Lawrence J. Vale

Nicholas Dagen Bloom

Fritz Umbach

Joseph Heathcott

Perception, Reality, and Social Policy

Public Housing Myths

Matthew Gordon Lasner

How has America's most expensive and progressive city helped its residents to live? Since the nineteenth century, the need for high-quality affordable housing has been one of New York City’s most urgent issues. Affordable Housing in New York explores the past, present, and future of the city’s pioneering efforts, from the 1920s to the major initiatives of Mayor Bill de Blasio. The book examines the people, places, and policies that have helped make New York livable, from early experiments by housing reformers and the innovative public-private solutions of the 1970s and 1980s to today’s professionalized affordable housing industry. More than two dozen leading scholars tell the story of key figures of the era, including Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs, and Ed Koch. Over twenty-five individual housing complexes are profiled, including Queensbridge Houses, America’s largest public housing complex; Stuyvesant Town; Co-op City; and recent additions like Via Verde. Plans, models, archival photos, and newly commissioned portraits of buildings and tenants put the efforts of the past century into social, political, and cultural context and look ahead to future prospects for below-market subsidized housing. A richly illustrated, dynamic portrait of an evolving city, this is a comprehensive and authoritative history of public and middle-income housing in New York and contributes significantly to contemporary debates on how to enable future generations of New Yorkers to call the city home. Contributors include: Matthias Altwicker, Hilary Ballon, Lizabeth Cohen, Andrew S. Dolkart, Peter Eisenstadt, Richard Greenwald, Christopher Klemek, Jeffrey A. Kroessler, Nancy H. Kwak, Nadia A. Mian, Annemarie Sammartino, David Schalliol, Susanne Schindler, David Smiley, Jonathan Soffer, Fritz Umbach, and Samuel Zipp. Featured housing complexes include: Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments • Amsterdam Houses • Bell Park Gardens • Boulevard Gardens • Co-op City • East River Houses • Eastwood • Harlem River Houses • Hughes House • Jacob Riis Houses • Johnson Houses • Marcus Garvey Village • Melrose Commons • Nehemiah Houses • Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments • Penn South • Queensbridge Houses • Queensview • Ravenswood Houses • Riverbend Houses • Rochdale Village • Schomburg Plaza • Starrett City • Stuyvesant Town • Sunnyside Gardens • Twin Parks • Via Verde • West Side Urban Renewal Area • West Village Houses • Williamsburg Houses

The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City

Affordable Housing in New York

Nicholas Dagen Bloom argues for the centrality of state power in postwar American urban life. In the face of economic and demographic restructurings and the devolution of federal power, states sparked developments in urban planning, transportation, higher education, housing and environmental management. In particular, Nelson Rockefeller's governorship of New York demonstrated the power of an engaged administrative state to condition the fabric and nuance of everyday life. Rockefeller established long-lived bureaucracies that address social health, transportation, human rights, housing, and all the other components of a well-functioning and empathetic state. Many of those innovations came to influence or resonate with similar developments in other states and their cities as well.

State Government and Urban Power

How States Shaped Postwar America

A richly illustrated history of below-market housing in New York, from the 1920s to today A colorful portrait of the people, places, and policies that have helped make New York City livable, Affordable Housing in New York is a comprehensive, authoritative, and richly illustrated history of the city's public and middle-income housing from the 1920s to today. Plans, models, archival photos, and newly commissioned portraits of buildings and tenants by sociologist and photographer David Schalliol put the efforts of the past century into context, and the book also looks ahead to future prospects for below-market subsidized housing. A dynamic account of an evolving city, Affordable Housing in New York is essential reading for understanding and advancing debates about how to enable future generations to call New York home.

Nicholas Dagen Bloom

Books

Your next favorite book is out there