Respond by describing one new thing that you learned from the documentary segment that no other student has yet mentioned.
17 thoughts on “The Rise of LaGuardia”
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IDC 1001H
IDC 1001H
Respond by describing one new thing that you learned from the documentary segment that no other student has yet mentioned.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The most famous mayors in New York City are known for their achievements, thus, it is no surprise that I never knew about James J. Walker, who served from 1926 to 1931. As a former vaudeville performer and songwriter, Walker was best known for his charm and public image rather than his policies. As a mayor, he was corrupt, failing to serve New Yorkers during the beginning of the Great Depression, when his help was needed most. Associated with Tammany Hall, he followed their system of patronage and spoils. The money given to New York City by the state for relief was largely kept by members of Tammany Hall. Walker typically neglected the city, serving his own needs instead. It was once reported that he arrived to City Hall at noon and left by 3:00 PM. Robert Moses even reported that he refused to open mail unless it contained checks for him. With no money coming into the city from the state or government, he irresponsibly borrowed large sums of money, forcing him to halt public works programs and lay off workers. His crooked behavior was only caught as Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt distanced himself from Tammany Hall, appointing Judge Samuel Seabury to investigate corruption. Apart from his embezzlement and misuse of government funds, it was found that he was also involved in a racketeering scheme. Walker was tried by Judge Seabury. While there was strong evidence against him, no formal charges were ever pressed. Instead, with his image tarnished, Walker was forced to resign. This story, which I had never known before watching this documentary, was quite shocking to me. Often times, we do not learn about corrupt or failed leaders. Many do not wish to look back at errors of the past. Hiding bad leaders, however, is actually a disservice. If the signs of a corrupt leader cannot be detected, then one is bound to find a way into an office of power.
I was fascinated with Fiorello La Guardia’s rise to Tammany Hall in 1934. After the Walker scandal was exposed, Tammany Hall was left open for a new type of candidate. La Guardia surely did fit the desired mold. He was described as one of the most radical congressman during the Great Depression. In his speeches, one can see him almost convulsing as he gestures violently to express his deep emotions on the matter. During the Great Depression, He did not want to provide government support to the struggling citizens, and he even stated that he wanted the bankers to die. He also related to the Jewish and Italian denizens of the City. His mother was Jewish causing him to speak Yiddish at some rallies. His father was Italian causing him to have the attractable name and features for the Italian vote. His background was quite different from the Irish officials previously known to Tammany Hall.
La Guardia can be seen as an embodiment of New York City itself. His brash and loud manner is one many New Yorkers can identify with. Additionally, his diversified background resembles that of the melting pot of New York City’s cultures. He was able to relate to many groups not only through his manner but his background too.
One thing I found interesting about this documentary segment was the dramatic toll the Great Depression took on New York. The city could not support the financial needs the residents of New York depended on. On the eve of the Great Depression under two million people were unemployed in the United States and after two years it reached eight million. The financial sector got hit which affected workers. People’s wages were cut in half or some laid off. Workers were left on their own to fend for themselves. There was no government aid at the time. I’m so surprised at how many people were evicted from their living spaces because they couldn’t afford rent. There were bread lines were families lined up for little scraps of food. People in the back of the line would have to starve for the day. There was little hope for people in New York. Every day people were exposed to misery and the falling industries. I was fascinated at how even back in the 1930s, people begged from tourists coming to New York to visit the Empire State Building. In a way the Empire State Building, because of its astonishing view, allowed for people to earn some type of living. People would search for food in the garbage dumped in Riverside Park. They were desperate and helpless. We see that today, but not on a large scale where children and mothers are running after garbage trucks.
I was surprised by the vast amount of influence that New York politics and politicians had on the creation of the New Deal. Many of the program’s ingrained in the New Deal were first tested on the streets of New York. Not only does Roosevelt take his experiences and ideas from his work in New York, but he also takes many prominent New York leaders with him to construct his New Deal programs. For example, Harry Hopkins, a successful welfare and social work politician from New York City, was instrumental in assisting Roosevelt with constructing the New Deal. Moreover, Eleanor Roosevelt was also instrumental in the New Deal and had many years of experience through her work with the housing and labor reform movements of the New York. He also includes Frances Perkins, long time New Yorker, in his team to work as the Secretary of Labor for the federal government. Frances Perkins had the opportunity to learn from the disasters of the triangle fire case and was prepared to apply those lessons on a national scale. These New York politicians continued to promote New York programs that reflected the hands on approach taken to combat the economic hardship of the city. During this period, millions of dollars were invested in social security programs, unemployment programs, long-term health programs and public works in order to better the lives of New Yorkers and all Americans.
What always astonished me is the productivity in the country during the years of the great depression. One would think that a depression would cause people to lose hope but in hard times, humans become only more resilient and determined. The documentary compared the productivity in the depression era to the productivity of the late 20th century and concluded that America has not had such an explosion of determined building since the depression and that does not surprise me. Humans become lazy with comfort. But since Nov 8th, America is headed into hard times again and I just hope that we can half the determination and productivity as these men and women showed in the 1930’s.
One new thing I learned from the documentary segment is the existence of Hoovervilles and the tremendous amount of struggle the people living in such bad conditions were facing.
According to the documentary, by 1931, tens of thousands of New Yorkers had been evicted from their homes. Many doubled up with family and friends but those that couldn’t had to resort to living in Hoovervilles. Hoovervilles began to emerge in many parts of the city including areas near the East river, Hudson River, and central park. People simply could not find jobs to pay for their housing. Thus, some people began to build their own shacks using nearby lumber. Doing more research, I found out that largest of these villages was located in Central Park’s Great Lawn. According to “The Park and the People: A history of Central Park” by Roy Rosenzwig and Elizabeth Blackmar, there were 1.2 million Americans homeless in the winter of 1932-1933, and 2,000 of them were New Yorkers. It’s astonishing to even think about what these people suffered through and I was mindblown after seeing pictures of these villages.
One thing I found interesting from the documentary was the change of relationship between New York and the US government in Washington. New York City was the unofficial financial, cultural, and marketing capital until it reached its low during the Great Depression. As it was mentioned in the documentary, NYC came into its own realization that its just another city in the country and they are no longer as centralized as it thought it was. The greatest city in the country was now ironically seeking for help. Prior to the New Deal, the government was just seen as military support and security. Now New Yorkers and the rest of the country’s citizens realized that there the government has a much greater responsibility and obligation to fix the economy and to help the country in times of need. The Great Depression gave New York a wake up call that they are dependent on federal transfers and Washington was ultimately the actual capital of the country for they are the only ones with that much federal power to intervene with the economy and command the necessary actions to help the country when needed.
What I found very interesting from this documentary, was Mayor La Guardia’s theatrical personality and the way in which he threw himself into his role in New York City. He was said to have accompanied police officers on raids, raced to a fire, and even conducted an orchestra at Carnegie Hall. As the documentary stated, “He was everywhere. And he was distinctive, because he was so animated and his qualities were that he got things done and that he related.” Mayor La Guardia was not afraid to show his human characteristics and act the same way as any other citizen of New York. During his war on crime, he was also seen rounding up slot machines, smashing them, and throwing them into the harbor. He acted in this way purposefully in the media in order to show people that he was just like any other person. This was surprising to me because usually politicians attempt to hide their true personality’s and portray themselves in a way that is highly respectable. La Guardia’s lack of fear over people seeing him beyond his political status was clearly what made many connect with him and respect him as a mayor.
One thing I found interesting from this segment is Franklin D. Roosevelt’ s integral role in bringing about the end of Tammany Hall and removing James J. Walker from the position of mayor. Furthermore I was interested in the way that these actions launched Franklin D Roosevelt’s career and brought him into the national spotlight.
Roosevelt was the only one able to demand that Walker either resign or be fired. Despite the fact that there was not substantial evidence to convict Walker and remove him from office, Roosevelt found a way to force Walker out of city hall, and with him Tammany Hall. This along with the election of LaGuardia proved to be crucial in the transformation of New York City and the recreation of the vibrant and flourishing city that New York had been prior to the Great Depression.
This renewal of New York not only inspires the country to elect Roosevelt but also mirrors the way he country as a whole was to be renewed under the Roosevelt administration.
Due to the grave impact of The Great Depression, New York was one of the most drastically hit cities as a result of being the epicenter of financial markets in the United States. New York faced extremely high unemployment and a very high rate of people who lived through government support: 1.6 million people out of the cities 6.9 million population. Children and mothers would try to eat food from dumpsters. Because New York was an urban metropolis, it was very difficult for people to find food compared to those who lived on the countryside. Even the sheep raised in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow were moved up in 1934 to the Catskill Mountains because the city was afraid that the people who lived in Hoovervilles would, instead of looking enthusiastically at the sheep, deem it as lunch due to how hungry they were. It has been stated that the economic downfall of 2008 was the worst since The Great Depression and this fact is clearly true as depicted through the events in this video. The Great Depression caused pain, hunger, and sadness to New York and the United States at a level never once reached before.
Something that I learned from watching the documentary was exactly how great of a magnitude the Great Depression had on society. One very interesting fact mentioned in the documentary was how the Empire State building was only able to pay its property taxes by collecting money from sightseers and tourists. The demand for food was so high that lines all around the city would wrap around streets and blocks. Even then, waiting online wouldn’t guarantee food if someone was at the end of the line. In some cases, mothers and their children would search through garbage when garbage was taken out just to find scraps of food. After watching the documentary, it made me really appreciate just how much LaGuardia did to rebuild New York City after the Great Depression. Not only was he a phenomenal public speaker, he is also showed a great deal of humanity to New Yorkers. He personally participated in many events in an effort to help the Great Depression.
In the documentary, there was a scene in which there was a real account of a man going through the Great Depression and was living in the Hooverville. He had said that because there was no work to be found and that he and his family went to the Hudson River and found lumber floating in the water. They decided to build a shack and this was good for two reasons. First, they wouldn’t be a burden to the community. Secondly, they wouldn’t have to pay rent. I had always known that the Great Depression called for desperate measures and I’ve always known about the dilapidated state of the Hoovervilles set up all around the city. But I was just surprised by how these Hoovervilles even started and the impetus behind their decision to build these shacks that soon grew to become Hoovervilles. By including a real account/interview of someone who was living in a Hooverville during the Great Depression led to a greater insight on my part as to what and how the people felt in regards to the desperate times. I was also surprised by the man’s calmness and sensibility and had a very matter of factly attitude that seemed to demonstrate the necessity of having to live in these Hoovervilles by listing out the two reasons. I just never knew the thinking and the logic behind the people who were forced to resort to living in these Hoovervilles, but by including this real account of someone who lived in one was a valuable part in developing my understanding of this situation.
One new thing I learned from this documentary segment was the full extent of breadlines during the Great Depression. Surprisingly, what came more of a shock were the videos, instead of the informative audio which generally packs the punch. The initial videos show men lined up, for maybe a half of a block, and men being served at the head of the breadline, however the shots crescendo in the severity of the breadlines. The men are packed so tightly together in line that they are chest-to-back and breathing down each other’s neck. My theory is that the men do this so no one attempts to cut the line. One of the next shots show the truer reality of breadlines, with one winding up and down a street, and the next shot shows men walking in line and seemingly hiding their faces from the camera, a very poignant move expressing the shame that I believe these men share for using a breadline instead of being able to provide for themselves. A very powerful quote is read during these shots:
“You turn a corner and here is a surprising spectacle: a line of men, three or sometimes four a breast, a block long and wedged together so tightly that no passersby can break through. Those at the head of this great black human snake will eat tonight. Those father black probably won’t.” -Bruce Bliven
Three things are apparent through the video, that aren’t directly expressed in the audio: 1) there seems to only be men in these breadlines, 2) these lines appear very orderly, and, 3) these people, despite not being able to feed themselves, are dressed in tidy clothes. As for the first point, the segment later goes to show women and children digging through trash, in what is now Riverside Park, for food, however, I’m curious to know why I don’t see any women or children in these breadlines- surely they aren’t banned from them. As for the second point, I would imagine people get very agitated and restless when it comes to whether or not they will eat that night, however the video depicts the lines as being very orderly. I’m sure that probably wasn’t always the case, but I found it interesting that these breadlines weren’t utter chaos. As for my third and final point, I know men at the time dressed in suits and ties normally so it comes as no surprise that they are dressed in that fashion. However, I simply found the clean and tidy state of their clothes to be interesting. Out of context, I wouldn’t be able to differentiate a common man before the Great Depression from a man in the breadline during the Great Depression.
One thing I learned in this documentary was the inclusion of women in Roosevelt’s New Deal Cabinet. Usually politicians surround themselves with their close group of male friends or other politicians but it was pleasantly surprising to see Roosevelt choose two women, his wife Elenor Roosevelt and Francis Perkins to help him as he sought to create the new deal. It was nice to see him look beyond their gender and recognize that even though Elenor was his wife as as dictated by tradition she should have a positions not associated with the politics of that time he realized that she had experience working with settlement houses and had connections to labor reformers that she could use to help her husband. Also, he chose Francis Perkins, a woman, who was a sociologist and advocated for worker’s rights to sit beside him in his cabinet as the First Women Secretary of labor as he set out to heal America after the Great Depression.
Another interesting thing I learned was that the New Deal changed the ordinary citizen’s perspective of the government. before the New Deal, ordinary citizens viewed Washington as a distant entity which did not effect their daily lives or provide anything besides military aid and governance as a whole. The New Deal changed that for the better. With the massive public works launched by Roosevelt that poured money out of Washington and created millions of jobs, social security services, unemployment relief, public food pantries, healthcare, housing, and much more people began to see government in a favorable light. They began to see government as a source of help who would support its citizens in times when all other options failed and a body that worked in the best interest of the people. This truly transformed the relationship between the government and the people and this transformation can be seen even today.
One thing I learned by watching the documentary was that the New Deal had both positive and negative effects on how New York City was perceived. The most common perception of the New Deal is that it was a reform that saved the city by allocating federal funds to states to support programs such as social security, health care, labor reform, and unemployment relief. This intervention revived the careers of many New Yorkers, who had previously felt no requirement to be engaged in their local governments. Following the Great Depression and Roosevelt’s reform package, many people began to realize the importance of the government. However, the New Deal reforms forced New York to step down from its upper echelon of urban life. Prior to the Great Depression, New York was portrayed as a center for urban capital of the United States. The Depression hurt the city’s growth and leveled it with other large cities of its time. Government intervention certainly saved many New Yorkers from the harsh effects of the Great Depression, but also hurt the city’s image relative to other cities.
I had never realized that The New Deal was so instrumental to the rise of Fiorella LaGuardia and again, the recurring theme of how New York City became a prominent part of the United States’ identity presents itself. I also never realized that The New Deal was mostly constructed in New York City through Franklin Roosevelt’s work here. The connection between Fiorello LaGuardia and Roosevelt is also something I never knew about. Roosevelt actually funded the city much more because of LaGuardia’s faithfulness to the New Deal and cut off ties to enemies of LaGuardia. The New Deal is historically important because it started the liberal culture in New York City, which carries on to this day. New York City has a culture of protesting for civil liberties, and this is no change from the way it was during LaGuardia’s time.
One detail that I found particularly interesting from this segment of the documentary is how Fiorello LaGuardia, 99th mayor of New York City, and Robert Moses, a city planner, collaborated. Both men were remarkable New Yorkers, yet they were different from one another, physically and the way in which they operated respectively. According to the documentary, LaGuardia celebrated difference among the city, whereas Moses attempted to bring order to it. Two powerful men with two decidedly different approaches were nevertheless able to find the common ground to interact. Moreover, they did this in the darkest of the City’s times: The Great Depression. This degree of collaboration is fascinating to me, especially given the competitive nature of politics today. I think that both LaGuardia and Moses were cultured enough to realize that the moves they are making will have a profound impact on the future of New York City. Thus, they put in an extraordinary effort to cooperate in their agendas, and as a result, the darkest era of the City was also one containing immense achievement, such as the creation of new parks, playgrounds, and beaches.