Fiorello La Guardia

La Guardia broke Tammany Hall's control of New York in 1934 and used New Deal money, through his close relationship with Roosevelt, to build on a scale no city had seen: public housing, parks, bridges, the airport that bears his name. He backed the 1936 city charter that created a stronger mayor, a planning commission and a proportionally elected council, unified the subway system under city ownership in 1940 and expanded merit-based civil service. Much of his building was delivered by Robert Moses.