“How East Harlem wrote its own development plan,” by Perry Abello Oscar discusses the public housing units available to the East Harlem community, which allude to the wealthier parts of Manhattan by being named after the more affluent streets. One of the most important factors though is to note the paradox between the names of the homes, and the conditions of those living them. While the names of the public houses may suggest a wealthier clientele, the fact is that those who need to live in the homes struggle with the affordability of the housing.

One of the many low income advocacy groups which Oscar mentions, aims to tackle the problem of unaffordable housing by creating somewhat of a game for the public to interact with hands on and learn more about the zoning of their community. By creating different groups which view the problems of the housing and community differently, many suggestions are able to be made that could have possible implementations for the neighborhood’s future. The game created by the CUP advocacy group was made to tackle Mayor de Blasio’s plan for upzoning the communities in East Harlem, in order to increase the affordability of the area.

In “City taking bids for 400 unit East Harlem affordable complex,” Melissa Viverito claims that the city is soliciting bids to build up to 400 units along East 111th street, that will be completely affordable to households with annual incomes of $24,000. The upzoning that the Mayor would like to take place would increase a great amount of space for the citizens in need of public housing.

While upzoning is a decent way to create more housing units for a more affordable price, there are many drawbacks that it can have aesthetically and energetically for a neighborhood. These are important to keep in mind because although creating tall buildings may solve one problem, it is crucial to weigh the pros and cons of the situation in order to determine whether the result will be worth the cost. Additionally, it seems unfair that lower income communities are the one’s subject to deal with these other issues, just so that they can have affordable housing. The same solutions are not used in more upscale communities in which the citizens are able to advocate for themselves, and it is important to note this socioeconomic inequality.

Works Cited:

Melissa Viverito (2016). City taking bids for 400-unit East Harlem Affordable Complex. https://therealdeal.com/2016/05/23/city-taking-bids-for-400-unit-east-harlem-affordable-complex/ (last accessed 7 May 2017)

Oscar Perry Abello (2016). How East Harlem Wrote Its Own Development Plan. https://nextcity.org/features/view/east-harlem-neighborhood-plan-upzoning-affordable-housing (last accessed 7 May 2017)

 

 

Robert Moses is the man that can be credited with much of the infrastructure that surrounds New York. Coming from a background in New York politics, Moses later became involved with urban planning. Having the political foundation and connections with the governor of New York helped Robert Moses achieve all that he did and gave him the power and standing to have the influence on New York’s construction.

During the years of 1946-1954, New York experienced the greatest amount of construction and public building that the city ever had. Throughout this time, no structure was built without the approval of Robert Moses himself. The most amazing part of this all was that Moses wielded such power without having an actual political position. There is no doubt hat Moses achieved great things and contributed to the development of the city, but how he went about this was a controversial matter.

One of the biggest structures that Moses implemented in the city, was the Cross Bronx Expressway. Thought he expressway did increase the ability to travel to different parts of the city easily, Moses planned it to bisect the Bronx in half. The effect that this had on the population was the segregating of the upper and lower classes, as the expressway displaced close to 5,000 families and forced the upper and middle classes to migrate north, while the lower income families were displaced to the Southern Bronx (Ballon and Jackson 2007).

Overall, Moses contributed about 416 miles of parkways to New York. What this meant for New Yorkers though, is that transportation was now not equally available to all. Only those upper class members who had cars would be able to benefit from the new roads. A more efficient system which would have enhanced the ideals of New York would have been to include more subway systems and increase access to all citizens instead of just catering to the upper class.

During Moses’ extensive building he faced much opposition. Specifically, Jane Jacobs was a woman who overtly set out to maintain the standards of New York and be inclusive of all despite all of the construction. As written in the article Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses, battle of New York’s urban titans she eventually was able to overcome the influence that Moses had on the development of New York.  “Over the past 40 years, the rebirth of Lower Manhattan from Chelsea to Tribeca, of northern Brooklyn, of Astoria and Long Island City in Queens, has taken place without razing a single building in the name of ‘urban renewal’, or shooing away a single citizen through ‘eminent domain’” (Paletta 2016).

The question asked was whether Robert Moses is to be considered a master builder, or an evil genius. To me, this is not a matter of either or. Both of this descriptions can be used accurately to describe Moses, and in fact I believe that they coincide. In order to attain stature and to achieve the levels of power and influence that Moses had, it definitely required some careful planning. Moses made sure to create connections and alliances in all areas such as labor unions, park workers, and banks in order to have the support and backup that he would need to become the Master Builder that he was.

 

 

Ballon H and Jackson K (2007) Robert Moses and the Transformation of New York (pp 65-66) W.W. Norton & Company

Paletta, Anthony . “Story of cities #32: Jane Jacobs v Robert Moses, battle of New York’s urban titans.” The story of cities. Guardian News and Media, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.