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News & ArtsTuesday, September 11, 2012
Architecture A History of Public Housing in NYC
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 8:48 AM
One of the many brilliant moments in this long, exquisitely uneven, and heart-deep essay about NYC's pjs...
Funny how things work out, my friend said, as she changed the channel on her flat-screen TV. “The other day at the bodega I ran into these four white girls. I started talking to them. They said they were living right across the street in this dumpy building paying $800. I thought, Well, that’s all right. Then they say they’re paying $800 apiece! One of them is sleeping on the couch. Sleeping on the couch in their own house! I went back to my apartment, looked at my view, and thought, Maybe my elevator is pissy, but if that’s gentrification, who’s the joke on now?”Back in 1994, I took Joe Wood, an NYC writer and critic who was killed by Mount Rainier in 1999, to visit our pjs, Yesler Terrace (a social housing program that's soon to be extinct). Wood was amazed. He could not believe his eyes. These could not be the projects. People were making art, planting flowers, and growing food. There was nothing like it in New York. The people here had it good. "Seattle has no idea what a ghetto is," he said, as we walked up and down Yesler.
1
It's true: living in Baltimore, I just have to shake my head when you guys talk about "slums," "ghettos," and your murder/shooting rate.
You really have no idea.
You really have no idea.
2
I believe that's what Farrakhan said, too.
Doesn't mean Yesler shouldn't be redeveloped. It's the very definition of underutilized urban land.
Doesn't mean Yesler shouldn't be redeveloped. It's the very definition of underutilized urban land.
3
"When Asians, the fastest-growing ethnic group in the city, manage to get an apartment, they are often harassed by residents. Recently, a Chinese family that had been placed at Marcy came home to find the door of their apartment smeared with feces. "
Why no mention of the anti-Asian hate crimes that occur in these projects Charles? Is it because of the ethnicity of those responsible for them? If it was Jews doing it to black immigrants or Palestinians you would be rattling your saber about it.
Why no mention of the anti-Asian hate crimes that occur in these projects Charles? Is it because of the ethnicity of those responsible for them? If it was Jews doing it to black immigrants or Palestinians you would be rattling your saber about it.
4
Even average middle class person, growing up on the East Coast, near any city, experienced far more stress, crime, decay, grind than any "inner city" person in Seattle ever did.
While some of us were keeping their eyes on the floor riding the subway, you guys were eating fresh blackberries and watching JP Patches.
5
@ 1, this is about Denver, but Denver and Seattle were alike in this regard, so it applies.
Back in the 80s, when he was still the de facto leader of Black America, Jesse Jackson visited Denver and asked that he be taken through the "ghetto." They drove him through Five Points, which is Denver's historic African American neighborhood and was, at the time, just about our poorest. Jackson's reaction was to laugh and say that this would count as middle class back east.
Back in the 80s, when he was still the de facto leader of Black America, Jesse Jackson visited Denver and asked that he be taken through the "ghetto." They drove him through Five Points, which is Denver's historic African American neighborhood and was, at the time, just about our poorest. Jackson's reaction was to laugh and say that this would count as middle class back east.
7
Seattle is much richer than NYC. Seattle's median income is around $60,000 and NYC's is about $50,000. NYC has a poverty rate about 19%, to Seattle's 13%. Even Manhattan has a higher poverty rate than Seattle, at around 18% (Brooklyn's poverty rate is 22% and the Bronx's is 28%). Note that the poverty rate is calculated based on the cost of a basket of goods, which is adjusted for inflation but not geography. So in other words, the poverty cutoff is the same in NYC and Seattle. In my view, that means the statistics probably understate the difference between the cities, since a dollar probably goes further in Seattle than in NYC.
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