Affordable Housing in New York – The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City - Hardcover

Bloom, Nicholas Dagen; Lasner, Matthew Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691167818 ISBN 13: 9780691167817

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2015

Synopsis

How has America's most expensive and progressive city helped its residents to live? Since the nineteenth century, the need for high-quality affordable housing has been one of New York City's most urgent issues. Affordable Housing in New York explores the past, present, and future of the city's pioneering efforts, from the 1920s to the major initiatives of Mayor Bill de Blasio. The book examines the people, places, and policies that have helped make New York livable, from early experiments by housing reformers and the innovative public-private solutions of the 1970s and 1980s to today's professionalized affordable housing industry. More than two dozen leading scholars tell the story of key figures of the era, including Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs, and Ed Koch. Over twenty-five individual housing complexes are profiled, including Queensbridge Houses, America's largest public housing complex; Stuyvesant Town; Co-op City; and recent additions like Via Verde. Plans, models, archival photos, and newly commissioned portraits of buildings and tenants put the efforts of the past century into social, political, and cultural context and look ahead to future prospects for below-market subsidized housing. A richly illustrated, dynamic portrait of an evolving city, this is a comprehensive and authoritative history of public and middle-income housing in New York and contributes significantly to contemporary debates on how to enable future generations of New Yorkers to call the city home. Contributors include: Matthias Altwicker, Hilary Ballon, Lizabeth Cohen, Andrew S. Dolkart, Peter Eisenstadt, Richard Greenwald, Christopher Klemek, Jeffrey A. Kroessler, Nancy H. Kwak, Nadia A. Mian, Annemarie Sammartino, David Schalliol, Susanne Schindler, David Smiley, Jonathan Soffer, Fritz Umbach, and Samuel Zipp. Featured housing complexes include: Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments * Amsterdam Houses * Bell Park Gardens * Boulevard Gardens * Co-op City * East River Houses * Eastwood * Harlem River Houses * Hughes House * Jacob Riis Houses * Johnson Houses * Marcus Garvey Village * Melrose Commons * Nehemiah Houses * Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments * Penn South * Queensbridge Houses * Queensview * Ravenswood Houses * Riverbend Houses * Rochdale Village * Schomburg Plaza * Starrett City * Stuyvesant Town * Sunnyside Gardens * Twin Parks * Via Verde * West Side Urban Renewal Area * West Village Houses * Williamsburg Houses

About this title

Review:

"From a housing act in 1926 to the sustainable design of Via Verde in 2012, this history painstakingly lays out the mixed success of the city's efforts to provide for its less privileged."---Avinash Rajagopal, Metropolis

"[Affordable Housing in New York] chronicles each below-market subsidized housing project ever built in the city--an overview of the push and pull between politics and market forces. . . . The research of multiple scholars is tidily collected."---Cassie Owens, NextCity

"This is no dull study of methodologies for assorted programs. The book brings idealistic characters to life--from Fiorella LaGuardia to Alfred Smith, Clarence Stein, Robert Moses, Ed Logue, and Jane Jacobs--as well as lesser known, often female, pioneering housing advocates. . . . [E]ssential."---Jayne Merkel, Architectural Record

"The historically minded book celebrates New York City's best efforts at providing low-income families a high-quality place to live. . . . Adding extra visual depth is a standout section of images by photographer and sociology professor David Schalliol at developments like Co-op City in the Bronx."--Surface

"A gorgeous tome of essays."---Kai Wright, There Goes the Neighborhood

"A book worth reading even for those with only a marginal interest in housing policies, because it paints a comprehensive picture of the people, places, and policies that have truly transformed a city."---Raluca Moldovan, ABC Journal

"An excellent primer on the many efforts that have been made toward tackling affordability, with lessons both cautionary and encouraging. . . . The volume isn't merely a compendious and fascinating history but also an argument, locating inspiration in the past for the urgent task of housing the ever-larger number of New Yorkers hard-pressed to live in the city. It is in such history that this book provides massive encouragement--anyone who thinks that large-scale affordable construction is impossible in New York needn't turn to fantasies, they need merely look out their window."---Anthony Paletta, Metropolis

"A wonderful new book. . . . Bloom and Lasner, and the exquisite group of contributors they assembled for this volume, look into the first hundred years of projects, programs, policies, communities, and individuals that brought to life this one-of-a-kind housing stock. . . . By analyzing about three dozen housing projects of different eras in their social and historical context, the book sheds new light on this multifaceted history without falling into the trap of becoming an obscure laundry list of housing policies."---Olympia Kazi, Architect's Newspaper

""Book Title of the Year," as selected for Curbed.com's Architecture in 2015: A Year in Review"

"With New York City's population and employment at an all-time high, the challenge of maintaining an adequate supply of affordable housing has never been greater. Covering over a century of government involvement in the production of housing, this impressive survey provides a valuable guide to understanding the range of approaches to planning and community development."--Mark A. Willis, executive director of the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

From the Back Cover:

"With New York City's population and employment at an all-time high, the challenge of maintaining an adequate supply of affordable housing has never been greater. Covering over a century of government involvement in the production of housing, this impressive survey provides a valuable guide to understanding the range of approaches to planning and community development."--Mark A. Willis, executive director of the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

"New York City has been one of the greatest homes in human history for the aspirations of newly arrived immigrants, marginalized families, striving entrepreneurs, and culturally diverse talents because the city's reformers, advocates, and activists have demanded livable and affordable housing across two centuries of city building. Bloom and Lasner have shaped a compelling story of housing innovation, urban determination, and, most importantly, essential human progress and lives touched in profound ways."--Henry Cisneros, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

"Affordable Housing in New York is an engaging account of more than a century of efforts to provide New Yorkers with below-market housing. The contributors are excellent and the extensive illustrations enhance the rich text."--Lawrence Vale, author of Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities

"Highlighting the important people, places, and policies that tell the story of below-market housing in New York, this is an authoritative history of the subject."--Edward G. Goetz, University of Minnesota

"Affordable Housing in New York is a treasure trove of profiles and photographs of the buildings, programs, and people that have long distinguished New York City as the nation's preeminent leader in providing housing for low- and moderate-income people. Whether one is an expert on housing or new to the field, this book will be an essential reference."--Alex Schwartz, author of Housing Policy in the United States

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0691167818
• ISBN 13: 9780691167817
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336