Combined Document 08-24-2013

DISCLAIMER: This document does not meet current format guidelines Graduate School at the The University of Texas at Austin. of the It has been published for informational use only. Copyright by Elinore Ann Longobardi 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Elinore Ann Longobardi certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Main Street Remade: A Case Study of Eminent Domain Use in Port Chester, New York Committee: ___________________________________ Steven D. Hoelscher, Supervisor ___________________________________ Robert H. Abzug ___________________________________ Jeffrey L. Meikle ___________________________________ Elizabeth J. Mueller ___________________________________ Shirley E. Thompson ___________________________________ Pablo E. Vengoechea Main Street Remade: A Case Study of Eminent Domain Use in Port Chester, New York By Elinore Ann Longobardi B.A.; M.A.; M.S. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2013 For my mother Acknowledgements I owe many people for their help with this project. Thank you to those involved with the Port Chester redevelopment who shared their opinions and experiences with me. I used this information as background, in the reportorial sense, and it helped me to orient myself within the landscape of both Port Chester generally and the redevelopment of downtown in particular. Thank you to the staff of the archives rooms at the federal district courts in both downtown Manhattan and White Plains, who patiently wheeled out reams of case files for me day after day. Thank you to the librarians at the Port Chester- Rye Brook Public Library, who graciously permitted me to repeatedly hog the only microfilm machine and did not complain when I printed out so many articles that I broke the printer. (Again, my apologies!) Thank you to my former editor, and extraordinary journalist, Dean Starkman for giving me the files and interviews he had collected on Port Chester--from a time when he himself was considering an in-depth look at the redevelopment. I greatly benefitted from his work and expertise, and although he moved on to other projects, I still wish I could have read the resulting book. Thank you to my committee for their thoughtful responses to my work, and especially to my advisor, Steve Hoelscher, who gave me invaluable advice and support, both on this dissertation and in navigating the currents of graduate school. He fully supported me in my choice of a less traditional route, including a detour to journalism school, and it is safe to say that without him I would not have submitted this dissertation. I feel hugely v lucky to have benefited from his intelligence, patience and care for his students. On a personal note, I owe my family more than I can possibly say for all that they have done for me during my journey through graduate school. It breaks my heart that my mother, one of the most brilliant and intellectually curious people I have ever known, is not here to see me finish this work, but I know she had faith that I would. She always believed in me more than I did myself. And finally, for Ron. As always. vi Main Street Remade: A Case Study of Eminent Domain Use in Port Chester, New York Elinore Ann Longobardi Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Steven D. Hoelscher In the late 1990s, looking to improve its fiscal situation, the Village of Port Chester, New York, decided to approve the redevelopment of a 27-acre site that comprised a large section of its downtown. The centerpiece of the 1999 plan was a big- box shopping center and multi-tier parking structure. To build the project, Port Chester used eminent domain to raze most of its South Main Street, along with adjacent blocks-- an area already full of small shops and businesses. The village took this action in the name of “public good,” replacing the small-scale buildings and family owned businesses with big-box retail--including Costco, a Loews multiplex, DSW shoes and Bed Bath & Beyond. The village’s goal was to replace a “blighted” area (the term a vestige of legal and rhetorical constructs surrounding mid-20th century urban renewal) with a more upscale one--bringing in, as officials saw it, more tax revenue and creating jobs. vii This dissertation examines the mechanics and the consequences of this kind of large-scale land clearance, especially in the context of a small suburban municipality. Far from being an anomaly, the Port Chester project is an example of an ongoing trend: the use of eminent domain in the service of economic development, which we can see as a kind of present-day urban renewal. viii Table of Contents List of Figures ......................................................................................................................x Introduction: Welcome to Port Chester, USA ......................................................................1 Chapter 1: The Best Laid Plans ..........................................................................................49 Chapter 2: Industrialization, Land Speculation and the Structure of Early Port Chester ..76 Chapter 3: Urban Redevelopment in the Context of Political Fragmentation .................113 Chapter 4: Urban Renewal, Suburban Renewal and the Problem of Housing .................146 Chapter 5: The Politics of Urban Renewal .......................................................................188 Chapter 6: The Magic Wand of Urban Renewal ..............................................................226 Chapter 7: Be Careful What You Wish For...................................................................... 270 Conclusion: A New Model of Development.................................................................... 312 Figures: Maps, Plans, and Photographs ...........................................................................325 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................352 ix List of Figures Figure 1: Port Chester in geographic context Figure 2: Overhead views of the shopping center site in Port Chester’s downtown Figure 3: View of the Waterfront at Port Chester, looking south from Westchester Avenue Figure 4: View of the west side of South Main Street Figure 5: The two pieces of the Town of Rye and the intervening City of Rye Figure 6: Village of Port Chester zoning map Figure 7: City of Rye draft zoning map Figure 8: View of shopping center facade, looking north along South Main Street Figure 9: Entrance to shopping center parking structure from interior roadway Figure 10: Port Chester Land Company lots in 1910 and 1914 Figure 11: Industry along Port Chester’s waterfront in 1910 Figure 12: The subdivision of land behind south Main Street in the 1860s Figure 13: South Main Street in the 1880s Figure 14: North Main Street in the 1880s Figure 15: The Abendroth foundry in the 1880s Figure 16: South Main Street in the 1890s Figure 17: A section of the shopping center facade along South Main Street Figure 18: The view from the top level of the elevated parking area Figure 19: A parking lot on the top tier of one of the multi-tier parking structures Figure 20: Post-project view looking at 45 Traverse Figure 21: Post-project view looking down Traverse toward loading areas for the shopping center Figure 22: Post-project view across the street from the entrance to 45 Traverse Figure 23: A pre-project block and lot map for South Main Street Figure 24: A site plan for The Waterfront at Port Chester, from March 1999. Figure 25: A view from the ground of the waterfront edge of Costco parking lot Figure 26: The view from approximately the same point as Figure 25 but looking left, away from the water and into the Costco parking lot Figure 27: Boundaries of the Village Center Urban Renewal Plan Area and the Marina Redevelopment Urban Renewal Plan Area x Introduction: Welcome to Port Chester, USA For years shopping centers have been eroding traditional downtown commercial districts, by offering newer facilities, one-stop shopping and low prices with which small businesses struggle to compete. In Port Chester, New York, a short distance north of New York City (see figure 1), the situation was even more extreme. A new shopping center brought about the literal destruction of downtown when, just over a decade ago, the village invoked eminent domain to raze several square blocks in the center of town for it. The taking forced out small local businesses, many of them Latino-owned, and replaced them with big-box shopping and tiered parking garages. Looking at the small community of Port Chester is a way to examine the big issues involved in the process of eminent domain, because they are in especially strong relief here: Public good versus private interest. The power of corporations. The effects of deindustrialization. The unfair toll that first “urban renewal” and more recently “economic development” have taken on poor people and people of color. We can see all of this at play in the problematic transformation of Port Chester’s downtown, which can help us to understand both the changing nature of eminent domain use and the dynamics of current downtown redevelopment. The Plan In the late 1990s, looking to improve its fiscal situation, the Village of Port Chester decided to spend $100,000,000 redeveloping a 27-acre site downtown (see figure 1 2), stretching

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