The 99% Invisible Breakdown The Power Broker #6: Mike Schur
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Jun 16, 2025 Mike Schur, TV writer-producer behind Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, shares how Robert Caro's The Power Broker influenced his work. He discusses Moses' rise, public spectacle, racial and urban impacts, and why such concentrated power feels different today. Conversation touches on building politics, ethics of power, and whether Moses' story could fit long-form TV.
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Public Amenities Designed To Segregate By Race
- Moses built hundreds of playgrounds and pools but systematically underserved Black neighborhoods by design choices.
- He placed heated pools in white areas and left Harlem pools unheated to discourage race mixing, e.g., 146th Street pool heating decisions.
More Roads Generate More Traffic Not Less
- New parkways repeatedly worsened congestion by inducing demand: new lanes simply filled with new cars.
- Caro records that bridges and parkways solved jams for only weeks before traffic returned and expanded to more bridges.
Expressways Turn Neighborhoods Into Pass-Through Blight
- Elevated expressways like the Gowanus Parkway destroyed neighborhood life by bringing through-traffic instead of customers, converting vibrant Third Avenue into a blighted corridor.
- Moses reused elevated rail pillars but added ramps and widened streets, displacing 1,300 families and turning local commerce away.
