved Christopher Sieber in it. (His Act II solo is probably my favorite number in the show, but it’s honestly very hard to choose a favorite.) 

Death Becomes Her is the rare adaptation that a) is extremely faithful to the source material, b) somehow manages to improve on the source material, and c) stands on its own as a unique and complete piece of media. (The Devil Wears Prada movie is the only other thing I can think of that completed this triumvirate.) 

You really don’t need to have seen the movie to have a good time, but if you’re not familiar with the story, the (very) basic plot is that two lifelong frenemies drink a potion that promises eternal youth and beauty, and makes them immortal…but it doesn’t protect them from, say, sustaining catastrophic injuries (without actually dying), so they essentially turn into hot, falling-apart zombies. 

It was really interesting to see Death Becomes Her right around the same time I saw The Substance and the Sunset Boulevard revival; it felt like the three were in conversation with each other (the theme being “woman turns 50, develops psychosis”). 

Like, here’s Megan Hilty singing a song that contains the lyrics “I gotta nip, and tuck, and fill, and freeze / And Restylane the lips and Juvederm the knees / Fix the bits, lift the tits, try to hard the scaaaaaars” and “Wrinkled, wrinkled little star / Remind them who the FUCK you are,” fully belting and sounding like a villain during Disney’s golden era (compliment!!!): 

I really can’t say enough great things about Megan Hilty’s performance—she’s so good. (When we saw she show last week, we found out once we were in our seats that her understudy was actually going on, and it was, respectfully…not the same show without Megan!) I loved her so much in this, in fact, that I went back and watched the first season of Smash, the truly awful 2012 TV series about the making of a fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe (that was recently adapted for Broadway…it’s honestly all too meta, I can’t even get into it here). 

While we’re on the topic of the thea-tuh, here are some stray thoughts on other shows:

• The Cabaret revival is very good; I thought Orville Peck was great in it!

• I saw Oh, Mary! twice before it transferred to Broadway and hope it sweeps the Tonys. Absolutely loved it.

• Yeah, I’m planning to see BOOP! at some point! So sue me!!! 🎭

If you'd like to have a cozy and pleasant afternoon, consider the New York Historical

After I got laid off in December, Terri texted me to check in, and then mentioned that if I needed some good cheer, I should visit the New York Historical. It was actually already on my radar thanks to the “Pets and the City” exhibit I’d been getting ads for, and Terri’s rec gave me a little extra motivation to check it out.

Honestly, I don’t know what took me so long—this museum feels made for me personally! I really like looking at history through the lens of “small” things—household objects, cookbooks, cards and stationery, Christmas decorations, beauty products, clothes, etc.—and I love learning about New York City, and NY Historical does both of those things very well.

While the “Pets and the City” exhibit was solid (I did not know that actual pigs used to roam the streets and serve as NYC’s sanitation department!), I thought the best part of our visit was the permanent collection of Tiffany lamps. Because inexpensive reproductions are readily available these days, I’d never given much thought to how we got here. But the originals are genuinely incredible. The lamps are largely the work of one woman—Clara Driscoll—and her team of “Tiffany girls.” (The women were employed both because Louis Comfort Tiffany believed their smaller hands were better for the delicate, nature-inspired patterns, and, essentially, to thwart a union strike. Oh and every single woman quit as a matter of course after she got married. Isn’t history fun?) The exhibit is just really well done—Terri was totally right that it makes for a cozy, cheery time—and I think it would be a huge hit with kids too.

The lamps alone make NY Historical worth the trip, but there were a lot of other highlights, including John James Audubon’s original watercolors (you know the ones!); real clothes from working women over the past 200 years; and “Pride and Protest,” which features the photography of Fred W. McDarrah of the Village Voice. And I feel like we barely scratched the surface on this visit; the museum is a lot bigger than we realized, so we ended up buying a membership so we can go back whenever the mood strikes! 🗽

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'Nocs walk 02

Our neighborhood ‘nocs walks are continuing apace! Here are some of the birds we’ve spotted in the past month…

Male mallard

Male mallard

Female mallard

Brants

Starling

House sparrow

White-throated sparrow

White-throated sparrow

Camera/lens: Nikon D3000 + Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED lens

Nocs: Pentax UP 10x21 pink binoculars (hers) and Carson VP series full sized or compact waterproof high definition binoculars (mine)

Location: WNYC Transmitter Park 🐤

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'Nocs walk 01

My girlfriend and I made a goal for this month to go on at least one excursion with our binoculars — a ‘nocs walk! — every week. We actually did three this week, but today’s was the first one where I had the pre-owned telephoto lens I bought last week. Here are some of the birds we saw:

Red-tailed hawk

American robin

Female house sparrow

Male house sparrow

Male house sparrow

White-throated sparrow

House sparrow

Rock pigeon

Camera/lens: Nikon D3000 + Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED lens

Nocs: Pentax UP 10x21 pink binoculars (hers) and Carson VP series full sized or compact waterproof high definition binoculars (mine)

Location: McCarren Park 🐦

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If you want to get a piercing in NYC/Brooklyn, go to So Gold Studios in Williamsburg

The waiting area at So Gold Studios

It seems like everyone I know is getting second (or third, or fourth) ear piercings lately, an observation that Cosmo recently validated. If you’re in the market for a new piercing in the NYC/Brooklyn area, I can’t recommend So Gold Studios enough! I got a conch piercing last month, and was really happy with the experience.

So Gold Studios is a one-woman shop in Williamsburg that opened last summer. The owner, Cassi Lopez-March, has been piercing for ~17 years (she worked at New York Adorned for like a decade before opening her own place) and she really knows her shit. The studio is teeny, and really cozy while also being extremely sterile/surgical (so… exactly what I want in a piercing studio).

The jewelry is fairly pricey because all the stones/diamonds are real, but you we-use the jewelry you’ve already purchased if you get another piercing from her later. (So, after my current piercing heals, I can use this same earring to get a new piercing in a different spot, and I’ll only have to pay for the piercing itself, which is $40.) I definitely felt like the service matched the overall higher price point of the trip — we had a private appointment; got to take our sweet time picking out jewelry (which is important because it’s expensive and you’re going to be wearing it every day for a while); were able to be very fussy about the exact placement of each piercing; and I didn’t feel rushed through in any way.

I also feel really good about my aftercare; I’ve been doing exactly as Cassi instructed — cleaning it with 0.9% sodium chloride sterile saline wound wash twice daily and taking the time to pat it dry afterward — and my piercing looks and feels great.

Cassi said most of her clients are repeat customers, which makes sense to me both in general in terms of body art, and also with regard to her specifically. She was just great; after I left I had a feeling of “Obviously I will only ever get pierced by Cassi for the rest of my life” and I immediately wanted to recommend her to all my friends (hello). I am definitely planning to go back in a few months. (I love this earscape and am on my way to something sort of like it.)

A few people have asked me if the conch piercing hurt a lot, and the answer is… it hurt exactly as much as you’d think it would? Like, it feels just like you’d imagine someone pushing a needle through a thick part of your ear would feel — no more, no less. For about a week after my appointment, it was fairly sensitive; I couldn’t sleep on my left side, and it would hurt a lot if, say, I bumped it with my glasses or while doing my hair. And then after a week it simply stopped hurting entirely! (This experience is extremely similar to what I’ve heard from friends who have recently gotten new ear piercings.) But it was fine/worth it and I’m ultimately really happy with it!

By the way, if you want some general ear piercing inspo, here are a few good IG accounts to look to: Maria Tash, Studs, Pamela Love, and So Gold Studios.

Related: The gold hoop earrings I wear every day. ✨

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