PRESERVING, PLANNING, AND PROMOTING THE LOWER EAST SIDE: THE CONFLICTED ROLE OF THE TENEMENT MUSEUM IN NEW YORK’S PREMIER IMMIGRANT ENCLAVE by ADAM ZEV STEINBERG A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Geography written under the direction of Robert Lake and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May 2014 © 2014 Adam Steinberg ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Preserving, Planning, and Promoting the Lower East Side: The Conflicted Role of the Tenement Museum in New York’s Premier Immigrant Enclave By Adam Zev Steinberg Dissertation Director: Robert Lake This single-case study explores a cultural nonprofit house museum’s proposal to create a historic district on New York’s Lower East Side, a low-income but gentrifying neighborhood, in 2006-2007. The museum’s proposal failed because the museum didn't engage potential neighborhood allies in true bottom-up planning, and because the City’s landmarks law made it impossible for the museum’s proposal to address the neighborhood’s foremost concern, which was loss of affordable housing. This study suggests that in the postindustrial city it's very difficult for low-income communities to use culture to lay claim to their neighborhoods. It also suggests that historic preservation laws allow higher-income neighborhoods to protect themselves from the creative destruction of redevelopment by becoming historic districts, while still allowing wealth-generating redevelopment to happen in lower-income neighborhoods. The study suggests further research is needed to see if there is a causal link between historic district designation and gentrification. ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the first doctors of philosophy I ever knew: my mother, Carol Lee Steinberg, and my father, Phillip Henry Steinberg. iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................................... ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: Introduction and Methods ............................................................................................. 1 A Little Background ............................................................................................................. 1 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 5 Research Questions ............................................................................................................... 7 Methods................................................................................................................................. 8 Archival Research ............................................................................................................. 8 Interviews .......................................................................................................................... 8 Historical Research ........................................................................................................... 9 Chapters ................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 12 Competition After Keynesianism ....................................................................................... 12 Culture in the Post-Fordist City .......................................................................................... 14 Modernist Planning ............................................................................................................. 16 Postmodern Planning .......................................................................................................... 18 Planning by the People........................................................................................................ 19 Real Estate in New York City ............................................................................................. 21 History and Authenticity ..................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 3: The Context ................................................................................................................. 29 The Global Context ............................................................................................................. 29 National Context ................................................................................................................. 34 iv Municipal Context .............................................................................................................. 37 Neighborhood Context ........................................................................................................ 41 Chapter 4: What Happened ........................................................................................................... 48 The Slave Galleries ............................................................................................................. 48 The LESCPP Is Born .......................................................................................................... 53 The High-Rises ................................................................................................................... 56 Getting Started .................................................................................................................... 58 Building a Case ................................................................................................................... 60 Enter Margaret Hughes ....................................................................................................... 65 The Lower East Side Preservation Coalition ...................................................................... 66 Talking About Preservation ................................................................................................ 71 Appeasing Landlords and Developers ................................................................................ 73 The End of the Initiative ..................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 5: Differing Visions ......................................................................................................... 78 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 78 Nostalgic LES ..................................................................................................................... 78 From Bad to Good .............................................................................................................. 82 Communal Ownership ........................................................................................................ 84 Placing These Visions in a Globalized World .................................................................... 86 Land Use Implications of These Visions ............................................................................ 87 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 6: The Politics of Organizations on the LES ................................................................... 93 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 93 v The Tenement Museum as an Organization ....................................................................... 93 How the Tenement Museum Was Perceived by Other Organizations ............................... 95 Issues Facing Other Organizations on the LES .................................................................. 97 Historic Preservation Organizations in New York City ..................................................... 99 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 102 Chapter 7: Historic Preservation in NYC ................................................................................... 105 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 105 Who Are the Preservationists? .......................................................................................... 105 How Does Preservation Work in NYC? ........................................................................... 107 What Are the Obstacles to Preservation? .......................................................................... 115 How Does Historic Preservation Differ From Zoning? .................................................... 118 What Does This Story Tell Us About the LESTM’s Proposed District? ......................... 120 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 123 Chapter 8: Conclusion................................................................................................................