Public Housing in Manhattan

[minnomaboidenapolis]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

Much of the Lower East Side historically was filled with tenements and other "unhealthy" housing, well that's what well off whites called it.

As such vast swaths of LES were ripe for Robert Moses and Urban Renewal slum clearance projects. Ditto for Lincoln Square area which gave NYC Lincoln Center but also several NYCHA housing projects.

Large parts of UWS from about 59th street up to 96th were declared "blighted" and made urban renewal districts. This is why you have NYCHA projects on CPW and blocks going west towards Columbus and Amsterdam. OTOH UES had virtually nil "urban renewal" or "slum clearance" which is why you don't see public housing on Fifth avenue or anywhere else going east until you get well into Yorkville (past Second) in any large amount. Yes, once you get above 86th you see some projects but they are closer to 96th and above.

Correct, the Upper East Side up to 96th is one of the areas of Manhattan where zero Le Corbusier-style public housing projects exist. Also much of midtown east going up from 34th St towards the Upper East Side border is free of projects.

Of course the projects outside of Harlem/the Lower East Side tend to be a bit 'tame.' Is that right?

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by minnomaboidenapolis

Correct, the Upper East Side up to 96th is one of the areas of Manhattan where zero Le Corbusier-style public housing projects exist. Also much of midtown east going up from 34th St towards the Upper East Side border is free of projects.

Of course the projects outside of Harlem/the Lower East Side tend to be a bit 'tame.' Is that right?

One of the most unfortunate things (among many) about the slum clearance and urban renewal building boom is it coincided with fascination of Le Corbusier and influence of same.

Thus NYC like other urban areas not just in USA but Europe and rest of world got those horrible "towers in park" complexes (STPCV, tons of NYCHA projects), that many have grown to resent in later years.

https://www.archdaily.com/604056/nor...ct-on-new-york

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ork-180965073/

https://docomomo-us.org/news/small-t...-new-york-city

[Mk10456]

Originally Posted by citylove101

I’ve only passed through the neighborhood and it seems pretty calm to me. It’s not a poor neighborhood, so most of the less disagreeable aspects of living in Harlem aren’t there. There’s a lot students because Baruch is nearby, and I’d guess some spillover of whatever you hear from Bellevue, over on 1st Ave., but it still strikes me as a pretty chill slice of the city. But I don’t know anything about the building or the apartments in it.

Added bonus: the public elementary and middle schools over there — PS 281 and IS 104 — are supposed to be pretty good, with diverse student bodies. So your daughter may do well.

Thank you so much for the info !!!! I may go to the area myself and see what it's like