Low-income housing reached a crises point over 50 years ago when old, neglected tenement buildings were seen as antiquated forms of housing attracting crime with empty storefronts on each block. It was easier for the city to get new development contracts and sell off unwanted property than to actually fix up the blocks. There apparently was slum clearance sentiment which basically embraced getting rid of old community blocks for massive, insolated towers with open land surrounding them.
It has now been over 50 years since these Towers in the Parks have been built and the city once more is in same situation that was faced with the old tenements decades before. Everyone has since learned that building isolated towers does not improve an impoverished neighborhood, city blocks need to have all economic levels and the older street system made sense in the development of a community. The more sensible thing to do is to start relocating housing residents in new developments as they are being built and start selling the old towers to developers. The old towers would then be replaced by new mixed-income buildings that would restore the city blocks, have storefronts that would subsidize upkeep and land would be used more efficiently with parking or playgrounds designed within indoor spaces. This would require a lot of organization by all parties within the city but at the end of the day this would be a more sustainable plan than what currently is in place.
Well said - or, at very least, sell the land to developers and let them infill with high rises like has been done on upper west side, then use the money to fix the towers. Even better is creating new mixed income buildings as you said ...
ReplyDeleteI support this measurement: "The Bloomberg administration had proposed selling open space within public housing to private developers to raise funds" ESPECIALLY PARKING LOTS. How can someone living out of welfare afford to have a car? maintain it and pay high cost insurances? If you walk by those parking lots you can see really expensive cars.
ReplyDeleteI think government should help poor people, but poor people having the luxury of a parking in Manhattan while their housing have no funds to repair them? It does not make sense to me.
Infill will not work because of the approval process needed by the community. Any plan to rectify the system would have to have full support of all parties involved which includes NYCHA residents.
DeleteNot everyone living in public housing is on welfare. Growing up, I live in public housing and the majority of my neighbors worked for the city. Now there are too many people with too many problems in one place. Do away with public housing and stop the cycle of poverty.
DeleteAs the article mentioned, infill is not a popular plan and will not be pursued with the new mayor. With infill, there's also the entire divide between new and old building. Just redeveloping everything gives everyone a brand new place to live which should be popular with all and this is probably why the towers received approval in the first place decades ago.
ReplyDeleteInfill is not popular but people may change their mind given lack of alternatives. Rebuilding would be great, but where do you house people in the interim? And I think people in the NYCHA developments may be less than trusting that new units will be rebuilt. It would be great if it could be done, though, as even in filling would not optimize land
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be done one tower at a time. For example, lots of new "affordable" housing planned along 125th Street. Choose one old tower to move residents into the new construction. Once the residents have moved out, then the secured developer would demolish the vacated old tower. More logistics but could be done. People had to moved around back in the 50s so it is the same situation. Everyone knew they were getting new housing so signed off on it. More folks are distrustful with infill than getting a brand new building.
DeleteMany Cities has torn done most of their high rise projects - Newark and Chicago being the most famous examples - infamous Cabrini Green is gone. They have been replaced by a mix of mid and low rise , mixed incomes and commercial uses. That clearly should be done in New York as well. We all know that the Projects are a failed concept and where never meant to be permanent intergenerational housing. Warehousing the poor away from mainstream society benefits no one. Lets start over with a mix of all AND restore the street grid.
ReplyDeleteAt the very least, build on the parking lots.
Thank you