Robert Moses (New York, Islip, West Islip: buy, luxury, income)

[holden125]

Originally Posted by apvbguy

this is true, the first projects in the bronx were filled with mostly poorer senior citizens who were moved out of dilapidated tenements and from the area where the cbe was being built.

A friend of mine (whose parents came from PR) grew up in the projects on the LES and his mom's still there, she's 80 and really not doing great health-wise. He was saying how the project is nowhere near as bad as some but it bothers him how different it is today than in the early 70's. Now the elevators always have urine in them (human or dog or both) and don't work half the time because kids mess around and break them. He said when he was a kid the place was full of people who were poor but would never take a leak in the elevator of their own building. One area in which NYC has not gentrified since 1973.

Thanks for the rep, Moth

[SeventhFloor]

Originally Posted by SuperMario

I have a question regarding projects. Why did they decide to center them in certain areas....and in such close proximity to each other. At first, I tought they were built in Harlem/South Bronx/Brooklyn because they had poor tenement conditions and burned down buildings. But seeing that they were built before all the decay hit them.

Brownsville has so many projects but Flatbush does not. Mott Haven, Melrose, Morrisania and Soundview combine to make up 70% of the Bronx's housing projects...but Uni heights, Fordham and Tremont combine for zero. Did they have neighborhoods in mind. I think it would have been better if they weren't so close to each other. Spreading them out is better. Look at E. Harlem as compared to W. Harlem.

well the projects replaced slums.....there is a website that shows what was there before the projects were built for most locations....just remind me and i'll look it up for you.....but if you were to see what was there before the projects, you would beg the govt to tear it down yourself. most of these neighborhoods that have a high concentration of public housing (brownsville, e. harlem, lower east side) resembled a modern day five points prior to NYCHA.

in Chicago's case, it was NIMBYism (not in my backyard) i'm sure some of the same effect happened in NYC as well.

[scatman]

Oh, yeah, the PJ's were, for the most part, built for the war vets! However, they went to the suburbs, and then the need to fill them arose. "Who better" to fill them (so it was thought) than The Great Migrants from the South and the Boriqua Island!

[SeventhFloor]

2 that come to mind that were built for war vets were clason point gardens in the bronx and jamaica bay houses in brooklyn (eventually replaced by bayview houses).

[mead]

I believe Stuyvesant Town was built for War Vets as well. Today 1 br apartments in Stuy Town are going for $2,750.

[apvbguy]

Originally Posted by mead

I believe Stuyvesant Town was built for War Vets as well. Today 1 br apartments in Stuy Town are going for $2,750.

sty town was not public housing, you had to buy into the place, so the problems associated with the poor are not an issue there

[catbys]

The limited research that I have done indicates that Robert Moses had an empire at his disposal. I learned that his influence reached much farther than NYC. He was an advocate of the parkway hence the winding roads. New Orleans made an astute choice when they turned down his proposal to build a road thru the French Quarter and I believe this is the man they blame for the loss of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the NY Giants? I know history blames him for the demise of the amusement park at Coney Island. The man died in 1992. I was surprised. I didn't realize he was alive that recently.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by catbys

The limited research that I have done indicates that Robert Moses had an empire at his disposal. I learned that his influence reached much farther than NYC. He was an advocate of the parkway hence the winding roads. New Orleans made an astute choice when they turned down his proposal to build a road thru the French Quarter and I believe this is the man they blame for the loss of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the NY Giants? I know history blames him for the demise of the amusement park at Coney Island. The man died in 1992. I was surprised. I didn't realize he was alive that recently.

I was pretty sure he died back in 1982 or so...he would have been over 100 in 1992. Which is possible but I thought it was the early 80's.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by mead

I believe Stuyvesant Town was built for War Vets as well. Today 1 br apartments in Stuy Town are going for $2,750.

My friend has a (very big) 1BR in Peter Cooper Village that has gone from $2150 to $3300 since February 2005. 2150, then 2800, then 3300.

[Moth]

I know history blames him for the demise of the amusement park at Coney Island.

No, Walt Disney and Jet Travel did that place in.

The man died in 1992. I was surprised. I didn't realize he was alive that recently.

Died in 1980. My mother has the Time magazine with his obit.