Fiorello La Guardia served as the 100th Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1934, to January 1, 1946. His mayoralty presided over New York City during the Great Depression and World War II. He is considered the builder of modern New York City due to his numerous infrastructure projects. He replaced John P. O'Brien and was succeeded by William O'Dwyer.
Before La Guardia's election as mayor in 1933, Tammany Hall had controlled the mayoralty for the past twelve years. He would win reelection two times and became the first Mayor of New York City to serve three terms. During his three terms as mayor he oversaw government reforms, fought against Tammany Hall, increased the budget by over $200 million, oversaw the development and completion of multiple infrastructure projects, and collaborated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on multiple New Deal policies.
La Guardia is regarded as the best mayor in New York City's history and one of the best mayors in American history, according to The New York Times. The Guardian, in its obituary of La Guardia, stated that he was "the most remarkable mayor of a great city in American history". Another Republican would not win election as Mayor of New York City until John Lindsay won in the 1965 election and a Republican would not serve more than one term as mayor until Rudy Giuliani.
Tenure
City government
Fiorello La Guardia wrote legislation in 1934, which would have reformed New York City's government, but it failed as it lacked a two-thirds majority with 81 members of the New York State Assembly voting in favor and 61 voting against. An almost identical version of the legislation was put up again, but failed with 93 members voting in favor and 50 members voting against. Another version of the legislation, which was described by La Guardia as a "puny, anaemic and undersized baby", passed in the Assembly with 120 members voting in favor and 23 members voting against. The legislation passed in the New York State Senate and was signed into law by Governor Herbert H. Lehman on April 10, 1934.
Fred C. Lemmerman, a commissioner of the Triborough Bridge Authority and who had been appointed by the pro-Tammany Hall Mayor John P. O'Brien, was placed under investigation and accused of receiving $930 as a brokerage fee for consummating a lease for bridge authority offices. Lemmerman later resigned from his position and La Guardia appointed George Vincent McLaughlin to fill the vacancy. La Guardia later fired Commissioner John Stratton O'Leary and replaced him with Robert Moses causing the Triborough Bridge Authority to have only one pro-Tammany Hall member, Nathan Burkan, on the board. Burkan, who was an influential district leader in Tammany Hall, died on June 6, 1936.
La Guardia instituted civil service reforms during his tenure. The number of civil servants with unclassified positions fell from 15,000 to 1,500 from 1933 to 1940, and civil service applications rose from 6,327 in 1933, to over 250,000 by 1939. Irish-Americans, who dominated civil service leadership and patronage under Tammany, fell from being heads of 25-40% of departments to 5% under La Guardia.
La Guardia appointed William Bowne Parsons to succeed Raymond J. O'Sullivan, secretary of Tammany Hall, on the Board of Assessors.
La Guardia served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 1935 to 1945.
Civil rights and race
La Guardia appointed Eugene Faulkner as a New York City Marshal, in 1935, making him the second black person and first black Republican to hold that position. He appointed Jane Bolin as a judge in 1939, making her the first black woman to serve as a judge in the United States.
La Guardia's efforts to improve racial relations were awarded by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1940. However, he was criticized by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. who accused La Guardia of ignoring the concerns of black people as he no longer needed their votes and stated that La Guardia was "one of the most pathetic figures on the current American scene".
The Quinn-Ives Act, which prohibited discrimination in hiring and established a committee to investigate complaints, was signed into law by Governor Thomas E. Dewey in March 1945, and La Guardia created the Mayor's Committee to Integrate Baseball with Branch Rickey serving on the committee.
Crime La Guardia appointed John F. O'Ryan then Lewis Joseph Valentine to serve as New York City Police Commissioner. O'Ryan resigned after disputes between him and La Guardia about the police response to union strikes and accused La Guardia of encouraging "Communists and the vicious elements of the city". La Guardia appointed Austin MacCormick to serve as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction and during their tenure they oversaw the development and completion of Rikers Island Penitentiary to replace Welfare Island Penitentiary as New York City's jail.
La Guardia fought against Frank Costello's gambling empire and ordered raids that confiscated hundreds of slot machines. Costello converted 15,000 of his slot machines into candy machines and gained a court injunction against further raids. La Guardia continued the confiscations and had Paul Windels appeal the injunction. Anna Jurovaty was arrested for having one of the machines on her property and La Guardia found her guilty using his powers as a magistrate. Costello and Phillip Kastel later moved their gambling activities to Louisiana.
Following the Harlem riot of 1935, which resulted in over $2 million worth of property damage, La Guardia created an interracial commission to study the conditions that led to the riot occurring. The commission, which included Oswald Garrison Villard, Countee Cullen, Hubert Thomas Delany, A. Philip Randolph, and E. Franklin Frazier, reported after an eight-month investigation that the lack of social services, employment discrimination, police brutality, and overcrowded schools led to the riot. Following the Harlem riot of 1943, La Guardia instituted a curfew of 10:30 P.M., the last curfew instituted in New York City until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and had it enforced by 6,000 police and 1,500 civilian volunteers.
La Guardia stated in 1935, that New York City was no longer the crime capital of the United States and that Chicago now held the highest crime rate in the United States. However, Wilbert Crowley, the First Assistant State's Attorney, criticized La Guardia's statement and said that "we consider ourselves in a splendid position" and asked for where La Guardia got his crime statistics from.
La Guardia commissioned a report by the New York Academy of Medicine in 1938, to study the effects of marijuana. The report was released in 1944, and showed that marijuana was not physically addictive, not a gateway drug, and did not lead to crime.
La Guardia appointed William Fellowes Morgan Jr. to serve as Commissioner of Public Markets to prevent racketeering in New York City's markets and Morgan appointed Michael Fiaschetti to clear racketeers out of the markets.
Development policy
La Guardia revealed a plan in 1934, to develop a $101 million municipal power plant in New York City starting on February 1, 1935. However, the Consolidated Gas Company filed a lawsuit to prevent a proposed referendum on whether or not to build the municipal plant and the courts ruled in favor of the Consolidated Gas Company.
The Independent Subway System (IND) was opened in 1932, but New York City did not assume control of the system until 1940, under La Guardia and would remain under political control until the system was given to the New York City Transit Authority in 1953. He sought a $57,639,000 loan from the Public Works Administration to construct the Sixth Avenue Line in 1935, started construction on March 23, 1936, and the project was completed at a cost of $59,500,000 in 1940.
La Guardia formed the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in 1934, by consolidating the five boroughs' independent parks departments and placing it under the control of Moses as its commissioner. During his tenure 1,800 engineers and designers, along with 70,000 workers in 1934, were employed, using money from New Deal programs, to expand and modernize public spaces.
Sixty playgrounds were constructed within La Guardia's first year as mayor and Moses completed Central Park Zoo in 1934. He opened the High School of Music & Art in 1936. The New York City Center was converted from a meeting place of the Shriners to a performing arts centers during La Guardia's tenure as mayor and he himself led the New York Philharmonic in The Star-Spangled Banner when the center was officially converted on December 11, 1943.
La Guardia called for the creation of a municipal airport in 1935. The New York City Board of Estimate voted twelve to one, with only George U. Harvey voting against, on November 2, 1939, to rename the Municipal Airport to La Guardia Field. Following the death of General Alexander E. Anderson the New York City Council voted to name an airport after him. La Guardia vetoed the legislation, but his veto was overridden by the council.
Federal projects Historian Henry Graff stated that La Guardia mastered "the art of spending public money, before that skill became commonplace". La Guardia helped plan the Civil Works Administration and Travis Harvard Whitney was appointed by La Guardia's suggestion. 20% of the jobs created by the CWA nationally, 200,000, were in New York City. The CWA, Works Progress Administration, and Public Works Administration spent more than $1.1 billion in New York City from 1934 to 1939. Harry Hopkins gave New York City independent administrative control over WPA relief operations in 1936, and Hugh S. Johnson was appointed as its administrator at La Guardia's advice.
La Guardia presented an outline for a $1 billion public works program to President Franklin D. Roosevelt which would be completed using part of the $4 billion in Roosevelt's national work relief plan. The $1 billion proposal called for educational, sewage, highway, fire department, hospital, housing, and power plants funding. Included in the plan was allocations of $30 million towards the building of municipal power plants, $19 million for 500 steel subway cars, $57,639,000 for the Sixth Avenue subway line, $2,189,000 for the completion of the city subway system, $25,245,000 for sewage treatment works on Wards Island, $9 million for elevated highways, $12 million for the Queens Civic Centre in Jamaica, $18,500,000 for Central Criminal Courts, $9 million for Brooklyn College, $5 million for Brooklyn Public Library, $69 million for thirty-seven sewage treatment plants, $805,000 for nine new fire buildings, $82,241,000 for 142 elementary schools, and $38,508,000 for twenty-two high schools.