Opinion of Nelson Rockefeller

[traininthedistance]

FF. 

Yes,  FF.  Why?  Because if it wasn't for his plotting, Robert Moses would have remained in power until the day he died, and his structures and mindset presumably remained in power until today, and the greater evil of Triborough would have thoroughly reduced NYC to a smoking pile of ash and asphalt, a tire tread stomping on a human face forever.

It does not matter what else he did, and it does not matter why he did it.  Even Empire State Plaza– cut from much the same rotten cloth– can be excused as the lesser evil.

I realize how this probably comes across as silly, but I'm actually quite completely serious here.  Moses was that bad, and defanging him was the mitzvah to end all mitzvahs.

[traininthedistance]

While his skillful de-fanging of Robert Moses was indeed salutary, Moses was on the way down after 1960.  The "World's Fair" in 1964, Jane Jacobs, and some politically dunder-headed projects that alienated more powerful voters than the poor people he was used to pushing around were all undermining his power and ability to push his projects through. It was only a matter of time before he was through

Um, he may have made more enemies, but the sort of rotating bond tricks he used to maintain complete control of Triborough didn't care about public opinion. No matter how unpopular he got, he would have remained safely ensconced in power (at least those portions of it that were most important and damaging), were it not for Nelson basically colluding with his banker brother David to make sure that he wouldn't be able to fall back on them. It was most certainly not "only a matter of time".