[5] The Guardian, in its obituary of La Guardia, stated that he was "the most remarkable mayor of a great city in American history".

[13][14][15] La Guardia later fired Commissioner John Stratton O'Leary and replaced him with Robert Moses causing the Triborough Bridge Authority to only have one pro-Tammany Hall member, Nathan Burkan, on the board.

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.

[19] La Guardia appointed William Bowne Parsons to succeed Raymond J. O'Sullivan, secretary of Tammany Hall, on the Board of Assessors.

[24] 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.

[25] La Guardia appointed John F. O'Ryan[26] then Lewis Joseph Valentine to serve as New York City Police Commissioner.

[29] La Guardia fought against Frank Costello's gambling empire and ordered raids that confiscated hundreds of slot machines.

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.

[38] La Guardia revealed a plan in 1934, to develop a $101 million municipal power plant in New York City starting on February 1, 1935.

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.

[45] Sixty playgrounds were constructed within La Guardia's first year as mayor and Moses completed Central Park Zoo in 1934.

[50] Historian Henry Graff stated that La Guardia mastered "the art of spending public money, before that skill became commonplace".

[54] The $1 billion proposal called for educational, sewage, highway, fire department, hospital, housing, and power plants funding.

[56] Moses ran for governor of New York in 1934, which prevented the president from removing federal funding in order to avoid being see as politically motivated.

[70] La Guardia vetoed legislation which would have created an eight hour workday for members of the New York City Fire Department.

[72] Prior to taking office La Guardia had participated in a rally to protest Nazi Germany's discrimination against Jews.

While giving the keynote address at the American National Conference Against Racial Persecution in Germany he stated that Adolf Hitler was "a perverted maniac".

[76] La Guardia and Allen Wardwell, the chairman of the Greater New York Campaign of Russian War Relief, announced Russian War Relief Week on June 20, 1942, in which they called for people to donate to buy medical supplies for the army of the Soviet Union fight the Nazis.

[78] La Guardia created the New York City Housing Authority in 1934, and received up to $25 million in earmarked funding from the PWA.

[83] La Guardia announced that he would remove 67,000 tenement buildings which housed 650,000 people and constituted the slums of New York City.

[88] La Guardia signed a $6 million contract for the construction of the Riverton Houses by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1944.

La Guardia lost reelection to the United States House of Representatives in the 1932 election against James J. Lanzetta, who was backed by Tammany Hall.

[93] The Fusion Conference Committee, a group of reformers and Republicans was formed to select a candidate to oppose Tammany Hall in the mayoral election.

[96][97] He defeated O'Brien, former Mayor Joseph V. McKee, and other minor political candidates in the election with a plurality of the popular vote.

[99] La Guardia announced that he would seek reelection as Mayor of New York City in the 1937 election and he was opposed for the Republican nomination by Almbert Fairchild, Thomas J. Curran, and Charles G.

[114] La Guardia's election victory made him the first mayor in New York City history to serve three terms.