Here is a talk that Robert Caro gave on Jane Jacobs (HT: Tyler). It has a lot of interesting thoughts on urban development and cities. But I particularly liked the poetry of this passage assessing Robert Moses:
…as I was examining Robert Moses life, and as I was watching him change as he invented and acquired power, change from an idealist and visionary, to what he became, I realized that power was like a sword, a very unusual sword, in which the hilt, as well as the blade, is as sharp as a razor. So it cuts into the man who’s wielding it and changes him, it alters him. But it also, of course, cuts into those on who it is swung.
