For a recent article on the prevalence of this reasoning both among affordable housing advocates and real estate developers, see Benjamin Schneider, “The American Housing Crisis Might be our Next Big Political Issue,” CityLab, May 16, 2018, ➝.
For a more in depth exploration of the relationship of housing, inequality, and the particular role of architecture, see The Art of Inequality: Architecture, Housing, and Real Estate—A Provisional Report, eds. Reinhold Martin, Jacob Moore, and Susanne Schindler (New York: The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University, 2015), ➝.
“Affordable housing” in its current usage designates price- and income-restricted housing developed by private sector non- or for-profit developers, but overseen by city agencies.
This has changed since the appointment of a new Schools Chancellor, Richard Carranza, in April 2018.
In the mid-1960s, the term “ghetto” was being used interchangeably with “slum,” even though their origins were distinct, the former designating spatial restrictions based on ethnic background, the second designating areas considered physically and morally decaying.
“Turned around” was a phrase used by a task force study leading up to Model Cities; it was defined as an area made interesting for private investment. Report on the Task Force for Metropolitan and Urban Problems, November 30, 1964, 17.
The two key analyses published post-1974 are Bernard J. Frieden and Marshall Kaplan, The Politics of Neglect: Urban Aid from Model Cities to Revenue Sharing (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1975); and Charles M. Haar, Between the Idea and the Reality: A Study in the Origin, Fate, and Legacy of the Model Cities Program (Boston: Little, Brown 1975). A study focused on a planner’s experience in East New York is Walter Thabit, How East New York Became a Ghetto (New York: New York University Press, 2003). The sparse recent scholarship on Model Cities, too, largely engages a narrative based on the shortcomings with respect to the declared goal of citizen participation. Key works are Mandy Isaacs Jackson, Model City Blues: Urban Space and Organized Resistance in New Haven (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008); and Maki Brian Smith, Fighting Poverty Together: The War on Poverty and the Fault Lines of Participatory Democracy, PhD Dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2015.
I stumbled upon this contract as the last line item of a payments spreadsheet dated October 1968 located in the personal papers Model Cities’ first executive secretary in New York City, Eugenia Flatow. This was a chance encounter in a non-official archive; I had not found a mention of this film anywhere else.
For an excellent study of how CAP played out in Newark, see Mark Krasovic, The Newark Frontier: Community Action in the Great Society (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2016).
Victor Marrero, foreword to Bronx Plan 1968–72: A Report on the Bronx Model Cities Neighborhood, May 1972.
Quotes from City of New York, Housing and Development Administration, People & Plans, July 1967.
For more on the five studies, see Susanne Schindler, “1966 Can Be The Year of Rebirth for American Cities,” San Rocco 14, April 2018: 100–109.
The early difficulties in trying to work with the different constituencies is vividly described by Barry Jackson, the planning consultant engaged by the City, in: “The Legacy of the Harlem Model Cities Program,” in The Urban Experience: A People-Environment Perspective, eds. S. J. Neary, M. S. Symes, and F. E. Brown, Proceedings of the 13th Conference of the International Association for People-Environment Studies (Manchester: Taylor & Francis, 1994): 223-238.
The J. M. Kaplan Fund supported a variety of planning experiments at this time, including the prevention from demolition of Carnegie Hall in 1960, the vest-pocket housing study at Twin Parks in 1966, and the construction of the first legal live-work loft conversation, Westbeth, in the West Village in 1967. The foundation remains active today, but a full history of its activities remains to be written.
Ellen Perry Berkeley, “Vox Populi: Many Voices from A Single Community,” Architectural Forum, May 1968: 58-63, quote from 60.
Steven V. Roberts, “Negro-Latin Feud is Hurting Harlem,” New York Times, February 25, 1968. In fact, neither Jackson’s nor Katan’s schemes were realized, even though the site selection of Jackson’s plan was approved in November 1968. David K. Shipler, “Harlem Housing Approved by City,” New York Times, November 22, 1968.
David K. Shipler, “Board Votes Plan for Model Cities,” New York Times, May 23, 1969.
David K. Shipler, “Aide Dies in Fight on Poverty Funds,” New York Times, August 8, 1969.
David K. Shipler, “Model Cities’ Lag Irks 3 Slums Here,” New York Times, December 20, 1969.
David K. Shipler, “$65 Million in U.S. Slum Aid Snarled in City Red Tape,” New York Times, January 11, 1971.
David K. Shipler, “Lindsay defends Model Cities Aid,” New York Times, January 12, 1971.
Much of the detail on the early investment structure is provided in Kim Nauer, “Anatomy of a Sweetheart Deal,” City Limits, November 1, 1997.
For two discussions of the project, see Karen Kubey, “Low-Rise High-Density Housing: A Contemporary View of Marcus Garvey Park Village,” Urban Omnibus, July 18, 2012, ➝; and Kim Förster, “The Housing Prototype of the Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies: Negotiating Housing and the Social Responsibility of Architecture within Cultural Production,” Candide No. 5 (March 2012): 57–92. ➝.
The concept of the “decentralized housing network” was coined by David J. Erickson, The Housing Policy Revolution: Networks and Neighborhoods (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 2009).
Betances Houses was transferred to private owners in January 2018. See NYCHA press release, January 18, 2018, ➝.
For the most recent program description of how Inclusionary Housing relates to Contextual Zoning, see New York City, Department of City Planning, “Inclusionary Housing,” ➝.
Critics have focused in particular on the high cost of the 421a property tax abatement, often granted in conjunction with Contextual Zoning and Inclusionary Housing requirements. 421a was first put in place in 1971 and last revised in 2017. For a succinct overview of the limits of that most recent revision, see Charles Bagli, “Affordable Housing Program Gives City Tax Break to Developers,” New York Times, April 10. 2017. ➝.