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| Housing Projects Re: Jane Jacobs Re: Cross Manhattan expressway (465722) | |||
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Housing Projects Re: Jane Jacobs Re: Cross Manhattan expressway |
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Posted by GP38/R42 Chris on Tue Jul 24 20:22:09 2007, in response to Re: Jane Jacobs Re: Cross Manhattan expressway, posted by BrooklynBus on Tue Jul 24 15:44:10 2007. I agree, projects sucked big time, and was a huge mistake, but take a look at how a lot of these people were living back then. While yes, the neighborhoods were still somewhat strong, the housing stock was deteriorating to epic proportions. Many of these buildings taken down were still old law tenaments, which lacked central heating, had kitchens from the 1800's, and many tenants had to share hallway bathrooms. Something HAD to be done, as the conditions were getting worse, and these buildings needed MAJOR upgrading. And again, this was the 1940's and 50's, when cities were looked at as old fashioned, and there was an "out with the old, in with the new " attitude that was everywhere. Today, we know better with our "everything old is new again" attitude, and we know preservation is a good thing, and people actually look for "old" now. But that was NOT the case in the 40's, 50's, and even the 60's....again, we can't take today's ideals, and place them in a different era with different thinking.The below link to the housing authority's archives is a sobering look at how people were living, and shows both the good and bad of clearing neighborhoods for project-like housing. But again, remember the era....it was an out with the old in with the new mentality, you can't place today's better, what is old is new again attitude in restoration and preservation. The site does look at both the good and the bad. Please read some of the stuff on this site, and look at the photos and their captions....and see how many of these people lived in many of these buildings, below the link, is some sample photos. Also notice where the bathtubs are, as they didn't have bathrooms! http://www.laguardiawagnerarchive.lagcc.cuny.edu/PhotosVirtualExhibit/ShowPhotosDetails.asp?photo=02.003.22199&ShowPage=6&PhotoID=774  Mrs. Walter Maloney with her five children, aged from 4 to 12, in the kitchen of their tenement apartment at 124 Moore Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, August 24, 1955. The monthly rent for their five-room cold water flat was $17. The tenement was torn down to make way for the 1960 Bushwick Houses, a 16-acre project that houses 2,962 people. (The Maloneys are also pictured in THE SLUMS 2, image 9.) ID# 02.003.22199  "There are revealing details of domestic consumption." Mrs. Herman Koenig, with her son and dog, doing laundry in the bathtub in the kitchen, August 11, 1941. The Koenig family were about to move out of their tenement and into Kingsborough Houses in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The 16 acre complex, completed in 1941, houses some 2,362 people. ID# 02.003.00060  Mrs. Theodore Wurthmann poses in the kitchen of her tenement apartment, probably in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, September 2, 1941. The Wurthmann family were about to move out of their slum and into the newly opened Kingsborough Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. ID# 02.003.00107  A woman poses with her children in the kitchen of their tenement apartment in Brooklyn, near the Navy Yard, 02/27/1948. Their building would be torn down as part of the site clearance for Farragut Houses, a 16.6 acre complex that opened in 1952 and houses some 3,440 residents. ID# 02.003.07854  This is presumably a pre-Old Law apartment, built prior to 1879 (windows/transoms between rooms where there are no windows on the outside), June 14, 1940. The Hennesey family lived in this tenement at 150 Norman Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and were probably photographed as prospective tenants for a project then being constructed, such as Kingsborough Houses. ID# 02.002.01796  The back of tenement buildings, in a photo taken September 24, 1941, which would be razed to build Amsterdam Houses in 1948, bounded by West 61st and West 64th Streets, from Amsterdam Avenue to West End Avenue in Manhattan. ID# 02.003.00958 |
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