In a city constantly in motion, the financial capital of the world, the art center of the world, the real estate center of the world, the city that never sleeps, one would expect everyone to embrace change as the price we pay to live in NYC. Quite the contrary, this city of distinct neighborhoods is in a constant struggle to maintain the character of each as we have come to cherish it. Here in Greenwich Village, the poster child for neighborhood struggles, affordable housing pervaded the area when it served the merchant marine docks on the Hudson and the many industrial lofts and warehouses up through the mid-1900s.
What was affordable then? One could characterize the dwellings as small walkup apartments above small shops, cold water flats, or small brownstones. Flophouses or seamen’s hotels seemed to dominate the riverfront blocks facing the piers. When these maritime and industrial activities died out slowly over the decades, the quality of life increased with reduced crime, less truck and train traffic, and improved utility services. The appeal of the Village’s smaller blocks and lower buildings, and casual residential character brought many newcomers to the area, always seeming to exceed the availability of rooms to rent or buy. Since at least the 1960s, this meant higher rents and sales prices could be charged. Free enterprise!
Conversions of the warehouses, stables, and industrial buildings into residential properties were now profitable and worthwhile investments. Larger apartment blocks appeared, especially along wider streets. Many searchers for Greenwich Village apartments had to look further north or far to the east to find more availability and lower prices.
As Manhattan and NYC’s fortunes have improved in recent decades, the growth pattern has meant an improving quality of life for many, but also a higher cost of living. It has put tremendous pressures on residents.
Is there an answer? Among the many solutions, moving to a cheaper area seems the easiest way. However, for those who are fighting to stay in their beloved neighborhood, the choices are few. For some it may mean living with more people in one place to share the costs. For others, it may mean moving to a smaller space with lower rent. For a few who qualify, it could mean scoring subsidized housing in a private or public building.
Perhaps the chance of getting subsidized housing peaked in the 1970s, before the big public housing projects ended, before the federal funds for housing dwindled, before rent controls were weakened. Slum clearance is no longer politically viable, and some forms of welfare are seen as a self-defeating policy. One change for the better to come out of post-project urban policy is the Section 8 and other subsidized programs that distribute qualified tenants among market rate apartments, preserving dignity and neighborhood character.
The NYU Furman Center reports that 1/3 of New Yorkers live alone, and these singular households have increased by 88,000 since 2000. The city attracts older people, younger people, and more foreign-born. We are getting more diverse and more integrated.
The current 2011 Rent laws expire at the end of this year. Economic pressure will remain.
Brian Pape, AIA, LEED-AP, LRES
Green Architect & Historic Specialist
Architectural Editor, West View News
