NYC -- 1930s Politics in

NYC -- 1930s Politics In general, the State of New York is typically known as one of the most liberal States in the United States, with a solid majority of Democratic voters concentrated in the Greater New York City Area. Republicans dominate in the northern regions, the smaller towns, and even the valleys; but despite this, since the post-World War II era, New York politics have been somewhat of a thermometer for the general trends of the nation and a more centrist approach to government (Berg).

However, this was not always the case, and for years, along with Chicago and some of the other major cities in the United States, New York City politics were considered to be some of the most corrupt and unjust in the country.

From the late 1700s, most especially during the Reconstruction and immigration eras, New York City politics were controlled by Tammany Hall, a political organization that had a virtual monopoly in all New York City politics, power and patronage from the mayoral election of Fernando Wood in 1954 through the early 1930s. It was not until the election of moderate Republican Fiorello La Guardia on a fusion ticket of liberal republicans and reform democrats in 1934 that the Tammany machine was weakened.

In fact, after La Guardia's three terms as Mayor of New York City, Tammany had a brief resurgence in the 1950s prior to being completely wiped out by the end of the 1960s (Allen). Depending on one's viewpoint, Tammany was either a singular tyranny of a set of bosses, wards, and patronage; or a way for newly immigrant citizens to feel that they had a social voice within the system of the city.

Wards were the city's smallest political units until the late 1930s, and thus provided a local gathering place and system by which local immigrants could meet, learn about government, and if they supported the right candidates, "earn" privileges and receive an easier time for business licensing, apartments, schools, etc. In the late-1900s, though, especially the 1870s through the turn of the century, Tammany was known as the engine of political graft, corruption and patronage under the infamous "Boss" Tweed.

This system allowed a few to become wealthy beyond imagination based on the individual loyalty of the Ward Bosses and their consist tents (Burrows. E. And Wallace). Even though Tammany hero Al Smith ran for President in 1928, the century's long system of corruption made it relatively difficult for anything to be accomplished in New York without the approval of a Tammany leader.

Fiorello LaGuardia was a New Deal Republican, a man who supported President Franklin Roosevelt and who used that support to help change New York City, to cut off patronage from the Tammany system, and to revitalize New York City, restore public faith, unify the transit system, built low-cost public housing, playgrounds and parks; put money into airports, reorganized the police force, and reestablished the idea of merit employment in place of patronage jobs.

In short, in his domineering and authoritarian three terms, he literally turned the New York political machine on its head; used his connections with the White House to revamp New York City in the midst of the Depression, and gave New York City a chance to become a modern, world-class city. While criticized for being heavy-handed, his reforms were carefully orchestrated to focus on those areas that had been hardest hit by the economic woes of the times, as well as corruption from the Wards.

Unfortunately, when Roosevelt had to direct money towards the war effort, LaGuardia lost some of his political capital (Brodsky). Clearly, LaGuardia's change of focus was necessary in order to limit and help bring down the corruption of Tammany. He was the right person for the right time; it is unlikely that any political leader would be allowed his span of control in the contemporary era. However, the reforms that he instituted; particularly those of completely revamping the police and.