Sunnyside Garden Apartments, located in Sunnyside, Queens, certainly stands out as being peaceful in New York City despite only being a 20-minute subway ride away from Manhattan. Enter the brick housing complex and its courtyard, and you hear chirping birds instead of cars driving by. Above some green benches, squirrels climb the many trees.
In a city of skyscrapers that are moving further east in Queens, in which oftentimes the only personal interaction is an awkward nod of acknowledgement in the elevator, and the skyrocketing rents that accompany them, Sunnyside Garden Apartments has retained not only a strong community but also affordable rents for tenants.
Formerly called Phipps Garden Apartments, the complex was constructed in 1931 and an addition was completed in 1935. It was funded by Phipps Houses, a philanthropic organization established by Henry Phipps, who had acquired a large amount of wealth, mostly as a businesses partner of Andrew Carnegie. Phipps sought to use some of that wealth to provide model tenements to working class families. After Henry’s death in 1931, Phipps Houses was continued by his son Howard Phipps for 40 years.
Urban planner and architect Clarence Stein worked on the buildings and Marjorie Sewell Cautley designed the landscaped courtyard. Both had also worked on creating the rest of Sunnyside Gardens, a planned community 17-block subsection of the Sunnyside neighborhood, and were proponents of the garden city movement. Jane Jacobs later rejected the idea of planned communities like garden cities and instead started a movement in support of organic growth of dense cities to create a vibrant community. However, residents of Sunnyside Gardens say that their neighborhood has a small-town feeling that they cherish. People are relatively laid-back, tend to settle down to raise families, and small shops and restaurants are still a part of the larger neighborhood of Sunnyside to this day.
Although the complex was run and designed by wealthy people, long-time residents Margaret and Gerald Perrin believe that the Phipps family were truly benevolent landlords. Employees cleaned hundreds of hallways on a regular basis, collected trash from every door and maintained the inner garden. Phipps Garden Apartments even had its own free daycare for some years. Most importantly, rents stayed affordable for working class families. Over the years, however, the approach of the leadership of Phipps Houses towards the complex changed. The building grew older and the spread-out design of the building made upkeep expensive.
In 1981, Howard Phipps passed away. That same year, the boiler needed to be replaced and tenants were met with an increase in rent to pay for the cost, despite it being a necessary repair. A group of tenants decided to meet in the apartment of Margaret and Gerald Perrin, and the Phipps Garden Apartments Tenants Association was born. They assigned captains in almost every building of the complex, set up regular meetings and collected dues to pay for lawyers. Many residents were invested in their community or politically active, say the Perrins, and involvement spread. The tenant association sued their landlord, and won.
In the years that followed, tensions between Phipps Houses and tenants arose again. The new windows that Phipps Houses had installed didn’t open properly, and the lawsuit took 10 years and cost an estimated $10,000 to $15,000. The number of employees to handle needed repairs decreased. At one point, an apartment had 17 leaks.
More recently, during the years 2015 and 2016, debate over building a new 10-story building next to Phipps Garden Apartments arose. Adam Weinstein, the current president and CEO of Phipps Houses, argued that the proposed building would provide more affordable housing and enhance the community. It was certainly better than what could be built in its place if he had to sell the land, he wrote in an open letter to the community. Residents, however, felt that the tall and more modern building wouldn’t fit in with the character of the rest of the neighborhood, would greatly reduce parking spots, and would contribute to gentrification. The Phipps proposal designated 50% of the apartments to people making 130% of the Area Median Income (AMI), 30% to those earning 100% of the AMI, and only 20% to those making 50% of it. In response, Gerald Perrin, co-president of the tenant association, gathered 300 signatures from tenants at the complex and counted remaining parking spaces one by one. Residents got the support of City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who in his own opinion article published online stated, “…I know that the current tenants at the Phipps Garden Apartments, across the street from the proposed new building, tell me that Phipps isn’t a good landlord. Lack of maintenance, long waits for repairs, and fights with the tenant leaders are serious issues. How can I approve Phipps adding several hundred more tenants when they have thousands of unhappy tenants right across the street?” In the end, Community Board 2 rejected the proposal.
Instead, Phipps Houses has expanded mainly in the South Bronx. Its website boasts that Phipps Houses is the “oldest and largest not-for-profit developer, owner, and manager of affordable housing in New York City.” Their focus is on helping children, youth and families rise above poverty. They have tried different types of designs for their buildings, and have created Phipps Neighborhoods to address barriers their residents have faced through programs that provide education, career building and community resources. Their focus seems to be generally on people who need affordable housing the most, whereas, according to the 2017 (5-Year Estimates) American Community Service, only 1.1% of families with children under 18 years old have an income below the poverty line in Sunnyside Gardens.
Although tenants of Phipps Garden Apartments and Phipps Houses have had conflicts, Phipps Houses is still a lot better than what most tenants face. Phipps Houses is not in it to make the most money it can, says Gerald. So far, only around 17 of 472 apartments have been deregulated and are no longer rent controlled or rent stabilized. The tenant association, however, has allowed tenants to get together when faced with unfair rent increases or something that would affect their community.
At one point, the Phipps Garden Apartments Tenants Association had over 200 members. In recent years, however, membership has been declining. People seem to feel that nothing can be done to stop rising costs of living that’s worth their time or money, despite the rising costs throughout New York City that have also reached Sunnyside Gardens. Tenant associations are needed now more than ever, in order to keep rents fair and affordable and to give people power over their own communities.
Works Cited
Carroll, Gabriel. “Project Raises Question About Density in Queens.” Past Due, pastdue.nycitynewsservice.com/2016/05/25/project-raises-questions-about-density-in-queens-landmark-district/.
Clark, Alfred E. “HOWARD PHIPPS, PHILANTHROPIST AND HORTICULTURIST, IS DEAD AT 99.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Apr. 1981, www.nytimes.com/1981/04/26/obituaries/howard-phipps-philanthropist-and-horticulturist-is-dead-at-99.html.
New York Times. “Sunnyside and Sunnyside Gardens Historic District Map.” Sunnyside, Queens, ‘Mayberry’ Near Midtown, 18 May 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/realestate/sunnyside-queens-mayberry-near-midtown.html.
“Phipps Garden Apartments, Showing how the Garden gets maximum sunlight through the entire day.” Dorothy Cavallo, Sunnyside Sound Project, www.sunnysidesoundproject.org/?p=620.
Phipps Houses. “Phipps Neighborhoods.” Phipps, www.phippsny.org/.
Phipps Neighborhoods. Phipps Gala 2018- Building on Success, Advancing Communities. Phipps, 11 June 2018, www.phippsny.org/programs/.
Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance. “History.” Sunnyside Gardens, sunnysidegardens.us/history.
Sunnyside Oral History Program. Phipps Garden Apartments (1932 -circa 1934). YouTube, YouTube, 6 Aug. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q62ydJRVxAo.
Van Bramer, Jimmy. “Why I’m Opposing the Phipps Houses Development in Sunnyside.” CSNY, 25 Aug. 2016, www.cityandstateny.com/articles/opinion/why-i%E2%80%99m-opposing-the-phipps-houses-development-in-sunnyside.html.
Weinstein, Adam. “An Open Letter from Phipps about a Sunnyside Opportunity.” Sunnyside Post, 13 Aug. 2018, sunnysidepost.com/an-open-letter-from-phipps-about-a-sunnyside-opportunity.
