Our second episode focuses on Haven Green, an affordable housing development for older adults who have experienced homelessness proposed for the current site of the Elizabeth Street Garden. How can communities
balance the need for housing with the need for green space when both are at a premium? How does New York City’s urban land use review processensure, or not, that the city takes many perspectives into account? Do wealthy neighborhoods like Soho have the duty to welcome new development and share their amenities with lower-income households?

Additional Reading:

• Neighborhood Defenders (Katherine Levine Einstein)
• The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children (Raj Chetty, Nathanial Hendren, Lawrence F. Katz, Opportunity Atlas)
• Strategies to Boost Housing Production in the New York City Metropolitan Area (Citizens Budget Commission)

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Our final episode focuses on Inwood, one of the last affordable neighborhoods in Manhattan. The Inwood rezoning has faced community scrutiny and legal challenge since it was proposed in 2018, and its future remains uncertain. When a city with a scarcity of housing can’t build more, what happens? How can communities ensure their neighborhoods will stay affordable if wealthier households will move in regardless of whether or not there is new development?

Additional Reading:

• Does gentrification displace poor children and their families? (Kacie Dragan, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Sherry Glied)
• Do New Housing Units in Your Backyard Raise Your Rents? (Xiaodi Li)
• The Effect of New Market-Rate Housing Construction on the Low-Income Housing Market (Evan Mast, Upjohn Institute)

Homepage photo courtesy of AMNY

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Wearing glasses and a fitted cap, Ephraim Diggs sat relaxed at a table in a busy Staten Island presentation hall waiting to hear about the rezoning plans that would bring big changes to his borough.

“I’m giving it another year,” Diggs  of Staten Island said. “If I see that it’s getting overcrowded, I’m moving, I’m getting out.”

But  New York’s current rezoning plans for affordable housing extends far beyond the borough. Staten Island is just one part.

On February 18^th and 20^th, residents of Staten Island’s North Shore – those of the Tompkinsville, St. George, and Stapleton neighborhoods – listened to presentations on the area by the Department of City Planning (DCP) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and participated in question-and-answer sessions for a zoning area one-half mile south of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, what city agencies refer to as the “Bay Street Corridor”.

“There is a billion dollars worth of public and private investment coming to this neighborhood now,” said Len Garcia-Duran, director of DCP’s Staten Island office, “We’ve got an opportunity for new residential within walking distances of the ferry terminal in downtown Manhattan, that would attract a lot of folks who are being priced out of Manhattan.”

The area extends from Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville to Sands Street in Stapleton. The area has a significant width, as it spans between Bay Street and Van Duzer Streets, two thoroughfares on Staten Island’s North Shore. It is currently a manufacturing district, and has been since 1961. City agencies including the DCP and the NYCEDC have held several meetings with the public in regards to proposed changes to the area’s development zone status.

The Bay Street Corridor from Pavement Pieces on Vimeo.

A key issue around the rezoning is the conflict between what residents see as a potential for gentrification and over-development, combined with the city’s insistence that the rezoning would provide required affordable housing in the area.

“In Williamsburg and other areas, they all have affordable housing components voluntarily,” said Garcia-Duran. “What we’re trying to do is demonstrate how we can get new private development done here on Staten Island, with a required affordable housing component.”

In 2005, the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint faced a similar proposed rezoning. Residents of those neighborhoods negotiated a residential neighborhood and park zone, out of a proposed power plant. But  according to some residents, the city has not held to its agreement to set aside adequate park space for the area. Those neighborhoods have since been a place of residential development, albeit with a significant population increase.

“The Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning is now held up as what not to do, how not to rezone a community.” said Jens Rasmussen, a community activist and resident of Greenpoint. “If the rezoning is anything like what’s happened here, it will irrevocably change the character of your neighborhood.”

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing plan, developers building in rezoned areas would be required to set aside a certain percentage of new units for affordable housing. Because of a community-level resistance to high-density developments, the plan has been rejected at the borough board level on Staten Island. It is also currently facing opposition in the New York City Council for similar, though not entirely identical reasons.

The rezoning phenomenon is currently city-wide, to accommodate for Mayor de Blasio’s proposed 200,000 units of affordable housing. The recent rezoning of East Harlem, for example, is indicative of a process that took months to accomplish.

Back in Staten Island, some residents fear development will affect rent and the nature of businesses in the area.

“At the moment [the Bay Street Corridor] is underutilized, so I think it would be nice to see that strip be more active,” said DB Lampman, artist and co-founder of Staten Island MakerSpace in Stapleton. “We just don’t want to see all the manufacturing being lost.”

In conjunction with projects such as the currently developing New York Wheel and Urby Staten Island, other residents saw the potential for traffic and population density issues along a rezoned Bay Street Corridor.

“I live over there by the ferris wheel – they’re renovating our lot, and they’re renovating the ferry,” said Diggs, a St. George resident. “There’s a lot of building going on. I understand what they are trying to do, to build and upgrade, but in the long run there is going to be overcrowding.”

Some residents don’t want to see this happen on Staten Island.

“I think this Mayor wants more affordable housing,” said Ed Pollio, co-founder of the 5050 Skatepark in Stapleton. “My concern is, if he’s reelected, is he going to push this through without community support? … I don’t think Staten Island is ready for what’s going to happen on the North Shore.”

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Zuccotti Park, in the heart of New York’s financial district, was a tumult with musical performers, performance art, die-ins and the rhythmic chanting of slogans yesterday. These congregants supplanted the usual foot traffic of professionals to rally for more affordable housing as part of the 4th Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s occupation of the park.

“I have a 22-year-old daughter who just finished college, who can’t get a job.” said Wensum Pendergrass, 56, of Flatbush, Brooklyn, and a hospital employee. He said his own rent has gone up.

Wensum Pendergrass, a hospital worker, driven to rally in Zuccotti Park by her desire for less expensive rent. She is a mother and her daughter lives with her. She is certain that if she loses her job she will become homeless. Photo by Diego Lynch

Pendergrass’ experience is in line with city trends. According to a 2015 Pew Research Poll, only 67% of people aged 18-34 live independently and, according to Streeteasy, the typical new renter will spend 60% of their income on their rent.

“A studio is $900, come on. A one bedroom is $1500, a two bedroom is $3000, I am not talking about Manhattan, I am talking about right down there in Brooklyn,” said Pendergrass. “We the people in Brooklyn, the working class people, who are working in all the nursing homes, who are working in the hospitals, who are working in the restaurants, we can not make it.”

But the impact of high housing prices on their lives wasn’t the only thing drawing people to the park.

Chuck Helms, a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He was covered in pro-union ephemera, including the flag, buttons, and embroidery on his clothing. He had been attending Occupy Wall Street since September of 2011, and now comes to Zuccotti Park every Friday. Photo by Diego Lynch

“I am a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,” said Chuck Helms, 68 who protests at the park every Friday. “I come here from New Jersey and I know the importance of this to the children of America, the importance of the occupy movement. “My father’s generation handed down unionism to my generation, on a silver platter, we stole the platter, and we never taught our children that need for unionism.”

Zuccotti Park was the epicenter for Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement which sprung from the outrage associated with the Financial Crisis.

Occupy Wall Street’s influence was apparent in the park on the movement’s 4th anniversary. The chants that flowed over the park, “We are the 99%, and so are you,” and “The people united, will never be divided,” were mainstays of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The reasons for being there were not constrained to changing government policy.

“Everybody should go to protests,” said Josh Hollingshed, 24, a philosophy student at The New School. “They are an important part of self development, of affirming beliefs.”

But he was careful to explain that attending was a political act.

“There is a better meaning for the term politics than electoral politics,” said Hollingshed. “People put a lot of energy into who is going to be president, when they would be a lot better putting that energy into their communities.”

But all of the protests, and the subsequent march to City Hall, were interspersed with shouted demands for lower rent.

“For the homeless people, I think the government can find a way to make the shelters more accessible, “ said Pendergrass. “If you don’t get to shelters by a certain time they have to sleep outside. “If I lose my job I will be homeless.”

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It seems fitting that a teenage political activist in Ecuador would one day work with a social justice organization in the largest Hispanic city in the US. Gladys Puglla has been a representative for Make The Road New York, a non-profit whose goal is to empower Latino and working class communities in New York City, for the past seven years.

On the eve of President Obama’s executive action speech on immigration reform, Puglla and members of Make the Road New York are galvanized by the fact that many of the issues they fight for as Latino immigrants are slowly becoming part of a national dialogue. Chief among the group’s concerns is the difficulty they experience holding down safe and economical housing in a city in the throes of an affordable housing crisis. With language barriers, and bereft of an understanding of their rights as renters, thousands of Latino immigrants experience harassment and unsafe living conditions in the city.

Puglla downplays her stint as a political organizer for an Ecuadorian presidential candidate in the 80s. “I was helping in the marching and passing the word about him a little bit, but my school and my grandmother didn’t let me go out so much,” she said with a laugh. But her work on the housing committee at Make The Road New York cannot be underestimated. Last year alone, Make The Road New York helped prevent the eviction of more than 60 families and worked to repair unsafe living conditions for thousands in New York City.

Funded through private donations and a $120 membership fee (which members have three years to pay off), Make The Road New York provides members with legal representation in Housing Court and informs members of their rights as renters. They meet every Thursday. Zoraida Conde, of Bedstuy, Brooklyn, attends because she wants to learn her rights. “They put me in jail if I don’t comply with the law. But if the landlord does the same thing — they break the law — they get away. And it’s not fair,” said Conde, who claims her landlord steals and reroutes gas in her building, resulting in exorbitantly high bills which are beginning to jeopardize her credit.

Tenant harassment and the threat of eviction can be most devastating to the elderly.

Maria Khochaiche, who has called 1351 Hancock St. in Bushwick, Brooklyn, home for the last 40 years, now faces eviction after her refusal to pay rent after it was raised by an additional $2,100. In her 70s, Khochaiche says her health has declined on account of the situation.

“I don’t know what I going to do. I couldn’t sleep and I’m getting sick. I had a heart attack. I have a lot of problems,” she said.

Lawyers working for Make The Road New York are currently representing her in Housing Court. With the transformation of Latino communities like this one in Bushwick, Puglla said the group will continue to fight for its members.

“We are trying to get more housing lawyers so that no one who comes in here goes empty handed,” she said.

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