Last day: Actors of urban development

Waiting in front of the Goldman Sachs

Our final day (which was the hottest and most humid day of our stay) included set of activities that clarified diverse actors of urban development. We've had a chance to meet diverse actors from property development scene. We've met actors from the investment, development and management side of diverse types of property.

View from the meeting room

We've started early morning in front of the Goldman Sachs Bank USA. The meeting there included both the investment and the development actors of affordable residential property market. We've had high-end meetings at the Urban Investment Group with the participation of the NYC Housing Development Corporation about affordable housing provision in the city. It was  quite an interesting meeting which took place in an office with incredible views over the Hudson River and New Jersey. It uncover how actually private banking sector is encouraged by the Federal Law to invest in affordable housing provision and how it was developed and put in the market. We could also see how the involved actors communicated with each other to issue bonds and subsidize low-income households. Extremely informative and interesting meeting.


Coming out of this comfortable (and air-conditioned) building we hit the road towards Dumbo (area known as 'Down Under the Manhattan Bridge') in burning temperatures to find the bus that would take us to an old industrial side: Brooklyn Navy Yard Industrial Park. An excellent example of de-industrialization of the city, this former navy shipyard dates back all the way to the 18th century (see the history at http://www.brooklynnavyyard.org/history.html). 


Although ship-building activities continued in the area, the industrial activities slowly disappeared from this 450 acres site, leaving empty historical industrial buildings, warehouses and even a 18th century military hospital behind. The site is operated by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation today as an industrial park which included 40 buildings, 230 tenants and 5.000 employees. It also includes a museum that beautifully displays the story of this industrial heritage site. It is interesting to see the new industrial activities there. They still build ships, though not for the army, on site but many buildings are occupied by new industries that need special space. 

There are companies dealing with food production on site, a company that is located in smart buildings to store and restore expensive art pieces for museums, a film studio (!), Steiner, companies that are working on innovations and smart technologies, storing and distributing special products and many others (see the list of tenants at http://www.brooklynnavyyard.org/existing.html) that show the changing industrial functions in the city. We were guided through the whole site and was kindly invited also to explore the museum, which was absolutely brilliant. There are still many possibilities and properties waiting for investment in this site but we now understand that the new and creative industries of New York City will have this area as one of the prime destinations to go. 


A similar transformation is experienced in the former Pfizer manufacturing plant which is also located in Brooklyn. Trying to understand this new industrial era we went to this property as well. Pfizer is a very large pharmaceutical company with dozens of factories and labs accross USA, which got started on this site between South Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy (here is an interesting blog about this site when it was still empty http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=4058). After many years of waiting for re-investment (and perhaps re-development) a property investment company took over the property and is now leasing it to tenants with special spatial needs. While walking along the corridors of this amazing plant we came accross with a wide-range of activities from food packing to cookie baking, police training to decor building for movies. And yes, this property also offers space for movie producers to shoot special scenes using the large empty spaces. Visiting both sites we could have a clear picture on how actually the de-indurstialization was followed by new and creative industrial functions that serve the city in the former industrial locations which are still not redeveloped with commercial properties as many brownfields are accross the world.


That was pretty much the final step of our amazing trip. Coming out of the Pfizer plant we said goodbye to each other. This amazing study trip was designed, developed and implemented by Professor Jan van Weesep and Rob van der Vaart of UCU, they put enormous amounts of work that was put into this program, which I was kindly invited with my students from RA to participate. We are grateful to them for accepting us to this off-campus course.My blog ends here (at least for this year) and I guess I'll see you next year around this time with new students and new stories. Thanks for following us.


And bye bye New York...we'll be back!

New York field course class of 2012

RA students and me at the Flushing (Vlissingen!) metro station

Fifth day: Urban and regional planning

Today we focused on planning dynamics of New York. The two  lectures of the day were both given by organization and people who are involved in planning dynamics both from policy making and NGO perspectives. We've gathered in front of the Regional Planning Association's (RPA) in the morning and hosted by this organization. RPA is a 90 years old not-for-profit organization (with a lot of private sector involvement) who is doing research, planning and advocacy in the fields of urban and regional planning in the Tri-State Region (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) to bring mega trends on the policy agenda and set targets for policy makers. We've learned that their role is very important and sometimes create discussions in the fragmented policy scene.


After this very interesting session we've continued with the last student presentations. I joined Jan van Weesep's group this time and followed the presentation of two RA students Sophie Rijnaard and Lisa Deijl to Chelsea. They took us to the meat cutting district and starting from the historical biscuit factory, which is now know as the Chelsea Market, they guided us through the neighborhood which is under transformation. Lots of artists who have special skills like installation art, large paintings, or video art are present in this neighbo< /a> rhood due to the availability of large spaces. Wile've walked through the piers which are now transformed into fancy sport centers and went on top of the famous High Line (http://www.thehighline.org), which is an old railway line used by freight trains above the streets of Manhattan's West Side. Facing the risk of demolition after losing it's function (yes, now you should think of post-industrial era) the line was left to it's destiny, and quite connected to this morning's session, saved by the RPA's advice to keep it for a future purpose. Landscape designers and architects made sure that it is an elevated park and today it is not only an amazing tourist attraction but also an element in the neighborhood that triggered the soci-spatial transformations (and yes, gentrification too!). New or renovated residential units on the line sell for millions today.


We went down and took a (PATH) train to New Jersey to catch our appointment at the New Jersey's City Planning Office. New Jersey has an interesting feel after the busy streets of Manhattan. Once you are out of the underground you feel that you are in another city, which is more quiet, organised and clean, and has the most spectacular view over lower Manhattan! The lecture at the City Planning Office gave us the highlights of how New Jersey has been developing through the history and how it is planned. The planners of the Office took us to a guided tour, which showed us how this commuter town is booming and how it's waterfront is changing rapidly. 


Our afternoon program continued by a guided walking tour of Jan van Weesep around the World Trade Center and Battery Park waterfront development through the streets around the Stock Exchange and ended in the waterfront, just below the Brooklyn Bridge with a small 'beach' party with the UCU alumni. Tat a he evening continued for the devoted jazz fans heading towards the West Village and ending up in a tiny little jazz club called 'Smalls' with a music that was extraordinary. What a feast to the ears and what a way to end this wonderful day! Tomorrow is going to be our final and perhaps the most busiest (and hottest unfortunately) day... 

Fourth day: Layers of governance

We were at the 'crossroads of the world' today: the Times Square, which is a hub of public private partnerships. Our plan included 3 lectures from 3 different organizations around (and about) the Times Square and two student guided presentations that took place in Soho and East Village. The lectures were somehow gave me the feeling that one by one they were helping us to unlayer governance relations and showing us how different actors are connected to each other.

The first lecture was organized by Times Square Alliance, which is a BID (Business Improvement District). It is a PPP responsible for the economic development organization of the Times Square. They provide sanitary services, security services, capital improvements, business attraction, and neighborhood promotions. They simply make sure that 'the show goes on'. Some years ago people would be afraid to come to the Times Square (due to crime, drugs, prostitution, etc) but this BID has been working on changing the perception of the area. They succeeded very well. Today millions of people go to Times Square. Safety issue being solved, the BID focused on the creation of the comfortable and pedestrian-friendly public spaces. The pedestrian areas and biking lanes were created and decorated with cozy street furniture. Today you can sit in the middle of the Times Square on the chairs and tables and use free Wi-Fi services thanks to the BID' s arrangement.


The Times Square is a glorious place with amazing Broadway shows, colorful advertisements, and its tourist crowd. You will see happy people enjoying their time in this energetic place. However, the other side of the coin is not very much visible if you walk around. I'm talking about poverty and homelessness. The second organisation that we visited today was dealing with this hidden aspect. Common Ground (check them out at http://www.commonground.org/) is a not-for-profit organization that not only provides affordable housing for homeless and poor people but also support them with social services so that they can be again the part of the society. I think the visit to their property on the 43rd street was an eye opener to most of us. This once upon a time luxurious hotel went into trouble and almost completely 
ruined before the Common Ground took it over and renovated. Now it is permanent home for hundreds of homeless people who are carefully taken care by the Common Ground and other organisations that are working closely to the Common Ground to make sure that people are not only off the street but are also having a chance in life again to be connected to the society, have jobs, have health and other supportive services. They can live here as long as they want to. And we were told that some of them have new lives, got married and moved out to have a better life. This is not the only property of the Common Ground but most certainly the most interesting one in this historical building right in the middle of Times Square. No surprise to hear that a lot of artists of the Broadway, went into trouble and poverty and ended up here as well. It was a very touching experience to be there to listen this amazing story and to walk around.


We moved on to our third and final lecture destination of the day to another not-for-profit organization, TDF, which provides services for completely different purposes in the Times Square area. TDF, Theater Development Fund, plays an important role in the cultural industry of NYC. TDF aims to give support to theatrical works, including financial support, and to enable diverse audiences to attend theater and shows. They support Broadway Theaters and make sure that tickets are sold. If you pay attention to what is below the popular red stairs which are located in the middle of the Times Square you will notice the ticket booth which is operated by TDF. Yes, it is that place where you can buy theater tickets in the last minute for a much cheaper price. TDF also subsidizes housing for young artists and tries to prevent gentrification.

Just looking on Times Square you may think it is one big colorful show. Looking to just three different but connected organizations work, we've learned today that governance is a complex concept. Having finished the lectures the presentation teams took us to their neighborhoods. I joined Rob van der Vaart's team this time and went to Soho to participate the guided tour of Christina Bellmann and Sophia Gunkel. Our tour started at the streets of Soho where  fantastic cast-iron buildings are located. Lots of artists live and work in these houses and you can definitely notice the rapidly changing scene there due to the gentrification. Because of the cast-iron technology buildings with larger windows and higher ceilings could be built, giving the artists large spaces with good light to work. Walking through these streets we then moved into the Little Italy and then to the China Town. What a change of the scene! Our walk ended with delicious famous Ferrara gelato. Well-done Christina and Sophia...
 

And we called the day off and met Jan van Weesep at the East Village to enjoy delicious sushi before we hit the road back to Brooklyn.    

Third day: Student presentations in the field

Teams about to leave

Quite a 'walking' day started at 09:00 in front of our hotel with full enthusiasm. Professor van Weesep and Professor van Vaart has divided the group into two and I joined the van Weesep team today. We had 12 students in the group, forming 6 teams. Today 4 teams took us to their study areas, guided us and provided information on the neighborhoods and presented the results of their first observations. Really well-done!

Tessa and Thijs telling their story

We've started in the neighborhood of Thijs Olthof and Tessa Dorresteijn: Riverside/Manhattan Valley. They took us to a walk starting at the Straus Park, which is a special memorial named after Isidor Straus and his wife Ida, who died in 1912 when the Titanic sank. The neighborhood was initially a wealthy area though in time it deteriorated.

Affordable housing from Mosses period

Corner of Columbus Avenue

Zigzagging between Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Avenue Thijs and Tessa showed us the different phases the neighborhood went through. It was very interesting to observe different 'faces' of the neighborhood reflecting to e diverse types of housing and retail and diverse styles of architecture. It is amazing how it differs from one street to another and sometimes even from one side of the street to the other.

Yvette and Melanija telling their story

Dacota

Following Tessa and Thijs's enthusiastic presentation, we've moved from Manhattan Valley towards Upper West Side with the guidance of Yvette Lanting and Melanija Tacconi. They took us to the Central Park's corner to begin the tour. Their neighborhood covered the fancy condominiums facing the Park, where also the forerunner 'The Dacota' is located. This co-op apartment building was built in 1880s when the Upper West Side of Manhattan was sparsely inhabited. Taking us through streets with amazing brownstone houses and luxurious residential condominiums, Melanija and Yvette showed us the transformation of the 19th century up-market housing areas very nicely. We had a lunch break at the Whole Foods and rested a little before we headed towards Brooklyn Heights with Maurits Brenninkmeijer and Max Klijnstra leading us.

Max and Maurits telling their story

Maurits and Max presented the idea of super gentrification that has been taking place in Brooklyn Heights through the last decades. Lets have a look at what Francois Weil (A History of New York, Columbia University Press, 2000, p. 98) says about this historical neighborhood:

One of the oldest houses on the Willow Street

'Indisputably, the most impressive growth was Brooklyn's, 'New York's dormitory', according to Charles Dickens. Around 1815, its landowners, among them the merchant Hezekia Beers Pierrepont, transformed themselves into property developers. They divided their lands into small parcels and, in less than a decade, turned Brooklyn Heights-the area that overlooked the ferry pier on the East River- into a fashionable neighborhood. What was once a little village became a leading American residential suburb.'  No doubt the neighborhood is a fashionable residential area to live again. 'Super gentrified', with the words of Loretta Lees (Urban Studies, Vol. 40, No. 12, 2487–2509, November 2003), the neighborhood has become the destination of highly-paid, formerly single now married with young kids, people.
Max and Maurits very smartly showed us the evidence of such transformation in the area (day-care centers, playgrounds and parks). Though they had a great difficulty to keep us under control when we walked along the pier with spectacular views over lower Manhattan they handed the flag to the final group of the day: Alberto Giacometti and Bas van der Reep.

Alberto and Krijn telling their story

Alberto and Bas's study area, South Brooklyn, was not very far from Brooklyn Heights. In fact we could simply walk there. Though also a gentrifying neighborhood, the area had a completely different feel compared to the Brooklyn Heights.

Houses with front gardens

The Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens reflects another history of New York, the Italian immigration.
Alberto and Bas pointed out that the area has a dominant white population though historically it was an Italian neighborhood with a special architectural style of houses with large front gardens. Though the Italian population decreased in time, affected by the increasing prices due to gentrification, their existence is still quite visible in the area.

Alberto and Bas leaded us to walk along the streets where we could see Italian flags, small Madonna statues in the front yards and even a community center for Italians. We've walked along these beautiful streets and noticed the presence of the young population in the area. We've walked along the colorful shopping streets and also noticed the wide variety of restaurants, cafe's and shops, though  towards the end the Italian presence was more prominent. A job really well-done!

Overall the research teams did very well. I was quite surprised with how quickly they adjusted to their study areas and developed a knowledge to guide us. I've heard from many of them that the preparations that took part in Utrecht was extremely useful for them and coming to the field they would have an absolutely new perspective on their areas. By the end of the walk it became difficult to keep eyes off the attractions on the shopping streets of South Brooklyn and everybody did definitely need some rest so we called the day off! Tomorrow is a new day with new adventures, which will start around the Times Square...

Second day in the field

Today's program has started at the East Village's Neighborhood Preservation Center which is located next to the historic the St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery landmark site. The Neighborhood Preservation Center is project of the St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund. The NYC's Department of Housing Development and Preservation has joined the Center to organize a couple of lectures with the participation of both institutions' intern students who briefly explained how community based initiatives work in NYC and how their organisation takes part in it.The website of the Center provides loads of information on their function and role within the preservation of neighborhoods that deserve to be protected. The lectures did not only highlight specific information on research on historical preservation, affordable housing and sustainability issues in the NYC but also gave our students a chance to interact with the researchers and get feed back from them. One of the projects that was presented by the young researchers was the City Atlas. It is an initiative of the NYC in order to increase the awareness of NYC residents on the climate change. It is simply a bottom up sustainability plan for the city (check their website at www.thecityatlas.org).

'In 1677, nearly 80 percent of New York's inhabitants were of Dutch origin, 18 percent English, and about two percent French Protestants and Jews. Twenty years later, six white New Yorkers out of ten were Dutch,three out of ten English, and one out of ten French. But the greatest waves of British immigrants arrived in the eighteenth century, and in 1790, three quarters of the some 33.000 New Yorkers were originally British'. This is a quote from Francois Weil's fascinating book called 'A History of New York' (Columbia University Press, 2000). In fact this diversity has grown in time and New York has stayed, to this day, as a magnet for immigrants. Our afternoon walking tour was guided by Professor James Defillipes (Rutgers University) and took places in the most amazing immigrant neighborhoods of Queens. We started our walk right in the heart of Queens' most diverse communities that included Indian, Bangladeshi, and Chinese populations and many others. Surprise of the day was the Jackson's Diner, where we had our lunch, a very special Indian Restaurant (http://jacksondiner.com/). Being there was an experience itself. From there we walked towards the Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which was not only special because it was developed for the World's Fairs of 1939 and 1964, but also because it housed a very special building (Queens Museum of Art) in which model of the whole New York City is located. The model is known as the Panorama, which is built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure. The model includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs, which equals to 895,000 individual structures.. Wow! We moved on towards our final destination, Flushing, under the burning sun. Flushing is an old and a very interesting neighborhood because of it's predominant Chinese and Taiwanese populations. Dr. Defilipes explained us how different waves of immigration was experienced in this neighborhood and how it changed throughout the time. We called the day off around 18:00. Tomorrow is student's day for preparations as they will guide us to their neighborhoods in the coming days. Thus they are making observations, collecting some data and preparing a walking route for the group. Can't wait to see the first couple of team presentations tomorrow! Tuna