Demolition Planned for Chelsea

By Leonard Polletta

Chelsea is facing a dramatic, community-shattering threat from private developers Related Companies and its associate, Essence Development. A plan, floated by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and supported by all the elected officials – Congressman Jerrold Nadler, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Councilmember Erik Bottcher – envisions demolishing 24 and rebuilding 15 buildings in Chelsea at two sites: the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea and Chelsea addition, (FEC), public housing campuses. The new buildings will be 40 stories high, the densely packed Hudson Yards type, thereby eliminating all the green open space now enjoyed by the tenants. The demolition plan will take between 15 and 30 years to finish, if it is ever completed, longer than it would take to renovate the entire FEC campuses.

NYCHA is privatizing public housing. Its partner, Related, is a huge private real estate conglomerate with a history of displacement. In a public housing project in Liberty City, Florida — similar to the one planned here – Related displaced tenants who moved out with promises of returning after new upgraded public housing was built.

NYCHA has been a poor landlord. Public housing tenants have been suffering from underfunding ever since Nixon imposed a moratorium on new construction in 1973, and Reaganomics cut the budget for public housing by 50% in the 1980s. The failure of the federal government to properly and consistently fund public housing for five decades is at the root of the deterioration. The neglect and mismanagement have occurred in large part because of this failure and because the tenants are people of moderate and poor means, with many disabled and elderly, the majority of whom are people of color.

NYCHA’s bureaucracy has been responsible for allowing the conditions to deteriorate for years. This is true despite the fact that 500,000 New Yorkers currently live in public housing. Some say NYCHA leadership is in the pocket of the real estate industry.

Public housing underfunding has been a bipartisan affair with both Democrat and Republican administrations guilty. This has been due in large part to politicians’ allegiance to funding billions of dollars to war and militarism instead of spending tax dollars on public housing, education, health and public transportation.

Where are we now? NYCHA has issued a 1,000-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that has analyzed the potential impact of the demolition project. It pushes as “feasible” demolition plans that involve creation of 3,454 new “mixed income” apartments in addition to the replacement of the 2,056 public housing apartments.

NYCHA has agreed to allow Related/Essence to carry out the following plan. Move tenants from their building to other apartments on the FEC campus, which NYCHA has kept vacant despite a NYC homeless crisis. After demolition and construction, the displaced tenants or others selected by NYCHA will move in to the new 40-story building. This moving back and forth is to be carried out repeatedly as the buildings on the two campuses are demolished and reconstructed and all current FEC tenants are moved into six 40-story high rise buildings.

The DEIS explains, but downplays, the human disruption and impact that FEC tenants and surrounding neighborhoods will live with over the 15-to-30-year period. That includes the demolition and reconstruction of 39 buildings and multiple moves of 2,054 families from their homes to other apartments during the process. That does not even begin to account for the accompanying noise of truck traffic hauling debris out and construction materials in, concrete trucks whining all day, and dust from toxic materials. The DEIS mentions several: cadmium, barium, probably asbestos, and other unknown pollutants floating throughout our neighborhood into our homes and classrooms. All this pollution and traffic will turn the FEC campuses and much of Chelsea into a construction site for years.

Needless to say, current conditions in some of the buildings at the FEC houses urgently need dramatic and real improvement. FEC tenants fervently want and rightly deserve their apartments renovated, upgraded and properly maintained. But they are opposed to the plan to demolish their entire campuses. They were part of a 15 month Working Group that came up with a 101 page report on how to completely renovate their campuses with no demolition. Nearly 1,000 tenants have signed petitions opposing demolition. Over 100 tenants testified at public hearings on April 23 and 24 that they oppose demolition.

Why is this happening in Chelsea? The increasing value of the land is the primary reason. Chelsea’s prime location and neighborhood amenities like the Highline, the Hudson River Park, and the Hudson River itself are also attractive features. Hedge funds and private investors looking to park their capital where returns on investment are guaranteed are another. Gentrification and commodification of housing make Chelsea an increasingly attractive target for investment, threatening to turn Manhattan into a playground for the rich to the exclusion of working class, moderate income and poor New Yorkers.

Can this unfolding disaster be stopped? All the elected officials are on Related’s side supporting further gentrification, using the fig leaf of more housing and the unproven canard that more housing equals lower rents. We are truly facing an inflection point. Will Manhattan be an island for the rich only, or will it be a place that maintains New York City’s working-class roots, ethnic, racial and economic diversity? It is truly up to all of us, public and private housing tenants, co-op members, block and neighborhood associations, churches, synagogues, parent teacher associations, and unions, all the ordinary working people of Chelsea, to unify and fight for a racially, ethnically and economically diverse community. We can defeat this plan if there is enough pressure from the public to stop the train that Related and NYCHA are now driving. It is a fight worth waging. Join the FEC tenants and their allies in working to defeat the demolition of public housing in Chelsea.

Leonard Polletta, Esq., Penn South co-operator and board member of Midtown South Community Council.