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5/1/1969 - Co-op City New York or What would you do with 300 acres of swamp? by Eden Ross Lipson

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS ERL E Street New York i0016 Co City New York May What would acres swamp Mr R H Nolte Institute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York i0017 Dear Mr Nolte A television repair stepped lobby Baychester Road stark unfinished apartment building Bronx recent noontime He opened camera started snapping pictures lunar landscape around Turning stranger remarked vigorously Five years place really going SOMETHING Rising sandy banks Hutchinson River Co City Co City something already In terms largest single apartment development United States largest cooperative development world When finished population iving apartments mostly apartment towers acres If numbers grasp think Co City taking sized prairie Rochester Minnesota squeezing population vertically sticking women children about New York Central Park Street Street When bills Co City support facilities grace fully inevitably Four hundred million dollars Wheeeeeee Yet despite involvement myriad governmental agencies authorities requisite engineers architects Co City systematically planned By chance became possible It happened paper The plans modified slightly taking place Co City thing drivers enter New York north Passersby passion cowboy ambled quite accident Grand Canyon looked remarked Something happened Commuters watching construction proceed likely mutter about surrealistic Co City rises plonk nothing middle nowhere Politicians think Co City wouldn public The reason simple carries relentless compelling logic Middle class housing New York City nowadays commonly costs month At Co City carrying costs average Funny makes whole project Co City happened because inspired success Disneyland amusement called Freedomland developed swampy reaches Bronx Webb Knapp estate which subsequently spectacular bankruptcy Freedomland which flopped reverted National Developme Corporation In spring Robert Moses secular eminence housing nearly everything New York including World Fair realized possibilities unlikely large housing development calling attention United Housing Foundation match UHF profit federation unions notably excepting construction trades cooperatives which builds cooperative housing ordinary working people their money worth UHF personality gruff though fighting angels impressive record It began fifties doing urban renewal projects By notified vacant swamp Bronx finishing development Rochdale Village large units integrated project vacant formerly black Queens Z Z J UHF housing particularly lovely outside which might housing New York City The value price largely interior sound construction kitchens hardwood floors Philosophy justify explain exterior banality UHF projects because aesthetes constantly whining about appearance public meetings press The aesthetes think UHF boorish UHF thinks aesthetes unrealistic unreasonable profit housing while ignoring hideous profitable structures erupt around New York The UHF covers colored brick flanks logic fathers public exteriors should their money where their mouths public capital contribution exterior design costs They aware bitter irony which taxes looking buildings New York City Seagrams CBS office buildings their loveliness UHF building ordinary people limit capital prefer spend inside where residents passersby appreciate One example inner directed priorities UHF which particularly attractive rhetorically turns examination gesture expense Co City trally conditioned UHF stresses considerable pride noting families living Co City living there round homes other luxurious beating Fun City summers Actually conditioning system inexpensive addition basically economy scale total energy power plant fought rates Con Edison New York utility company It highly unlikely conditioning motivating detail bringing families Co City touch class bargain price Co City building power plant which central condi tioning acticality luxury As Bronx concerned UHF interested grand scale apartments The New York standards infinitesimal swamp Land Milbank Frawley Urban Renewal Project Harlem averages square The National Development Corporation agreed acres square reserving itself smaller strategically located plots commercial development other industrial It shrewd because course value reserved acreage would every UHF invesment Co City Eventually UHF spent another dollar million yards white eight price square With impressively hurdle financing abatement Months backstage negotia tions ensued including private audience Governor In February flourish press conference Governor Rockefeller announced imminent birth Co City enormous state financed mortgage largest history New York Housing Finance Agency abatement years The response immediate underscored importance UHF trying field middle income housing W announcement UHF filled requests applications In three weeks completed applications deposit received People their money putting payments towards escape hatch They THREE BEDROOM APARTMENT floor UHF taken title New York Planning Commission acted proposal still swamp would nearly years before could expect strength story reputation UHF quoted prices S450 equity carrying costs month wanted chance living Co City Before Co City could begin New York City Planning Commission review proposals Two issues dominated Planning Commission hearings Co City April design transportation The American Institute Archi tects Municipal Art Society Metropolitan Committee Planning Architects Renewal Committee Harlem Co City plans looked More importantly joined representative Community Planning Board No representative Bronx Borough President Office Executive Director Citizen Housing Planning Council worrying about transportation problems posed Co City location squat between major highways The Planning Commission forced certain substantive changes design Co City UHF considers change which costs money substantive The important creation eight multi level garages UHF going allow nearly ground space covered parking therefore aesthetic practical improvement addition almost townhouseso The townhouses added aesthetic contrast mighty towers reserved particularly large families three bedrooms No asked I think imposed silly For reason upper middle class people tightly packed apartments other parts New York City Manhattan distraught offended other people living buildings other primitive reason public housing The important distinction between thirty story building between story building anything higher The difference elevator living Most people moving Co City central Bronx where along Grand Concoursebuildings stories That means adjustments Co City towers UHF tells oldsters about generator elevators going blackout brusque UHF official tells apprehensive mammas The difference between falling window floor floor takes ground That modern truth which friends means bodies Park Avenue E Street bodies 125th Street middle class bodies Co City Whether family given choice would choose raise children dunes where mother window playing break fight dinner rather icing pavement below spending taking organized areas another question Generally answer people prefer living houses which means ground affluence determinedly houses But center cities utterly futile about idyllic houses homes Old Law tenement buildings still occupied public housing dispiriting morass middle class housing expensive middle class although there would tenants luxury housing economic investment these In Old Law tenement buildings declared unfit human habitation Those apartments inhabited mostly overcrowded Housing costs New York reached point where profit aimed cooperative begun alone profit cooperative Co City To apartments acres facilities shops parks Co City Did Possibly For price probably But secret suspicion turned beautiful design breakthrough people built might suspicious their money being spent Anyway Planning Commission UHF agree varying brick finishes diversity distinguished landscape architect construction ended There plans marina along Hutchinson River The basic social criticism Co City middle class development therefore restrictive Using classic formulas being income against average carrying costs means family bedroom apartment should income family bedroom apartment income In factj median income Co City pplicants ceiling close Co City A grows Co City Sitting somehow Miami Co City Riverbay Cooperative profit although equity refunda There bottom limit membership financing available families equity payments which average It works apartment Co City balcony perhaps facing north maybe floor brand floored conditioned nonethe month upper limit public housing The people moving Co City steam fitters schoolteachers clerks policemen druggists hotel workers grocers college professors They happen middle class In percentage retired people restricted incomes pensions makes income range wider counting active earning families Co Ci integrated Applications deposit checks minority groups running under total which passed Just minority group delicate question talley direct notation close visual check people interviews The minority population Co City taking those smaller apartments lower floors facing north either conscious upwardly mobile younger people families larger apartments exposures balconies status UHF staff defensive testy about whole subject repeating again project people think could really afford Co City reach Co City doesn advertise outside union papers doesn because people putting their today apartment reach lower spectrum could At Planning Commission hearing Roger Start Executive Director Citizens Housing Planning Council author under The Living End backed really worrysome social problem Co Cit The final point testimony favor approval raised vague terms sword which sides He suggested people moving Co City would moving existing standard standard dwellings No forced anything Co City really vacant Bronx moving people gooey banks Hutchinson River suction effect somewhere behind Start pondered problem tentatively years later truth established Some applications Co City Central Bronx mostly Grand Concourse where whole build emptying UHF officials regretfully bluntly acknowledge biggest factor propelling people Co City It secret Blacks Puerto Ricans these vacated apartments tension along Grand Concourse build those buildings simultaneously overcrowded maintained Roger Start wondered aloud apartments vacated Co City cooperators couldn renovated somehow conserved overcrowding physical decay He questioning backlash reasons moving families Free service saved matter upwardly mobile Co City rather wistfully challenging inevitability blight behind No answered although maybe after elections university foundation underwrite collection pertinent graphic information moved moved The other sword percentage people moving Co City fearful tired To mercenary people needs young setters brutal taxes survive pressures They elderly lived already become still morea burden expensive needs leave Bronx known their lifetimes Co City perfect solution staying New York staying independent within modest incomes They leave large older apartments small inexpensive There better thousand people families living first buildings Co City forty fifty They people traffic islands Broadway watching traffic people children commenting passing parade I watched spring Co City sitting their chairs sunshine dunes cigarette butts rusty nails hands folded their nodding If UHF cautious rental agent every bedroom apartment Co City total would taken within first years applications elderly retired retiring Rather dwell plight elderly living Co City should I suppose thankful living mixed developments where there children young people variety activities instead retire colonies there activities Co City already But moving Co City lifetime Central Bronx undeniably difficult mostly makes transportation situation aggravating Getting Co City going significantly worse before better Yet everyone UHF State City speakers Planning Commission going happen All laissez faire For point minute wonder What Co City suburb along Swedish model Faarsta Vallingby outside Stockholm It fetched because nothing New York City seems being unmanageable Sweden being overmanaged there relevant similarities notably serious housing shortage unrelated damage Stockholm New York overcrowded New York antiquated inequitable seemingly Irreplaceable system controls affecting buildings In Stockholmas New York center apartments fractions price small suburban flats little ladies minding their places while young families themselves small expensive cramped quarters would dearly leave could someplace could fford Getting apartment central Stockholm difficult finding East Side Manhattan process openly called black market Stockholm grown planners delight It pretty speci shape discernable perceivable passes through ground purposeful terms resource Modern Stockholm shape which subway lines spokes connect separate green belted suburbs center Ebenezer Howard gospel Garden Cities Tomorrow Sweden immediately after publication Britain century Stockholm fathers heart Stockholm outgrown medieval boundaries cluster islands Lake Maalaren developed rather outer circles construction collec tively referred City Stone The officials Stockholm observed their growth pattern thought about Howard theories towns greenbelts thought ahead started buying outside existing boundaries As result control create first greenbelt twenties thirties impetus planned suburban development during Second World War gasoline shortage crippled transportation neutral Sweden Suddenly subway system discussed pondered postponed seemed better indeed essential The decision build ended progressed about Instead building subway building suburbs built together usefully complement other The suburb planned around transportation Within yards apartments shopping plazas moving lower buildings finally minutes there single family homes greenbelt which separates suburb distance usually about The first suburbs rather small middle sized about Co City latest quite large there variations pattern based primarily features principle detailed design advantage transportation The necting highways engineered California standards Swedes drive right nearly capita Americans sustained supervised matter policy public transportation available efficient attractive daily There undeniable chaos New York death maybe transportation Co City another albeit large chapter There UHF doing priority building housing middle income people people fleeing New York developing vacant within limits increasing property values hopefully attracting Their found happenstance chosen proud design between highways rather awkwardly visibly wedged between The state putting enormous mortgage giving abatement spending least million dollars schools water sewers police departments interior roads think Co City going rationally connected New York City Keep laugh As motorcycle Hutchinson River Parkway It interesting I Co City people going using roads I patrol How Co City Let start subway There silly fiction around someday Pelham Bay Line might extended Co City In addition other parts subway improve design Co City winding effectively means wherever placed would Co City lobbies What about existing subway stops There about Co City accessible pedestrian overpass Baychester Avenue New England Thruway Breezy inconvenient So subways Buses Co City applied franchises three granted private lines connecting subway routes Bronx In addition enterprising First National City Bank running shuttle large shopping development midday twice Only buses share roads trucks reason expect commuter inching their Co City traffic construction Do ously suspect final plans ramps existing highways ready Four years after planning approval three years after construction began months after first residents moved Are still laughing I think funny I commute those roads But There The National Development Company knows officially happen those adjacent plots engineering models Commercial facilities within Co City restricted three modest shopping centers In interim period Co grocery store opened basement garages The groceries pharmacies Co City cooperatives A directory first shopping center indicates include bakeries eateries service shops religious centers basic clothing stores including formal rental estab lishment There large shopping centers within miles inside tside limits It seems however though Baychester Plaza tight between highways include department stores story office buildings Are getting traffic picture Would believe somehow middle coordination phone company moved bought exactly where New England Thruway ought logically built million dollar windowless exchange looking thruway Guess approval plans detour around telephone company Guess because there roughly families Co City Further because Baychester Plaza Industrial Park plans unclear Co City proceeding apace ahead expenditures almost surely inadequate completed specifically sewers interior roads UHF putting capital million public money being wasted wasted bureaucratic bickering wasted planning wasted increasing delays other words wasted needlessly I think inexcusable outrageous I But figure responsible proverbial greased UHF probably responsible agency involved The Governor Mayors Wagner Lindsay would brownie points their roles after approving abstained exerting administrative leadership direction although belatedly appoint Co City ordinator struggles along trying coordinate necessarily related except The Planning Commission report Mayor almost totally useless document reflects devastating aesthete misperception Co City characterized press accounts Next drive north New York swamp instead genteely shuddering awful absurd those towers north anywhere south Westchester wonder might Sincerely Received New York May Eden Ross Lipson