Essex Crossing is a massive development which will soon be built on one of the largest remaining vacant parcels of land in Manhattan. This, no doubt, will radically alter the neighborhood in ways unlike previous urban renewal efforts. The land is located on the south side of Delancey Street, near the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, and is also known as SPURA (Seward Park Urban Regeneration Area). It has been vacant since the late 1960’s due to a failed urban renewal scheme (see NY Times article here and read the comments). This left the area with a big, gaping hole in its center, dividing the newer housing projects to the south and east from the older low rise housing stock to the north and west. Consequentially, other smaller parcels of land were cleared of buildings all over the LES and Alphabet City in the 1970’s and 80’s, mostly due to absentee landlords and overall neglect. This left the neighborhood with little habitable housing stock. When Giuliani became mayor in the mid-1990’s, many deals were made with developers, and thus began a cycle of regeneration/gentrification that continues to this day.
Giuliani wasn’t the first to try to gentrify the Lower East Side, and arguments could be made that attempts were happening even in the early 1900’s (I'm thinking Ageloff Towers on Avenue A). The first big push after the citywide decline of the 1970’s was actually in the early 1980’s, when the East Village and LES began to be populated by art galleries and performance spaces. The scene very different from the current crop of galleries, in that most operated with very little profit in repurposed storefronts and bedrooms. They were not the professionalized ventures we see populating the neighborhood today (at least not initially). Also many of the artists showing in the galleries lived and worked in the neighborhood, therefore it was often a local scene. Also at times the work being shown directly questioned the state of the neighborhood, politics, and housing policies (see The Real Estate Show and also somewhat related: Martha Rosler's show/book "If You Lived Here").
I recently started a visual project detailing the change on my street in the LES since I moved there in 1991. I don’t have a ton of pictures from the early 1990’s, but I have enough to piece together a timeline of sorts chronicling renovations, demolitions, and new construction on just a small portion of my block. A lot has happened in 20+ years, more than I remembered without the aid of photographs. I now realize I hadn’t considered the change which came from within, such as empty buildings being rehabilitated and occupied (there are many), as being the catalyst which kickstarted future larger developments. Looking back though, its obvious this was the case.
-to be continued………(due to lack of home internet posting is getting slower…….)
-to be continued………(due to lack of home internet posting is getting slower…….)
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