THE LEGACY OF NEW YORK EPISODE 3: FIORELLO H. LA GUARDIA

La Guardia was ranked first among the nation's mayors in a 1993 poll of historians and social scientists.[3][68] According to biographer Mason B. Williams, his close collaboration with Roosevelt's New Deal proved a striking success in linking national money and local needs.[69] La Guardia enabled the political recognition of new groups that had been largely excluded from the political system, such as Jews and Italians.[70] His administration (in cooperation with Robert Moses) gave New York its modern infrastructure.[39] His far-sighted goals raised ambitions for new levels of urban possibility. According to Thomas Kessner, trends since his tenure mean that "people would be afraid of allowing anybody to take that kind of power"