Who Am I? |
My name is Wyatt Frank. I was born in Chelsea in the Penn South Cooperative. Like many of the kids who grew up there, although increasingly less so, my grandparents moved into Penn South as original tenants in 1962 and never looked back. The major development in Chelsea of their day was a 2,000+ unit affordable housing development, from which they got a view of the Hudson River from 21 stories up at a rate they could afford forever. Penn South is one of the largest Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC) in New York, and for twenty something years, my grandparnets contributed to that too.
In the picture above is my grandmother, Emmy, my sister Sabrina (left) and me (right). Behind us is the Hudson River and the view my grandparents cherished. I am a white guy from an upper middle class family. That may not seem important right away but it adds context here. In my own lifetime, I have watched my neighborhood change from something nice but unspectacular to one of New York's premier tourist destinations and one of the richest neighborhoods in America. I have watched high rise after high rise sprout from abandoned lots, in nooks and crannies of space, seemingly, and I have watched the neighborhood change in correlation to that. The recent land rush to Chelsea does not mirror the development push that inspired the construction of the projects and the coop in the early 60s. New developments tend to be sleek and reflective. They offer apartments and condos at a market rate that is only increasing with each new building. New coffee shops and higher prices indicate a changing population, and increased tourism distinguish this decade from the last. These changes have made me wonder certain questions that I know are shared among members of my neighborhood: from where did this increase in housing development in Chelsea come, and what effect might it have? |
What is This Website? |
I was an intern in my local New York City Council member's office a couple summers ago when I first heard the commotion that would become a theme of the summer. Standing around at a paper-shredding event as constituents waited in line to use the shredding truck, one elderly constituent walked up to me, pointed to a mass of new glass buildings going up and said:
“Look at those behemoths being built over there! I’ve lived here for 40 years, what is going to happen to us when those things get built?” It was a fair question to ask, and something I had thought about myself. I didn't have an answer then, but I have since given the question considerable thought. This website serves to address that question. Housing is shelter but it is also much more. With houses come people, and with people come families, livelihoods, neighborhoods -- entire existences between four walls. For thousands of residents of Chelsea, the same apartment has been their shelter for 10, 20, even 50 years. For city planning purposes, housing takes another meaning altogether; housing is also the mechanism through which new residents are able to move in, neighborhoods can be improved, and city tax funding can increase. On the flip side, it is the mechanism through which long term, poorer residents are either allowed to stay or pushed aside and forgotten amidst the effects of new development. If you walk down the streets of Chelsea, Manhattan and look around you, the buildings themselves seem to embody the history and the diversity of the neighborhood. In the span of several streets you can witness a row of red bricked, lilly blossom tree-lined brownstones, 4 story walk-ups above old multipurpose DVD shops, a light brown row of project buildings and finally a shining, reflective hulk of a skyscraper, whose beams coalesce upwards for miles. New developments threaten to take history and diversity away from New York as neighborhoods like Chelsea become wealthier beyond compare. New developments mean new resources and grander opportunities -- tourism, schools, park space, safety, recreation centers, jobs. The catch is that those opportunities come at a steep price, and do not exist in a vacuum; the neighborhood as a whole becomes more expensive, rents and property taxes increase, living becomes less affordable for many New Yorkers and slowly but surely, those at the bottom become more vulnerable to displacement. Also, with pricey development comes foreign investment and higher vacancy rates to contrast increasing rates of homelessness in the city. This is the classic story of gentrification, but in Chelsea, thousands of old units of affordable housing remain from the 60s. They shelter and provide affordable housing for tens of thousands of residents in Chelsea and until they are gone, Chelsea will remain at least in part historic, and diverse. This adds some spice to the story of development in Chelsea. Many neighborhood residents of the projects and the coop are aware of a changing Chelsea and a changing New York -- more so, they are cognizant that the Chelsea they live in would not be theirs anymore if they did not live in the protected housing units they did. Many who live in the projects or the coop are aware of new residents making more money than them and they are aware of the positive changes to the neighborhood, albeit with the potential impending costs. When the question, “what will happen to the neighborhood when…”, is asked, it is not just to ask what in the neighborhood will change, but who will be living there and who will move out. So, what is this website? This website is a housing policy primer. I will attempt to answer the questions posed by my neighbor by examining by correlation the history and extent of housing development in Chelsea since 1970 along with changes in demographics -- specifically age, race, and income levels. Through examining in what conditions of housing the demographics of Chelsea have changed over time, I think we may gain a more informative base of knowledge in order to begin to discuss an answer to this question on our hands: “What does it mean when new, big housing developments come into this neighborhood?” |
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In the distance, where the constituent pointed, the shining tip of a new skyscraper blue as the sky it reflected was a noticeable contrast to the old brick buildings of my brown-brick coop which lay in the foreground. The coop, these old buildings built in the 60s had a lot of history, I knew, and thousands of residents to tell the tale. Until very recently, in fact, Chelsea was a middle class neighborhood.
Chelsea is no longer a middle class neighborhood. As of 2014, the median family income in Chelsea was nearly $130,000, with 25% of the households in the neighborhood making over $200,000 a year. The median income in New York remains under $70,000 (although this number is skewed and in areas like the Bronx and Brooklyn, it is more accurately under $40,000 a year) and the median family income in Manhattan is around $75,000. In only the last 10 years, development in Chelsea has made it a tourist destination and a wealthy neighborhood, and there is suddenly a vast wealth divide present between new residents and the residents of the old brick buildings of the projects and coop buildings that remain standing. As more people begin to ask themselves “what will happen?”, more begin to realize that all of the nice things coming to the neighborhood -- tourist attractions, increased park space, new schools, better lighting -- may not be for them, if in the next x amount of years, these old brick buildings should deteriorate and be replaced. If and when they do, if changes are not made to housing and development policy, Chelsea and soon with it, New York, may be lost to a homogenous, land owning class of wealthy Americans and foreign investors. Housing will always be a defining characteristic of the City and a focal point of policy for city and state government. Balancing affordable housing and historic preservation with continued economic and innovative advancement may always be a struggle for New York government. Going forward, this issue will have to be tackled through grassroots and local policy, if not simultaneously by city, state and federal government. Those who best understand how to preserve history and diversity -- and those people who are housed within it -- are usually the locals, those members of the community, community board and representatives in City Council who work tirelessly to come up with smart and sustainable solutions. This primer will testify to that, as well as provide further ideas for where to look next. |
Outline of This Website |
This website attempts to capture snapshots of the decades preceding and including modern Chelsea. Each page will provide historical context, emphasize important housing policy changes, and provide statistics on housing development and demographics shifts in the neighborhood for the given time period. As you click through beginning with the button below, you will encounter each 'era' in succession of one another. This page is the intro. The rest of the pages are outlined below:
All referenced sources are linked throughout the website. Data is taken from Census information compiled by socialexplorer.com, an award winning database of U.S. demographics information and data analysis. You may start by 'entering' the 60s, 70s, and 80s, below. I hope you enjoy. |