Mapping the Vulnerability to Flooding of Community-Development Corporations (CDCs) Affordable Housing Properties in Central and East Harlem, New York City

New York City’s affordable housing stock is vulnerable to coastal flooding under current and projected climate scenarios. Flood vulnerability in this study, was intended as a factor of the exposure of affordable housing units to current and future floodplains as well as topographical elevation. Variables of socio-economic vulnerability included median household income by census tract, expiring affordability of rent-subsidized housing, and East Harlem’s most recent rezoning . The affordable housing in question is owned by two community-development corporations (CDCs) of the Northern Manhattan Collaborative (NMC), Hope and Ascendant based in East Harlem. Using GIS software and publicly available data from NYC Open Data and Mapluto, large scale mapping was conducted at the Borough-Block-Lot (BBL) scale to understand the exposure to coastal flooding of 101 properties owned by Hope and Ascendant, as well as a Hotspot Analysis of all the remaining units included in the NMC (48 more properties). Results show that Hope properties may flood more than Ascendants’, under both current and future floodplain projections. A contributing factor is topographical elevation, where Hope Properties are at lower median elevation (13.2 feet) than Ascendants’ (29 feet) and also lower than the median elevation of both Central (22 feet) and East Harlem (15 feet). Results from the hotspot analysis shows that 20 of Hope Properties fall within Hot clusters of socioeconomic vulnerability, as well as 5 of Ascendant Properties. Overall the NMC Properties show a higher socioeconomic vulnerability than all the properties in East Harlem. This result is important considering that New York City’s stock of affordable housing hosts some of the most vulnerable populations in the city, with less ability to move elsewhere before or after a flooding event.

Community development and Historic Preservation: Exploring intersections in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District

Urban neighbourhoods are home to complex social interactions, cultural traditions and historic built environments that have accrued over time. Many community development corporations (CDCs) in the United States work in older, inner-city neighbourhoods, setting the stage for a possible alliance with historic preservation. This paper explores the intersection of community development and historic preservation, asking: In high-growth contexts, how do community developers working in neighbourhoods with strong cultural and ethnic identity use historic preservation? What are their motivations? And, how do they define, use, and/or adapt preservation to address the needs of their target communities? The article chronicles the Seattle Chinatown-International District Preservation Development Authority’s (SCIDpda) efforts to reverse neighbourhood decline while preserving the International District’s significant history, fostering its continued future as a Pan-Asian community, overcoming persistent barriers to development, and mitigating high growth pressures. The findings show that for community developers, preservation can serve as an oppositional strategy to demolition and incompatible new development, helping to attract outside financial resources, and providing a means to assert local symbolic ownership over neighbourhood space.

“To Plan Our Own Community”

This chapter examines the democratically planned state-sponsored projects that became possible due to the new banner of cooperation between government and grassroots organizers. It first provides an overview of the battle over community control of housing development before discussing a number of New York's War on Poverty initiatives such as the Upper Park Avenue Community Association (UPACA), along with their significance for community-based housing activism. It also considers efforts to involve African Americans in economic development, the involvement of women in grassroots development planning, and the creation of community development corporations (CDCs). Finally, it describes Model Cities, an urban initiative designed to engage “the community” by inviting neighborhood participation in planning and attacking many problems at once. The successful projects showed not only that democratic state-sponsored urban renewal was possible, but that New York's tenant history made a difference.