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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The neighborhood of Alphabet City is not known for its curb appeal. The intermittent vibrant, green community garden or eclectic specialty bar breaks up an otherwise drab span of decades-old apartment buildings, dimly-lit bodegas, and vacant retail spaces plastered with “For Rent” signs.

Nestled in the heart of the community, between Tompkins Square Park and La Plaza Cultural, a community garden, a desolate, dilapidated structure epitomizes this state. Cracks run up the tall, but crumbling, red brick walls and the spacious concrete terrace that served as an entry-way is boarded up with scaffolding and poster-plastered plywood.

This is Public School 64, and it has been sitting here, empty, for almost 20 years.

After a reportedly “concerning” crack forced the evacuation of neighboring buildings earlier this month, the current owner and the community are calling for an end to the standoff that has prevented development on the site for so long.

Jason Goodrow has lived in a building adjoining PS 64 for 27 years and was among those forced to evacuate in early March.

“Yeah, we were evacuated,” said Goodrow. “I was coming home from dropping a kid off at school. It looked like Con Edison had noticed the cracks and phoned the fire department who put us and the building on the westside on evacuation for about three or four hours.”

“The spider cracks have been there,” he said. “Now, to me, they look a little worse. But that could purely be me not paying attention. The Department of Buildings decided that it was structurally sound and let us back in.”

Before it was a cracking, boarded-up shell, the former school building was used as a community center of sorts. Rooms were rented out to organizations for meetings, dance companies for rehearsal space, and NYU film students for movie screenings.

Then, in 1998, the city held a public auction and sold the 111,000 square ft property to Gregg Singer. According to Singer, he attempted to keep the building functioning as a community center. He rented the entire building to the same tenant who had held a short-term lease with the city before Singer purchased PS 64, but the relationship turned out to be unsustainable due what Singer says was illegal renting activity.

Soon after evicting the tenant, Singer began developing a plan to convert the building into a student residence, but was met with backlash from the community and city officials.

Goodrow described some of the issues he has had to face for almost two decades now.

“We haven’t had much snow for the past 20 years,” said Goodrow. “But we have had snow, and it did freeze. So I’m walking down there with my kids and it’s an ice field. It’s okay for them, you know, if you’re a pre-teen boy and you slip and fall, it’s just an excuse to yell. But for me, it’s annoying and dangerous.”

The scaffolding that surrounds the building makes natural cleaning of the sidewalk impossible.

“The rain doesn’t wash things clear,” he said. “So when people don’t clean up after the dogs, we have that down there. And a few years back, there was a homeless encampment that got out of hand. He is just in no way acting in good faith.”

Though he is not a fan of Singer, he readily admitted he is ready for the issue to be resolved.

“Something should happen,” said Goodrow. “I think he should be forced to live up to the lease.”

He also pointed out that others in the community have voiced support for Singer’s dormitory, especially those who own businesses in the area.

“There have been a couple business owners come out in support of it [the dorm],” said Goodrow. “A friend of mine owns a cafe on the corner. He got pretty vocal about supporting Singer, but he had to be careful about what he said.”

Just two blocks up the street from PS 64, Gregg Singer peered over his photochromic lenses to blow on his cup of coffee. In a sweater, scarf, and fancy leather shoes, he looked the part of a wealthy real-estate developer. Like Goodrow, he pointed out the potential benefit to businesses in the area.

“You’ll have 500 students living here,” he said. “That’s 500 patrons to bars, restaurants, and other businesses that you didn’t have before.”

PS 64 owner Gregg Singer, and his attorney David Schwartz, stand in the demolished foyer of PS 64, discussing the potential the building holds. Photo by Samantha Springer.

In 2008, Singer circulated a petition of agreement to the renovation to businesses in the area and compiled over 600 signatures. In 2017, he pulled more than 1500 from members of the community.

Both Goodrow and Singer are under the impression that the entire fight is a facade for shady government dealings, but each accused the other side of being the one with dirty hands.

Goodrow said he thought Singer might have made a “backhanded deal with Giuliani” and Singer accused the De Blasio administration and local council members of taking payments from another developer.

While the governments real role can only be speculated at this point, there is no question that Singer has been cast in a villainous role in this situation. “They think I’m the bad guy,” said Singer, but his attorney, David Schwartz, said it’s not a personal vendetta, anyone who bought the building would have ended up in the same boat.

“Now he’s like Darth Vader, here,” said Schwartz. “But what some of these people don’t see is that this would have happened to anyone. Any person in New York could have bought this building and they would be facing the same thing.”

Singer stood in the hollowed out belly of the building, and looked around. The sunlight filtered in in through large dusty windows, illuminating the space.

“Can’t you see it,” he said. “There is so much potential here.”

Singer has a case pending in federal court, but until a ruling is made or an agreement is reached, PS 64 will continue to stand empty, a haunting eyesore on the streets of Alphabet City.

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Nestled into a compact segment of South Brooklyn, the Raymond V. Ingersoll Housing project is encircled by more prosperous neighborhoods. The Metrotech Center sits directly across Flatbush Avenue to the west, alongside NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. But now, the Ingersoll Houses also find themselves at the center of a heated debate over the future of public housing in New York City.

The Ingersoll project is operated by the New York City Housing Authority, which is currently under fire for systemic neglect and abuse of its 400,000 tenants. Last June, federal prosecutors accused the authority of covering up appalling living conditions for public housing residents, including lead paint, faulty heating, and infestation by roaches and rats. The report ultimately led to the city government accepting greater oversight from the federal government as it moves to alleviate the crisis.

In Ingersoll, deprivation has taken the form of intermittent heating, which puts pressure on families with young children. Despite this, residents reject the pessimism that colors public perceptions of New York public housing. Resident Janai Tucker cited familial bonds and the project’s sense of community as sources of strength for its residents.

“Sometimes the neighborhood can be dangerous,” Tucker said. “But it’s like a family…it’s all built up off of family members. There’s people that lived in Fort Greene five years ago, and they have family in Fort Greene, so their kids can know people in Fort Greene.”

Dwayne Fussell, a former public housing worker, has lived in the Ingersoll project his entire life. And for him, the community’s prospects have improved significantly since the turbulence of previous decades, although heating remains a major concern.

“The heat and hot water is not as great as it used to be,” Fussell said. “I’ve seen that they’d dug up all the ground and put these big lime-green pipes down here, and I don’t see what it’s supposed to have done. But now, if you look they’re putting the right pipes down there. Now, the heat is starting to come up and the hot water’s starting to come up.”

These improvements haven’t completely remedied the situation, however. The main obstacle now, according to Fussell, is consistent heating.

“You need heat and hot water all the way around, from morning, noon and night,” he explained. “But it’s still not like that. At night, a person that has a child, an infant, in the house, why do you have to bundle up that infant in layers of blankets at night, when you’re supposed to have the heat at night? I went through this with my son. My son is 16 now – I went through this since then.”

More than anything, Fussell seemed to take heart from his fellow Ingersoll residents, and the communal spirit they embodied.

“You have a lot of productive people here in the projects that does good,” he said. “It’s not all as bad as everybody make it seems.”

One of Ingersoll’s productive residents is Michael Pabon. An Iraq War veteran, Pabon assists his neighbors as a carpenter and electrician. And after 12 years in the project with his wife and son, Pabon feels optimistic about the community’s future.

“NYCHA have improved, but they do have their faults,” Pabon said. “Living conditions at times are, bad. And that’s all with a phone call, within the system. You have to let them know what’s going wrong, what’s broke, and what a tenant can expect to get fixed. But other than that, this neighborhood has come a long way in the last 20, 30 years.”

Ingersoll resident Michael Pabon sees a bright future for the project’s residents. Photo by Teddy Haines.

Apart from NYCHA responsiveness, Pabon cited other improvements in the neighborhood’s quality of life. He pointed out recent construction of a laundromat and other amenities, as well as the project’s increasing ethnic diversity.

“Lot of nice Asians, Africans, Indians, there’s a big ethnic melting pot here, and for the most part, everyone gets along,” Pabon said. “You have those very few that unfortunately make the neighborhood not so nice. But we have to live with it, and we make the best of it.”

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In the dog days of summer, the John V. Lindsay East River Park is a hub of activity. The air of the long strip of land that borders the east side of Manhattan from 12th Street to Pier 36 is filled with the shouts of youth league soccer coaches and the huff and puff of runners passing by. Everything is green, heat, and motion.

Those August days are a far cry from the dreary cold of February. But even lack of sunshine and breath that hangs visible in the air can’t keep residents of the Lower East Side from using the park. It is a gym, a speedway, and a crucial part of their day to day lives – a part that could be at jeopardy in the coming years.

Recent amendments to a plan to renovate the park have residents of the Lower East Side at odds with the City of New York. These changes involve closing the park for several years and destroying the amenities and vegetation that currently exist in the area.

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck New York City, and the Lower East Side took a particularly brutal hit. Severe flooding ruined homes, closed businesses, and wreaked havoc on the park. In response, the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project was launched in 2014 with the goal of redesigning the park to protect the community from future storm surges and the ever-increasing risk of sea level rise, but the original plan did not involve shutting down or destroying the existing park.

Ross Martin’s salt and pepper hair is the only indication that he could be old enough to have lived on the Lower East Side for more than two decades. He and his friend, Marga Snyder, are among those who are not happy with the changes to the project.  

“The main thing is the closure of the park,” said Martin. “What I use the park for most often nowadays is as transportation. Bike, walk, run. It’s a quick way to get downtown. It’s a zero-emissions transportation corridor that they are going to close down for four and a half years.”

For residents of the Lower East Side, particularly in Alphabet City, public transportation options are extremely limited. Martin and Snyder are sitting in a bar that they regularly visit, just a few blocks from each of their homes. From here, the closest subway station is at 1st Ave and 14th Street, a 20-minute walk away.

“The East Side is always ignored in that regard,” Martin said. “We have very little public transportation over here and what we have is very cumbersome. There is no subway this far east, it’s basically a mile walk to the nearest subway stop. The buses are slow and crowded, and the bike lanes aren’t great.”

In spite of their opposition to closing the park, they are not opposed to the project itself. Martin has lived in an apartment of the corner of 9th Street and Avenue C for 24 years and witnessed the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy. He got involved with the project at its inception.

“There is a long history to this design,” said Martin. “In response to Sandy, there was a design competition called Rebuild by Design. The team that got Lower Manhattan was called BIG and they did a design called the Big U.”

“We were a big part of the Big U and BIG,” he continued. “The neighborhood was invited and they spent three to four years.. all these town hall meetings, lots of neighborhood participation, lots of outreach, and came up with a design that people were pretty happy with and a schedule and a phasing that we could live with.”

That is no longer the case with the plan the City is proposing now.

“The City has taken over the plan,” said Snyder. “But they aren’t really giving us any… they haven’t done it before and they aren’t citing any practical information. Not many people have done this before, so we want them to hire an outside expert and do more studies.”

The problem is time. Amy Chester is the managing director of Rebuild by Design, a non-profit organization that grew out of the design competition launched to renovate the park. According to Chester, the federal government awarded the City with $335 million after the competition, but it has to be used by 2022. Chester and Martin both agree that the time crunch is behind the amendments, but Chester is not sure the new plan is a bad one.

“Both of the plans will help protect the city from storm surge and sea level rise,” said Chester. “The plan is to use the park as protection for the community behind. There are many many things you could use for protection, like a sea wall, but the idea was to do something that had multiple uses.”

For some, the idea of a renovation in any form is unwelcome. Jennifer Morales has moved away from the Lower East Side, but has deeply rooted ties to the park as it exists now.

“I learned to ride a bike there,” said Morales. “I learned to drive there, fell in love (several times over) there and spent countless summer days tanning, picnicking, watching fireworks, running in the track, roller skating, go to parties and running in the sprinklers.”

The current plan is to raise the park 8-10 feet by building up the sides and piling fill and soil on top of the trees, track, and amenities that Morales remembers so fondly.

“The idea of it being buried like a corpse makes me grieve as if a beloved loved one has been diagnosed with a terminal illness,” said Morales.

Susan Stetzer, the press contact for Manhattan Community Board 3, said that the “community board has not yet taken a position” and that they “may not do so until the final design is brought to the board.”

The Community Board is meeting tomorrow to discuss the project.  

Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee

Thursday, February 14 at 6:30pm — BRC Senior Services Center – 30 Delancey Street

(btwn Chrystie & Forsyth Sts)

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As grey clouds drifted rapidly outside on a cool spring afternoon, Robert Honor sat and stared outside of his wine shop. With jazz music playing in the background, he looked as students, workers, and others passed by on a busy neighborhood street leading to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

“We needed Cromwell Center before,” said Honor, a resident of the Staten Island neighborhood of St. George. “We need it more than ever.”

Staten Island’s Cromwell Recreation Center was a public park and sports facility that had been demolished in the years following its unexpected collapse in 2010. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is currently looking into three sites to rebuild the center. Now, neighborhood residents will finally have a chance to see the center, a staple of the neighborhood for decades, be rebuilt near their waterfront – the result of community efforts paralleling that of other neighborhoods in New York City.

“As a kid I’d occasionally come to Cromwell Center. Even as late as 10 years ago I was playing basketball there” said Honor, a co-owner of the wine store Honor Wines. “I also was aware that it was also a place that had programs for youth … my children, when they were younger, took advantage of some of the programs at Cromwell Center.”

Robert Honor, store owner and user of Staten Island’s old Cromwell Center. Photo by Dale Isip

Named after Staten Island’s first borough president George Cromwell, Cromwell Recreation Center was built on an existing pier in the Staten Island neighborhood of Tompkinsville starting in 1934. It was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program that promoted public works construction during the Great Depression. After it opened in 1936 – and a visit from Roosevelt himself in 1939 – it was home to galas, dances, and numerous sports activities and events. In more recent years, the facility housed a weight room, a computer room, and a basketball court.

The center was closed infrequently over the last two decades for repairs. Wood borer worms had eaten away at Pier 6, the structural foundation of the center. In 2000, the weight room was temporarily removed from Cromwell to nearby Lyons Pool, and in April 2010, the center was closed for further repairs to its roof and lobby. In May 2010 the roof collapsed unexpectedly, rendering the facility unusable. In January 2012 the Department of Parks and Recreation announced the center would be demolished.

Efforts by community organizations and elected officials since then have prompted the Parks Department to investigate ways to reinstate the facility in the surrounding area. The Department recommended three sites for the new center: the Staten Island Sanitation Department on nearby Victory Boulevard, the Children’s Aid Society’s Goodhue Center further inland, and finally Lyons Pool, right across the street (Murray Hulbert Avenue) from the original Cromwell Center.

“[City officials] were looking at three different sites, two of those sites – in our opinion as a coalition – are just not viable,” said Kelly Vilar, founder of the neighborhood group Let’s Rebuild Cromwell Recreation Center. “The only site that makes sense is Lyons Pool … it would reach out to the same population and would be able to serve everybody.”

Let’s Rebuild Cromwell, as well as other local residents, are now awaiting the results of a feasibility study, which will be taken into account in addition to a community survey that was distributed in late 2014. The funding for the study was the result of a competitive sealed bid process – a process that allows the city to hire contractors from the private sector – resulting in a two-year contract that began in July 2014 and will end in July of this year.

“We expect to have a report and final recommendations this fall,” said New York City Department of Parks and Recreation press officer Mario Lopez, in a statement, “[this] will help inform the City’s decision making.”

According to the city, the estimated amount of money needed for this study is $678,000, although local media reports put the figure at $700,000. Elected officials such as City Councilwoman Debi Rose, Borough President James Oddo and Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon have all expressed their support for a new center. After the study is released, the project will need to undergo a fund raising process of an undetermined length.

“We do not currently have funding for implementation,” said Lopez. “But [we] are actively working to secure funding.”

Bill de Blasio’s push for affordable housing in New York – and the land rezoning to come with it – is one reason why locals are concerned about accessible park and recreation spaces. In an effort to bring 200,000 units of affordable housing to the city, a total of 15 neighborhoods are proposed to be rezoned by the mayor, including some on Staten Island. This has brought concern about over-development among residents.

“People on the North Shore are concerned that the development down here is not just done for tourists,” said Honor. “If this project is not developed properly, we’ll essentially have created a gated community.”

The community push for park development in the face of rezoning on the waterfront parallels that of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area of Brooklyn. When neighborhood was rezoned in 2005, residents there were promised an expanded Bushwick Inlet Park by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg. The city did not fulfill this promise, and has only responded in the face of extensive activism, including live protests and videos.

“The videos … helped strengthen and grow community support both in our area, but to like minded groups of people in different parts of the city,” said Steven Chelser, activist and co-chair of Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park. “We also engaged the press to hook into our story and run with it, and then most importantly, imposing our issue on the city, and it’s been continual and relentless.”

Though activism on Staten Island has been on a smaller scale, residents are similarly expressing concerns about building park and recreation facilities by the waterfront, ones that could accommodate residents both old and new.

“With all the nearly a billion dollars of development going into this area, it would be nice to see some amenities for the people who live here, and all the new people who will be coming here,” ” said Steven Joseph, a Tompkinsville resident and a supporter of Let’s Rebuild Cromwell.

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John Liu supporters Sajed Chowdhury, Ivan Khan, Paulina Baltazar and Sam Allen with John Liu’s wife Jenny Liu, second to left, on primary day in Jackson Heights, Queens. (Photo Credit: Paulina Baltazar)

With 105,000 registered voters, the Muslim community makes up 10 percent of New York City’s 4 million voters. But in this year’s mayoral election, many Muslim Americans are struggling to find a candidate who has sufficiently addressed their concerns.

“We want to feel like we’re part of the city, too,” said Razib Haq, co-owner of Jackson Heights Food Court and Bazaar. “We feel neglected, unlike other Americans.”

Among the community’s concerns is an addition of Muslim holidays to the public school calendar and, more importantly, the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods and mosques.

According to an investigation by the Associated Press last year, the NYPD never found terrorist activity in over six years of controversial spying on the community.

“I’ve heard about the surveillance inside the mosques and the labeling of any mosque as a terrorist organization,” said 22-year-old Hunter College graduate Mohammad Hossain. “It’s very unfair and unjust to just assume something like that. I know there’s a negative stereotype with Muslims around the world. But this is New York City – it’s like the melting pot.”

While 10 percent is not a huge chunk of the city’s total electorate, it makes sense for a mayoral candidate to court the Muslim community, which tends to vote Democrat.

“That’s a huge community so you would want to get those votes,” said Hossain.

Democratic candidate and city comptroller John Liu has persistently attempted to court the Muslim community by frequenting mosques earlier this spring.

Hossain said it’s important for New York City politicians to reach out to the Muslim community.

“As a whole, there are a lot of Muslim people in New York,” he said.

Sofana Rabb,23, a paralegal at immigration law firm Roman & Singh in Jackson Heights, said, “It would be nice for a mayoral candidate to reach out specifically to the Muslim community.”

Rabb, who supports Democratic candidate Christine Quinn on issues like job employment and health benefits said that she would like to see Quinn cater more to the Muslim community so it “can feel a sense of security.”

Other voters however think that the inability of the Muslim community find an acceptable candidate had led to indifference when it comes to politics.

“I can safely say that majority of the Muslims who are eligible to vote, probably don’t because of ignorance or they don’t care,” said Rabb’s brother and Bellrose, Queens resident, Sami Rabb,22. “A lot of Muslims come from immigrant backgrounds and from countries with political unrest.”

Rabb, who was president of the Muslim Student Association at St. John’s University’s last year, said that young Muslim American voters “distance themselves from the world of politics because of unrest and unfavorable conditions in their [parents’ native] country.”

“I’ll go to gatherings and a lot of kids my age will say, ‘I don’t like politics,’ “said Rabb. “The younger generation sees their parents talking about politics so they’re taught to believe that their say won’t have an impact.”

Still, many young Muslim American voters feel that New York politicians need to address Muslims’ Americans concerns about safety and religious freedom.

“We’re a huge community in New York City,” said Sofana Rabb. “We should be able to coexist.”

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More than 3,000 people attended the 2011 Kennett Brewfest in Kennett Square, Pa., sampling beers from upwards of 60 breweries from across the country. Photo by Chris Palmer

But this afternoon, she proudly joined her children and friends at the 14th annual Kennett Brewfest in Kennett Square, Pa. enjoying a day full of family, food, music and, of course, beer.

“This is really neat,” said McKnelly, grasping onto the two-ounce mug given to each of the nearly 3,000 guests who attended the festival. “We got our family here, it’s a great day, and this is just a lot of fun.”

The McKnelly’s used the festival as a reunion event. Cathy’s children, who have moved to various parts of the country as they’ve grown up, flew in for the weekend, and this afternoon they all donned matching tee-shirts with drawings of a ham on the front, dubbing themselves “Team Hambone,” an inside family joke.

Jeff Norman, the executive director of Kennet Brewfest, created the event 14 years ago as a way to raise funds to support the town of Kennett Square, and said that the profits from the event bring in about a third of the revenues needed to stage parades, summer concerts and other community events.

“This event is really important for us and the town,” he said.

Cathy’s son Tim, who is 34 and lives in Huntsville, Ala., said the festival was a perfect event for the family to enjoy together.

“We’re just here having a good time,” he said. “It’s a nice homecoming event for us.”

“This is a neighborhood thing,” said Steve Healey, 55, from Downingtown, Pa.

Healey has attended the brewfest for the past two years with his poker buddies, and he was quick to emphasize that getting drunk was not the main point of the event.

“It’s just a nice time being with friends, tasting different beers,” he said.

He told a story about how he tried an ale from the Magic Hat brewery last year that he really liked, and it has since become one of his go-to beers. If he was concentrating on the quantity of drinks he consumed rather than quality, he might have never made that discovery.

“If you’re too drunk, you can’t even taste anything,” he said.

“People are definitely here for the flavor of the beer, the joy of beer, rather than the inebriation,” said Mike Hiller, the head of Bavarian Barbarian, a brewery from Williamsport, Pa. that was distributing beer at the festival.

Hiller attends about 12 festivals per year, and though this was his first time attending the Kennett Brewfest, he noted that this crowd was different from other festivals he’s visited.

“There’s a more knowledgeable crowd here,” he said. “It’s not a total drunk-fest.”

But some people misunderstand the event said Gina Goodall, 58, who works with the town and helped out at the festival.

“The idea of thousands of people drinking beer in your town sometimes is not what you want,” she said.

Ben Thackara, 32, of Oxford, Pa, said he saw a girl getting sick earlier in the day, and as the event drew into the evening, there were several visitors stumbling around with stickers on their foreheads and waning memories.

“I don’t really remember what they had,” said Kit Murdock, 59, of Downingtown, Pa, when asked which beer he had just finished.

But overall, visitors were consistent in their praise for the community-oriented feel of the afternoon.

“I love it,” said Dennis Meixell, 63, who drove up from Newark, Del., with his adult children for the afternoon. “The people have been really nice.”

And McKnelly said if they can manage to get everyone together again, her family will have another reunion at Brewfest 2012.

“I’m 61, my youngest is 26, and we’re all having fun,” said McKnelly. “It’s a local, family-run event, and it crosses generations. It’s just a good time.”

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