Online Photo Gallery: NY Before the Projects
The Daily News this weekend provided a link to a great online photography exhibit. The Laguardia Wagner Archives (part of Laguardia Community College) has put online a bunch of old negatives from the New York City Housing Authority archives, including this shot of 1777 Bergen Street before it was razed to build the Kingsborough Houses…
The Daily News this weekend provided a link to a great online photography exhibit. The Laguardia Wagner Archives (part of Laguardia Community College) has put online a bunch of old negatives from the New York City Housing Authority archives, including this shot of 1777 Bergen Street before it was razed to build the Kingsborough Houses in 1941. The most interesting take-away for us was being reminded that the impetus for building the same public housing projects that we tend to consider such eyesores and epicenters of crime and poverty was a true desire to improve the conditions of the city’s worst-off citizens.
New York Transformed: 1939-1967 [Laguardia Wagner Archives]
NY Before the Projects [NY Daily News]
Quick two cents: public housing planning was the last thing from “a true desire to improve the conditions of the city’s worst-off citizens”. This is true whether it is New York, Chicago, or Detroit. Read up on your urban history. The projects were basically built as ghettos within ghettos, with every intention of restricting African Americans to discrete, segregated, vertical cities.
I could not agree more with you Tom it was entarily barbarian practice. I am really sorry for east site of Manhattan it would be such a grat nabe today.
I have to disagree with you and agree more with the commentaries on the Archives website. I looked at and read the captions of every single photo and came away with conclusions the site is meant to convey. The razing of these houses and apartments was not entirely necessary. The city leveled acres of properites and relocated people all over the city. If you were living in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville, you were taken out of your home and placed in the Bronx or maybe another part of Brooklyn. Your community was completely destroyed and you were displaced among strangers. There is a photo of the very first project on the site, built on East 3rd Street and Avenue A 1936 (not sure on the date, bet. ’32 and ’36). The “tenements” or “slums” were owned by Astor (the wealthy fur baron). He financed the project of leveling half the block and had the city pay him back with interest. The projects were built to create jobs in the Depression more than a Utopian idea. They were sold to the people as a Utopian solution, but we know what a GRAVE mistake they were. It is funny how the United States bad mouthed and berated the Soviet Union and Socialism, but when you look at these photos, you see we were pretty much creating our own Soviet Welfare block. These places are designed like prisons. It is a horrible shame what was done. England followed suit with council houses. However they realized their mistake and tore them down. We live with these places now and must correct their failure.