Does Dwarkesh Patel blame Robert Moses for New York's decline in the 1970s?

No. Dwarkesh Patel says Moses's reputation hardened in the 1970s, when The Power Broker appeared during a period of crime, deindustrialization and white flight in New York. In Patel's view that crisis owed more to structural forces, pointing out that Detroit and St. Louis collapsed further without Moses. He adds that for most of his career Moses was very popular, and New York high schools in the 1930s and 1940s voted him the most admired New Yorker.

• Patel contrasts Moses's speed with the Second Avenue subway, begun in 1972, whose first two miles opened in 2017 at a cost of $4.5 billion.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Dwarkesh Podcast (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

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