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SEWARD PARK WHOSE PROMISED LAND
Seward Park Extension Urban Renewal rea
by Tom Robbins
Just south
of
Delancey Street on the Lower East Side,
where traffic headed
onto
and off the Williamsburg
Bridge whizzes past swarms of shoppers seeking out the
area's famed bargains, lie several vacant acres of city
owned real estate. Except for a handful of buildings that
have escaped the wrecker's ball, and two fiercely con
tested housing developments, most of the
14
square
blocks have remained largely unused since the late 196 s
when they were designated an urban renewal area. Since
that time the use
of
those acres has been fought over
almost as much as certain areas of the Middle East, and
nearly as many failed peace initiatives lie buried in the
rubble
of
its demolished buildings.
The latest, and perhaps the final, city attempt to
balance the competing demands of the area's Jewish
and Hispanic populations, received only partial approv
al by the Board of Estimate on April 24. The Jewish
community, based mainly in 4,500 cooperative apart
ments south of the renewal area, has sought commercial
buildings
or
middle income housing on the sites. The
large, housing-needy Hispanic population to the north
and west, has long urged the construction of lower
income housing units.
CITY LIMITS May 1980
14
The Board's decision, to amend the plan to exclude
low income family housing from the site has left the
Hispanic community feeling
cut
out and more bitter
than before.
By
a 9-2 vote, with only the Mayor's off ice dissenting,
the Board voted to adopt an amended proposal by Man
hattan Borough President Andrew Stein that called for
approval of an international
mall
along the south
side of Delancey Street, and 156 apartments for the
elderly and handicapped. The prime bone of conten
tion, 1 units of low income family housing was
eliminated by Stein's amendment.
A third factor in the proposal, the fate
of several city
owned buildings, two of which are tenanted, remains
unclear as present building plans call for their demoli
tion.
Argument and debate over the sites has always been
heated and often laced with charges of racism. The
struggle between the two communities has spilled over
into the streets at times, and has also led to lengthy and
involved legal challenges on the tenancy of the projects
that have been built.
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The Board
of
Estimate meeting was no exception to
that strain, and spectators for and against the family
housing traded insults during the hearing. When Stein
left the chamber, following the adoption
of
his amend-
ment, a chant
of
"Racist Racist " arose from many
spectators. Stein was quoted later as saying that to at-
tempt to combine economic development with low in-
come housing was
ludicrous
and that "every ex-
perience with low income housing shows it creates crime
and social problems." Stein's office later insisted that
those remarks were taken out
of
context,
and
were
not
indicative of his feelings about subsidized housing for
the poor.
We
believed it was a unique opportunity to do com-
mercial development," said Stein's Deputy Jesse Masyr,
and
we didn't
think it essential
or
wise
to
place on
top
of
economic development a low income project." The
area north
of
Delancey Street, Masyr said, needs stabili-
zation much more.
Around
(Avenues)
Band
C there's
just a lot of rubble," he said.
While the United Jewish Council, the major group
that has contested low income housing, had opposed the
construction
of
the elderly as well as family apartments,
it still reacted to the Board' s vote as a victory.
The homework was taken care
of,
said Douglas
Balin, Executive Director
of
the UJC, when asked about
the lobbying effort his group had undertaken before the
vote, including reports that delegations
of
rabbis from
around
the city visited Board members to press their
concerns about the plan.
In
our Board's eyes, said Balin, there
is
nothing
wrong with saying this
is
our neighborhood. This
is
a
large Jewish community and
we
want
to
preserve it."
The plans for the Seward Park Extension Urban Re-
newal Area had already been thrashed out
on
a local
level, with Community Board
#3
voting in favor
of
the
plan.
The Lower East Side Joint Planning Council, which
has actively promoted the construction
of
low income
housing on the sites to replace the more than 1,400 low
income apartments lost to demolition when the area was
cleared, asserted at the hearing that the United Jewish
Council was attempting to make Delancey Street a de-
marcation line between the two communities . The city,
the group stated, had a moral obligation to provide
housing for those in need in an area where an inte-
grated, low income neighborhood had existed.
We
took a lesson in hate," said Nestor Cortijo
of
the JPC after the Board's vote.
But
those who hate are
going to have to realize that they will reap hate as well ."
While the thrust of Stein's amendment-eliminate the
low income units-was understood by the Board mem-
bers, it was not until some days after the vote that the
specifics
of
the changes adopted were understood by all.
Presently the disputed site, 2B,
is
listed as residential
without specifications at to type.
15
We're still committed to the original goals
of
Seward Park Extension," said HPD Deputy Commis-
sioner Ron Marino,
but,
as it stands now, the amend-
ment bars any low income housing on that site other
than elderly. t
is
too politically charged a situation to
attempt to amend the plan again. We'll have to look
at
other sites for housing."
According
to
Balin, that
is
exactly what the
JPC
should have been doing originally.
There
are plenty
of
other parts
of
this community
board
that are in more
desperate need of housing," said Balin, but this area
has generated interest in economic development and
that is what it is best suited for. The JPC, said Balin,
wants to see this as a turf battle. They look for sym-
bols. They would settle for a couple
of
tents on Grand
Street."
Part of
the argument for integrated low income hous-
ing in the urban renewal area stems from the identity
of
those who originally lived there, who, according to city
figures, were more than two thirds Hispanic, black and
Asian, and one third white. Most
of
the buildings de-
molished were aging old law tenements, but some were
spacious structures with elegant facades.
One of the better buildings on the urban renewal area
still stands at 384 Grand Street, and is home to twenty
five families, eight of whom lived on the site in
1965
and
thus have vested rights to reside in whatever housing
is
built, provided it is within their income range.
Joyce Burger, who lived in two other buildings in the
renewal area since 1965 before moving into 384,said she
had no interest in living in a high rise. Her three and one
half rooms, for which she pays $73 per month, are large
and airy, she says, compared
to
the other buildings she
has lived in. The places they want to send me from
here," she said,
you
wouldn't want to house an animal
in.
But saving 384 Grand Street, along with another
building on the site designated for senior citizen's hous-
ing, is
a thorny problem, which would take some deft
maneuvering and strong commitment from the city-a
commitment city officials don't appear to have at this
point. HPD insists that maintaining the building would
mean consuming over 30 per cent
of
the open space, an
amenity they say is crucial to the plan. In addition, of-
ficials say, there are legal and financial difficulties in-
volved,
anyone
of
which might cause enough
of
a delay
to make
HUD
withdraw funding for the project.
Beni Matias, a tenant
of
384 Grand Street for two
years, insisted that demolition
of
the buildings would be
wasteful: the other building, 195 Broome, will be
demolished, she points out, for parking, which
HPD
says the project doesn't need
but is
mandated by
HUD
to have. The rest
of
the area will be landscaping said
Matias.
We
support the planned housing," she said,
both
the senior citizen and the family. The original
plan included the existing buildings and
we
think the
CITY LIMITS May 1980
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city has managed
on
other
urban
renewal sites to pro
vide for standing buildings
and
they should do it here as
well.
According
to
Marino, demolition of the buildings will
take place,
but
not for some time. At the moment no
evictions will be ordered. While the Stein amendment
provided for rehabilitation of
the buildings for low in
come families, there are no plans in the works
to
do
that.
On site 2B, where the low income family initiative was
defeated, things appear to be in limbo. A firehouse on
the site
that
has served as a youth center for several
years may face ultimate demolition as well. The plan ad
vanced by the Grand Street Settlement, which was the
sponsor of the housing, called for the firehouse to be
preserved.
What will ultimately be built there remains
to
be seen,
and may call for a new round of negotiations. But hav
ing demonstrated they have the political clout to stymie
low income housing, the United Jewish Council
is
not
expected to concede much. Balin
of
the
UJC
said his
organization would be in support
of
elderly housing on
that site as well. But Marino, noting that
an
additional
site has been slated for elderly housing to be sponsored
by the
UJC
and the Bialystoker Synagogue, said I
don't
think it makes sense to make that area the geron
tology center of the U.S.
According to Ken Kimmerling, attorney for the Joint
Planning Council, the group is looking into the
possibility of litigation, challenging the Board's vote.
We originally fought to keep the city from taking
any
of
the buildings
around
here, said Nestor Cortijo,
then we fought their original plan to build nothing but
middle
and
upper income housing. Now we're still
fighting
to
get the housing
our
people need. 0
VOLCKER SPURNS 8
INTEREST R TE IDE
Eight community leaders representing hundreds of
local organizations throughout the country met with
Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, on
May 6
to
present him with ideas for reducing interest
rates in low and moderate income neighborhoods. The
lower rates would apply
to
mortgages, home improve
ment and rehabilitation loans for small homes and
multiple dwellings.
The meeting took place as the result
of
a demonstra
tion at Volcker's officer
on
April 14 by about 700
delegates to the 9th Annual National Peoples Action
Conference.
Neighborhood groups from around the country have
felt over the past year that victories won through the
Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) were often being
nullified because of soaring interest rates. Redlining by
price has begun to replace redlining by location. Neigh-
CITY LIMITS May 1980
16
borhood leaders are asking what good it
is to
win im
pressive agreements
on
reinvestment from banks when
the interest rate is 15 or 16 per cent, rates that even more
affluent people have trouble affording.
They have linked the high interest rates to policies
enacted by the Fed as
part of
the Carter
Administration's a ttempt to reduce inflation.
The neighborhood participants at the meeting came
armed with two specific proposals.
• The Fed should require lower reserves from banks
that
are willing
to
lend
to
low
and
moderate income per
sons
at
8 per cent instead of
15
per cent.
•
For
banks
that
agree to lend
to
low
and
moderate
income borrowers, the Fed should lower the interest rate
it charges from 13 per cent to 6 or 7 per cent.
These demands were the first real attempt to crack
open the so-far impenetrable wall
that
seems to protect
the traditional ways housing is financed in this country.
Instead of subsidizing interest rates for large developers
the way programs such as 236 and 221(d)(3) were de
signed, these lower rates would be offered to low
and
moderate income homeowners tenant cooperatives and
responsible landlords by banks with the aid of the
Federal Reserve.
In keeping with his tough-guy image as the sole
protector of the U.S. economy, Volcker refused
to
agree to any of the group's demands, saying they re
presented activities the Fed has traditionally not
engaged
in.
It was brought to his attention that 16 per
cent interest rates
on
mortgages were something most
people
had
never dealt with either.
Volcker's aides said a program of requiring lower
reserves in exchange for lower interest rates on mort
gages would be illegal. This point has been disputed by
other economists with whom neighborhood leaders and
researchers have consulted. As for the idea
of
lowering
the rate of interest for loans
to
banks so they could pass
these on to consumers, one aide
to
Volcker remarked
that
this was clearly possible legally. Then why wouldn' t
Volcker
do
it? It 's a political decision, the aide said.
Volcker was clearly not prepared to agree to anything
at this meeting. He did not want to understand tha t we
were there
to
pressure him to get after the financial in
stitutions, said Richie Gallagher of the Northwest
Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, who attended
the meeting.
He
kept saying that
if
we were looking for
subsidies that we should go knock on HUD's door.
Neighborhood leaders are now putting together
strategies for dealing with the Fed
at
the local level as
well as trying
to
push for Congressional hearings into
the crisis of housing financing in low and moderate in
come neighborhoods. New York City's Coalition
Against Redlining is considering various says to
organize around this issue locally. Any reader who is in
terested in learning more should contact Roger Hayes,
CAR,
198
Broadway, Room 1100
N.Y.
10038. (212)
964-7200.0
Roger Hayes