The Big Six

The other day, I was wandering along the Boulevard of Death, aka Queens Boulevard.

As I walked along this decidedly unfriendly-to-pedestrians street, I pondered Mayor de Blasio’s recent announcement of his “Affordable Housing” initiatives and what that means for Queens. That’s when I noticed the Mitchell-Lama funded Big Six rising against the horizon, right around 60th Street in Woodside.

From Wikipedia:

The Mitchell-Lama Housing Program is a non-subsidy governmental housing guarantee in the state of New York. It was sponsored by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama. It was signed into law in 1955 as The Limited-Profit Housing Companies Act (officially contained in the Private Housing Finance law, article II titled Limited-Profit Housing Companies and referring to not-for-profit corp., whereas article IV titled Limited Dividend Housing Companies refers to non-Mitchell-Lama affordable housing organized as business corp., partnerships or trusts from 1927 on).

The program’s publicly stated purpose was the development and building of affordable housing, both rental and co-operatively owned, for middle-income residents. Under this program, local jurisdictions acquired property by eminent domain and provided it to developers to develop housing for low- and middle-income tenants. Developers received tax abatements as long as they remained in the program, and low-interest mortgages, subsidized by the federal, state, or New York City government. They were also guaranteed a 6% or, later, 7.5% return on investment each year. The program was based on the Morningside Gardens housing cooperative, a co-op in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood that was subsidized with tax money.

LIC Daily Star image courtesy fultonhistory.com

Unveiled in February of 1959, and completed by 1963, the eponymous Big Six towers were built by Typographical Union No. 6 – known in its heyday as Big Six. The buildings were erected as a non profit co-op for members of the union in Woodside.

From Wikipedia:

The International Typographical Union (ITU) was a US trade union for the printing trade for newspapers and other media. It was founded on 3 May 1852 as the United States as the National Typographical Union, and changed its name to the International Typographical Union at its Albany, New York in 1869 after it began organizing members in Canada. The ITU was one of the first unions to admit female members, admitting women members such as Augusta Lewis, Mary Moore and Eva Howard in 1869.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the LeCorbusier influenced “towers in the park” model of housing, but the Big Six have been and are an enormously successful and attractive destination for nest builders here in Queens. To each his own, I guess. Helen Marshall and Jimmy Van Bramer had very nice things to say about the place back in 2010, and there is an incredibly long waiting list to buy into the complex, so folks are voting with their feet and check books.

From nyc.gov:

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said, “Affordable housing is one of the most critical needs facing the families of Queens. I applaud HPD and HDC’s combined efforts to preserve one of the crown jewels of Queens, the Big Six. We continue to work together to replicate these efforts across Queens County to develop and preserve affordable housing for all our residents.”

“The Big Six is a great example of affordable housing that works. It has served as a home to 983 families for 47 years and now, thanks to a restructuring of the mortgage and new financing for capital needs, Big Six is poised to provide affordable housing to families for many years to come, ” said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. “I commend the Co-op board members and HDC for working together to ensure that this bastion of affordable housing remains a good and affordable home to those that live in it.”

The union itself is dissolved, and its constituents have moved on to other trade organizations. Researching the complex revealed some recent controversies involving the shopping complex adjoining it, but everywhere I looked online, positivity and satisfied tenants seemed to suffuse this development’s history.

From nytimes.com:

When Big Six opened in 1963, the average price was $550 a room, with $22 a room in monthly maintenance charges, said Catherine Gregory, a lifelong resident of Woodside who wrote a book on the neighborhood’s history. Today, a two-bedroom unit sells for $7,882, with maintenance of $520 to $620. The income ceiling is around $60,000. People currently moving in have been waiting four to five years but, at present, the waiting list is closed. When shareholders leave or die, the apartments must be sold back to the co-op.

Having visited the place in the past, I remembered that a memorial plaque existed in front of one of the towers, so I made my way toward it. Unfortunately, I got hassled by one of the local residents. This, my friends, was one aggressive little rodent.

Could it have been some sort of Security Squirrel? It is a co-op, so everyone who lives here has to do their part…

From queenscourier.com:

Like many other Mitchell-Lama developments, Big Six needed major capital improvements to ensure that the facilities can continue to serve its community. Repairs needed at Big Six included the replacement of windows and patio doors, walkway and parking lot repaving, and extensive repairs to the shopping centers façade. Due to lack of funding prior, these projects had been put on hold.

However, working with the tenants, HDC stepped in to provide approximately $35 million in bonds through its Mitchell-Lama Preservation Program, to restructure Big Six Towers’ debt and fund over $11 million in capital repairs. In return, the tenants agreed to keep the complex in the Mitchell-Lama program and under a regulatory agreement for an additional 30-year term.

The development was designed by Architect Frederick G. Frost, a fellow who left behind a long resume when he passed. Any Q’stoner readers who live in the Big Six that want to chime in and share what life is like in there with the rest of us are welcomed to do so in the comments section, and we’d love to hear from you.

From nytimes.com:

Mr. Frost designed residential, commercial, industrial and educational buildings, as well as health, military and scientific buildings.

Among his principal works are the Houdry Laboratory at Marcus Hook, Pa.; Anaco Village in Venezuela; the Socony-Vacuum Laboratory in Paulsboro, N.J.; the General Electric Management Institute in Crotonville, N.Y., and the Coast Guard Administration Building in New York City.

For the New York City Board of Education, he designed Junior High Schools No. 33 and 294 in Brooklyn; No. 13 in Manhattan, and No. 8 in Queens, He also designed Public School No. 30 in Queens and, with his son, Public School No. 36 in Manhattan and Martin Luther King Jr. High School at Lincoln Center. The last two designs won awards.

Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman lives in Astoria and blogs at Newtown Pentacle.