The Amalgamated Housing Cooperative abutting Van Corlandt Park in the Bronx, is the oldest limited-equity housing cooperative in the United States. While it was not the first co-op in the United States, the Amalgamated was nominated to the Census of Places That Matter as an early and enduring model for cooperative housing in New York City throughout the 20th century.

In the late 1920s, population densities in New York City – especially in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods like the Lower East Side – were among the highest in the world and people were looking for alternative housing, often outside of Manhattan. Continue Reading>>

The bright sun reflected off the many new buildings of Melrose Commons in the South Bronx, as elected officials, activists, developers, friends, family, and other admirers gathered on East 157th Street to honor the memory of Yolanda Garcia yesterday. Third Avenue between 156th and 157th Streets is now known as “Yolanda Garcia Way.”

Ms. Garcia’s family owned a carpet shop in the Melrose section of the Bronx, where she was working in the early 1990s when she learned of a City urban renewal plan that called for displacing local residents and creating low-density housing. Incensed that those residents who stayed in the South Bronx despite decades of disinvestment were going to be displaced, Ms. Garcia founded Nos Quedamos/We Stay. This grassroots group was dedicated to rethinking the plan, including the community in the process, and preventing displacement. The resulting Melrose Commons plan helped to create over 1,500 units of affordable housing in the area, kept thousands of residents from being displaced, and even brought green building principles to the South Bronx. Continue Reading>>

Pressure is mounting to halt the national tide of foreclosures. New York’s housing advocates are working at the frontlines to keep people in their homes and to ensure that solutions currently being generated at the city and state level respond to New York’s unique housing and neighborhood needs.

A MAS Planning Center panel discussion moderated by Eva Hanhardt of the Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment late last year, tapped the insights of Audrey Waysee, Center for New York City Neighborhoods; Josh Zinner, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project; Mark Winston-Griffith, Drum Major Institute; Patricia Kerr, Neighborhood Housing Services, Jamaica;and Ingrid Gould Ellen, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, to confront the question: how do we stabilize neighborhoods experiencing high rates of foreclosure? Continue Reading>>

In a city where it is already increasingly difficult for low and moderate income families to afford to live, how will the current economic and financial crises further impact the cost and availability of housing in New York?

In November, an expert panel, introduced by Joan Shigekawa, associate director of The Rockefeller Foundation, and moderated by Vicki Been, director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, including: Jerilyn Perine, director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council; Holly Leicht, deputy commissioner for development, New York City Housing, Preservation, and Development; Michelle de la Uz, executive director, Fifth Avenue Committee, Brooklyn; and Mark Ginsberg, FAIA, founding partner, Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP, sought to answer these and other related questions.

With the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, MAS brought together a panel of experts in the field of housing for the 2008 Jane Jacobs Forum in November, in conjunction with the annual Jane Jacobs Award.

Click on the ‘play’ icon above to listen to a podcast of the program.

Jane Jacobs believed a sense of community was critical in creating and maintaining dynamic and diverse neighborhoods, but today, it is increasingly difficult for people of low and moderate income to live in New York City. How can planners, architects, city officials, and developers work with local residents to provide homes that are affordable and sustainable? What role do the dense, mixed-income neighborhoods that Jacobs favored play in creating a strong sense of community? Continue Reading>>

New York is a city of neighborhoods—most of them residential neighborhoods. New York is also a city of renters—two-thirds of us secure housing through renting. While news about the foreclosure crisis and its fallout goes global, the housing impacts are irrefutably local and imply different burdens for different cities. For example, foreclosure filings in New York City doubled between 2004 and 2007—more than twice the rate for New York State.

A report by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy points out that while 40 percent of the 2007 foreclosure filings affected condos and single-family buildings, 60 percent of the filings were levied on 2-4 family buildings. That translates into a loss of housing for more than 76, 000 New Yorkers—at least 38,000 of whom are renters. Continue Reading>>

At the first annual Jane Jacobs Forum last night, an expert panel considered how to house a million more New Yorkers over the next twenty years, and how to do this while retaining neighborhood character and diversity. Panelists also suggested ways of making housing affordable in an increasingly land-poor city, and described the kind of changes in city infrastructure they think are necessary to accommodate all these new New Yorkers.

Panelist Jerilyn Perrine, director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council, said (jokingly) that she would like to see Staten Island swapped for portions of New Jersey that are well-connected to regional mass transit, and (seriously) the extension of the 7 train in both Manhattan and, more importantly, in eastern Queens where affordable housing could be built to serve growing immigrant communities.

But, what would you do to make housing affordable? What improvements to the city’s infrastructure do you think the city and federal governments should focus on? Tell us. Continue Reading>>

The First Annual Jane Jacobs Forum: Housing New Yorkers in the 21st-Century
Wednesday, November 5, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
In announcing his PlaNYC 2030, Mayor Bloomberg said the city must prepare for its population to grow by more than one million residents by the year 2030. Ensuring that New Yorkers have affordable and sustainable places to live is one of the most important goals for the city today.

Urban visionary and activist Jane Jacobs wrote that a strong sense of community is critical in creating dynamic and diverse neighborhoods. But today, it is increasingly difficult for New Yorkers of low and moderate income to  live here. In the midst of these precarios economic times, how can planners, architects, city officials, and developers work with local residents to create affordable homes? How will today’s credit crisis further impact the cost and availability of housing in New York City? What can we do to retain the unique, densely populated, mixed-income neighborhoods that Jacobs favored? Continue Reading>>

Attend upcoming MAS events: MAS is hosting a miniature Livable Neighborhoods program at Pratt this weekend – a training course that provides communities with the knowledge, tools, and training needed to transform local vision into effective plans.  Get the details on Neighborhood Watch.

MAS President Kent Barwick is giving a presentation at the New School Friday on “The Oversuccessful City: The Struggle for the Character of New York.”  Get the details in Time Out New York.

In other news, the State Department of Health may come out in support of St. Vincent Hospital’s expansion plan lending weight to their current hardship case with the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Continue Reading>>

Yesterday, MAS testified at the City Planning Commission hearing regarding the Willets Point rezoning plan. First and foremost, MAS stressed that the plan, which includes an urban renewal action that will allow for the use of eminent domain, must reflect the results of an inclusive planning and monitoring process. In regards to the rezoning – from manufacturing into a mixed-used residential and commercial district – MAS suggested the City conduct a thorough examination of the plan’s implication for long-term, industrial and manufacturing job growth, including a justified strategy deployment of public resources tied to agreed upon community benefits. Finally, MAS raised concerns over the purported high standards of sustainable neighborhood planning Willets Point aims to achieve. The full testimony is after the jump. Continue Reading>>