Long Sentences in The Power Broker

The margin note in John's copy highlights this setence:

Because the city was a creature of the state, city taxes could be increased and the city budget ceiling raised only by the State Legislature, and not only the Legislature’s conservatism but the influence wielded within it by the city’s own propertied interests, which wanted the key property taxes kept down and, to protect the bonds they held, as few new bonds as possible issued, made the Legislature as reluctant to take those steps as La Guardia was to ask it to do so; desperately anxious to reshape his city La Guardia might be, but he was not anxious enough to court political disaster by asking for new taxes.

109 words

The longest sentence without semicolons, from the Notes section of the book:

The NYT article on the swearing in, attempting to account for the fact that RM was sworn in publicly for only two posts but was later listed as having been sworn in for three, quotes Wagner as saying, “There is one more coming up but the necessary papers are not ready,” but none of the persons the author interviewed recall the Mayor making such a statement, none of the other newspapers mentions it (all, in fact, say the announcement of RM’s third appointment following the ceremony came as a complete surprise), and several other liberals, listening to the ceremonies over the radio—such as City Planning Commissioner Lawrence M. Orton—told the author that Wagner “passed right on” to the next appointee and that they began cheering because they thought they had won.

131 words

The longest sentence with semicolons:

And members of the Legislature or Board of Estimate—accountable to the voters and therefore anxious not to make any appropriations that appeared to waste their money (and anxious as well not to let Moses further expand his empire)—resisted especially making any appropriations to him for the PR items which would seem blatantly wasteful to taxpayers but which Moses knew were vital to Getting Things Done: the printing of impressive, persuasive brochures and pamphlets; the creation of large-scale dioramas and scale models (“It never ceases to amaze me how you can talk and talk and talk to some guy about something you’ve got in mind, and he isn’t very impressed, and then you bring in a beautiful picture of it or, better yet, a scale model with the bridge all in white and the water nice and blue, see, and you can see his eyes light up,” Jack Madigan says); the hiring of public relations men to visit publishers, editors, reporters and radio commentators as well as nonmedia influentials, sell them on a project in advance, escort them on pre-opening limousine or yacht tours, leak them information that would place Moses’ views in a favorable light (and his opponents’ views in an unfavorable light); the rental of the necessary limousines; the hiring of the “bloodhounds” to dig up facts about an opponent that could induce him to cease his opposition, or, should he prove stubborn, could be leaked into print to discredit him; and, especially important to Moses because it gave him a chance to exercise his matchless charm as host, the laying on of hospitality—intimate luncheons for key individuals or lavish buffet luncheons for influentials by the hundreds— at which he could drape a big arm over a recalcitrant borough president’s shoulders and use the glow induced by good food and fine wine to win him to his cause.

314 words