public housing

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Citi Bike Sets Up Shop in Riis Houses, Hoping to Boost Low-Income Ridership

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(Photo: Citi Bike on Instagram)

The operators of Citi Bike are set to open facilities in the Jacob Riis Houses in Alphabet City, a move that they hope will bring more low-income riders to the bike-share program and make it easier for existing users to score a ride.

The new base of operations is located in what the New York City Housing Authority describes as “an existing facility in an underutilized space,” at 152-154 Avenue D. Motivate, the operators of Citi Bike, hope it will lead to a more balanced system, meaning no more showing up to stations to find there are no bikes to rent. Citi Bike general manager Kris Sandor also hopes it will help with community outreach. “We are again looking to support and engage with everybody, especially for ridership, but then also for our hiring practices,” Sandor said. “We’re really looking to make sure that we’re engaging with lower-income communities.”

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Despite Rapid Development, Bushwick Community Plan Won’t Happen Until Next Year

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When we last checked in with the Bushwick Community Plan that stakeholders are formulating for the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, Antonio Reynoso and Rafael Espinal were hoping to introduce it to the City Council sometime this year. But it now looks like it won’t happen until the end of 2018, Reynoso said in an interview with City Limits.

“Through negotiations and the work that they’re doing, we’ve noticed that we’ve had to push the timeline back a year,” Reynoso told the site’s publisher, Jarrett Murphy.

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East Village and LES Brace For NYCHA’s Affordable Housing Plan

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(Photo: Jaime Cone)

Brian Honan, director of governmental relations for NCYCA, address CB 3’s Public Housing Committee (Photo: Jaime Cone)

Mayor de Blasio still hasn’t identified the public housing projects that will be targeted for private development under a controversial new plan, but after a meeting last night, it’s clear that the Lower East Side is a strong candidate for the mix of affordable and market-rate housing.

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Happy 80th Birthday to America’s ‘First Experiment’ in Public Housing

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All week, we’re bringing you a series of deep dives into the surprising histories of storied addresses. Back to our usual after the New Year.

First Houses, on the corner of Avenue A and East 3rd Street. (Photo: Lindsey Smith.)

First Houses, on the corner of Avenue A and East 3rd Street. (Photo: Lindsey Smith.)

The sleet beating down on East 3rd Street in January 1935 didn’t stop any of the hopeful applicants from standing in line for hours between 1st Avenue and Avenue A outside the office of the New York City Housing Authority. During the Great Depression people had gotten used to life in the queue. They did it for jobs, for public benefits, and for food. But this time the reason was altogether different.
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Beneath Baruch Houses, a ‘Rough Block’ Wiped Off the Map

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All week, we’re bringing you a series of deep dives into the surprising histories of storied addresses. Back to our usual after the New Year.

Demolition in Progress 83-90 Goerck st, Rivington-stanton, 1934-1938. (By NY Tenement House Authority.)

Demolition in Progress 83-90 Goerck st, Rivington-stanton, 1934-1938. (By NY Tenement House Authority.)

Walk as far east on Houston Street as you can until lines of imposing brick towers shoot up over the river – about 27 acres of them. The streets no longer make sense in context and the lines don’t link up with the grid. It’s like you’ve passed into another city. Instead of the jumble of old-fashioned tenements with ladders hanging out the windows coexisting with storefronts and street life, you encounter 17 almost uniform towers with yards of greenery surrounding them – a luxury of space rarely seen in Manhattan. These buildings are tough, institutional even, with their glazed red brick to discourage vandalism, lines of bars in windows and signs that say, “Welcome to Bernard Baruch Houses” outside each building.
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Public Housing Gets Millions to Beef Up Security, But Will It Be Enough?

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Dorothea Knox, President of the Tenant Association at Berry Street- South 9th Street Houses (photo: Nicole Disser)

Dorothea Knox, President of the Tenant Association at Berry Street- South 9th Street Houses (photo: Nicole Disser)

Last month the city finally allocated $50 million to security upgrades and “anti-violence initiatives” in its ailing public housing complexes. But of the 15 developments that will see the long called-for funding, just one (Bushwick Houses) is in the Bedford + Bowery coverage area. Meanwhile, several developments in downtown Manhattan and North Brooklyn remain without any security cameras at all.
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In the Projects, Citi Bike Hasn’t Exactly Kicked Into High Gear

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A trail of self-praise has followed Citi Bike over the last week. Over 6,000 Citi Bikers pedaled through the city against the Polar Vortex and just yesterday the program announced that it had signed up its 97,000th member.  So why is the docking station outside of the Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D and East 5th Street so often chock full of bright blue bikes?

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