SPURA Matters: Ongoing – from Saturday, Oct
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Events Back to the Future in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area Interactive Tour of Seward Park SPURA Matters: Ongoing – from Saturday, Oct. 11. A self-guided, interactive tour of SPURA by Field Play, Inc. Discover an info-tag outside a historic site. Send Lower East Siders rarely wait for others to plan their future for them. When A 40-year Commemorative a secret code to an unknown number and receive a text message about community members grew concerned about gang violence in the 1950s, they formed Map of the Seward Park the neighborhood's history. Send in your own story to bring the SPURA the Lower East Side Neighborhoods Association (LENA) to organize their neighbors. chronicles up to date. For info, go to www.kickingoverthetraces.com. e first thing LENA did was create a 10-foot, hand-drawn map to help community Urban Renewal Area members identify problems and solutions. Locals responded with unexpected Four Public Discussion & Visioning Sessions enthusiasm. e map helped them envision the challenge. ey supplied the Wednesday, Oct. 22, University Settlement (6:30-9pm); Saturday, Nov. 1, imagination and a willingness to get the job done. St. Mary's Church (2-4:30pm); Wednesday, Nov. 12, Grand St. Settlement (6:30-9pm); Saturday, Nov. 22, 227 E. 3rd St. (2-4:30pm). Join your SPURA Matters is also about planning for the future — especially for a piece of the neighbors and Pratt Center for Community Development to re-envision LES called the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA). In the 1950s, all around the future of SPURA. Tour the past with planning historian Hilary Botein, the country, and especially in New York, cities were using federal “urban renewal” Baruch College. Sessions are free and open to the public. Translation dollars to solve their problems. Tax-paying individuals and businesses were leaving provided. Wheelchair accessible except St. Mary's. urban areas, and cities had less money to work with to care for citizens, meet rising RSVP to [email protected] or 212-533-2541. expectations, and update infrastructure. A popular solution was to reclaim valuable land by bulldozing old buildings in poor neighborhoods (the “slums”) to replace Visualizing SPURA them with new, publicly-subsidized apartments and educational and cultural facilities Wednesday, Dec. 17, 6:30pm, New School for Social Research. for higher income residents. In NYC, residents and businesses were displaced by the Roundtable discussion at the opening of a new exhibition about SPURA by hundreds of thousands. Some of the displacees were re-housed in publicly subsidized students of the Eugene Lang/New School City Studio and Prof. Gabrielle low-income projects; others were simply removed. Concerns about displacement and Bendiner-Viani. relocation grew so severe that the city was obliged to find remedies. But remedies were often ad-hoc, varying among agencies and mayoral administrations. Get Interviewed! e Seward Park Oral History Project Ongoing – August 2008 to January 2009. Are you a long-term resident One of the city’s most effective private partners was the United Housing Foundation of the LES? Get your voice heard. We’ll ask about your memories of the (UHF). In the late 1950s, the UHF developed the Seward Park Houses on the south neighborhood, about neighborhood change, and about the place where you side of Grand St. and started work on Seward Park Extension — a 20-acre project for live. Contact Kara Becker, [email protected], 908-883-0556 the north side of Grand, bounded by Essex, Delancey, and Willett. e UHF withdrew SPURA Matters is brought to you by Good Old Lower East Side in 1961, but the city went forward in 1967 to take control of the site, clear it, and (www.goles.org), Pratt Center for Community Development build new housing.* (www.prattcenter.net), City Lore (www.citylore.org), and Place Matters, a project of City Lore and the Municipal Art Society Most of the new units would be priced for middle-income pocketbooks, and judging (www.placematters.net). Series funded by the New York Council for from previous projects, would largely house New Yorkers of European descent. Most of the Humanities to support public programs about SPURA, and by the the 7,000 site residents were poor and of Puerto Rican, African American, and Chinese Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Altman Foundation. descent. ey would never be able to move back. A contest thus emerged: Who would v get to live in SPURA? Over the fifties and sixties, NYC had grown more segregated Sponsors: Ana Luisa Garcia Community Center / e Center for Urban by race and income. Would that continue? Or would New Yorkers find a way to build Pedagogy / CAAAV / CHARAS - Tu Casa Sound Studio / City Lore / healthy communities that were inclusive rather than exclusive? photo by Kara Becker Cooper Square Committee / Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association / East Village Community Coalition / Good Old Lower East Side / Grand Street Settlement / Hester Street Collaborative / Indochina Sino-American ese questions have bedeviled SPURA for four decades. Some things were built, but Community Center / Jews for Racial and Economic Justice / Lower East Side protests, backroom deals, lawsuits, and political stand-offs have prevented development Discussions, Tours, and Exhibits to People’s Mutual Housing Association / Lower East Side Tenement Museum / on the whole site. e private market is re-shaping the LES, but SPURA is still in e New School / St. Mary’s Church / Pratt Center for Community public hands. Government and citizens can work together here for the public good if get New Yorkers talking about Development / Two Bridges Neighborhood Council / University Settlement / we can muster the imagination and political will. SPURA’s Past, Present and Future Urban Justice Center *Eight buildings were to remain: Henry St. Playhouse, Sages of Israel Home for the Aged, St. Mary’s Church & School, a Broome St. apartment building, Beth Jacob School, Beth Hamredash Hagadol Synagogue, Essex St. Market, and Downtown Talmud Torah. Brochure Design by Christine Renko e Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union built the Amalgamated Houses (1929-31) and Hillman Houses Back to the Future in the Elevated Highway Ramp Events Delancey Street Willett Street/Bialystoker Place Ridge Street Luther Gulik (1949-1951). To partner with the city on urban 20 SewardDelancey Park Street Urban Renewal Area Playground renewal, the union organized the United Housing Clinton Street 1. (Forner) Synagogue Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Interactive Tour of Seward Park 19 Foundation (UHF) in 1951 with other unions and Norfolk Street Ongoing – from Saturday, Oct. 11. A self-guided, interactive tour of 10 SPURA Matters: nonprofits. UHF built East River Houses (1956) and 21 SPURA by Field Play, Inc. Discover an info-tag outside a historic site. Send Lower East Siders rarely wait for others to plan their future for them. When 18 Seward Park Houses (1962). Ranged along Grand Pitt Street A 40-year Commemorative community members grew concerned about gang violence in the 1950s, they formed a secret code to an unknown numberStreet, fromand thereceive East Rivera text to Essexmessage St., theabout union 2 Broome Street the Lower East Side Neighborhoods Association (LENA) to organize their neighbors. Hillman thee neighborhood's Amalgamated Clothing history. Workers Sendco-ops in Union your aimed ownbuilt to improve storythe tothe bring lives of the members SPURA and 14 22 Houses Map of the Seward Park Amalgamated Houses (1929-31)engage and them the Hillmanin striving for a better world. Some e first thing LENA did was create a 10-foot, hand-drawn map to help community13 chronicles up to date. For info, go to www.kickingoverthetraces.com. 8 P 16 Left to right, Messrs. Dubinsky, Kazan, contemporaries thought their admirable goals 17 members identify problems and solutions. Locals respondedSuolk Street with unexpected Houses (1949-1951). To participate in urban renewal, Broome Street 6 1. Seward Park High School Urban Renewal Area Moses, Follin, Szold 23 24 the union organizedUnited Housing the Foundation United justifiedHousing the Foundation removal of tenements and site tenants; enthusiasm. e map helped them envision the challenge. ey supplied the 350 Grand St. Four Public Discussion & Visioning Sessions 12 others disagreed. Essex Street 3 2. Former Essex Street Market (UHF) in 1951 with other unions and nonprofits. UHF imaginationLudlow Street and a willingness to get the5 job done. 15 Wednesday,collaborated Oct. with 22, the University city to build Settlement East River (6:30-9pm); Houses Saturday, Nov. 1, 3. Seward Park Extension West (NYCHA) 11 65 Norfolk St. St.(1956) Mary's and Church Seward (2-4:30pm); Park Houses (1962).Wednesday, Ranged Nov. along 12, Grand St. Settlement 4 7 Grand St. & Essex St. t1 SPURA in 1963, in its heady first days, showing the SPURA Matters1 is also about planning for the future — especially9 for a piece of the 4. Day Care Center ?? (6:30-9pm);Grand Street, Saturday,from the East Nov. River 22, to227 Essexbuildings E. 3rdSt., totheSt. remain union(2-4:30pm). and the land Join to your be cleared for Grand Street co-ops aimed to improve the lives of members and LES called the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA). In the 1950s, all around 5. Hong Ning Senior Apartments neighbors and Pratt Center for Communitynew housing. Development It also shows a tocomplicated re-envision wrinkle. 384 Grand St. engage them in striving for a better world.e giant, Some multi-lane contem- Lower Manhattan (aka Broome the country, and especially in New York, cities were using federal “urban renewal” 25 6. Hong Ning Senior Apartments the futureporaries of SPURA. thought Tourtheir admirablethe past with goals planning justified the historian Hilary Botein, Grand Street Seward Park Area Map Legend Baruch College. Sessions are free andSt.) open Expressway to the would public.