The Bloomberg Era, Part Two

The Bloomberg Era, Part Two:
Forced Change
December 31, 2010 - At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, this multi-part photo essay examines how New York City's built environment has changed over the past 10 years, and what the future of New York's skyline might be. Part one of this essay can be seen here.

On January 1st 2010, Michael Bloomberg was sworn into office for a nearly unprecedented third term as the Mayor of New York City. Bloomberg, the 23rd richest person in the world, is only the fourth mayor in the city's history to serve a third term in office, and accomplished that goal by running "the most expensive self-financed political campaign in U.S. history," according to the Huffington Post. During his tenure, Mayor Bloomberg has "amassed so much power and respect that he seems more a Medici than a mayor," according to The New Yorker. He has used his power and wealth to enact an agenda of post-9/11 development that has radically changed the city's landscape. As described in part one of this photo essay, "not since Robert Moses has a single individual presided over such a large-scale transformation of New York City's built environment."

Like Robert Moses, the legendary Power Broker, Mayor Bloomberg currently exerts a stranglehold of power over New York City. In 2009, New York Magazine bluntly declared "Mike Bloomberg owns this town," and "in the past seven years Michael Bloomberg has become the only powerful figure in New York who really matters.... The mayor is not a dictator... but Bloomberg gets what he wants more than any mayor in modern memory." Also like Robert Moses, who was called New York's Master Builder, much of Mayor Bloomberg's work has focused on constructing a new version of the city. In 2009, Bloomberg drew comparisons between his accomplishments and Robert Moses', telling The New Yorker that "we’ve done more in the last seven years than—I don’t know if it’s fair to say more than Moses did, but I hope history will show the things we did made a lot more sense." Unfortunately, the parallels between Bloomberg and Moses also include the use of controversial methods to force development projects through, often at the expense of New York's unique fabric of small neighborhoods.

The Bloomberg Era (2009)

One of the most controversial tools Mayor Bloomberg has utilized in his quest to transform New York City is eminent domain, a practice whereby the state seizes private property to clear the way for an impending development meant for civic and public improvement. This was a favorite tool of Robert Moses, "who rammed highways through dense urban neighborhoods with a 'meat-ax' and became the un­stoppable engine of 'slum clearance'," according to Metropolis Magazine. Moses' methods were often vilified, but he created the infrastructure for present day New York City, building highways, bridges, tunnels, parks and institutional landmarks like the Lincoln Center and the United Nations that have been freely used by countless millions of people. Michael Bloomberg, on the other hand, has approved the use of eminent domain for private development projects that include luxury residences and retail shops, college campus facilities and a sports arena. When completed, none of these developments will be open to the general public. They include several neighborhoods documented on this website: Willets Point (aka The Iron Triangle), Manhattanville and the Atlantic Yards.

The Atlantic Yards (2006)

The Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn is the best known example of the Bloomberg administration's use of eminent domain. Announced in 2003, this project threatened residents and business owners in Prospect Heights with property seizure to make way for a basketball arena and several luxury residential towers. Years of court battles and street protests delayed the plan, which was critically examined in the award winning documentary films Brooklyn Boondoggle (2009) and Brooklyn Matters (2007).

This year, however, the Atlantic Yards project cleared most of the major hurdles in its path. In April 2010, the last residential holdout in the development footprint cut a $3 million deal to move out, and in August 2010 Freddy's Bar and Backroom - a hub for neighborhood protests and a local institution dating back to the prohibition era - was completely demolished, although not before being immortalized by the documentary Freddy's (2010). Construction for the arena is now underway, but with the current recession the entire project may take as long as 25 years to complete, placing an immense strain on a neighborhood now blighted by empty lots where homes once stood.

No Forced Displacement (2008)

In the upper west side neighborhood of Manhattanville, eminent domain has been used as a threat to force independent business owners out of a mostly industrial area. Seventeen acres, including Cuban restaurants, storage warehouses and gas stations, were declared blighted by the city in order to clear the land for a $7 billion extension of Columbia University's campus. After several years of legal battles, this year the New York Court of Appeals upheld the use of eminent domain in the neighborhood, according to the NY Times, with a June 2010 ruling that "cited a decision in a similar eminent-domain case last year involving the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn." Using questionable logic, the judges declared that "if we could rule in favor of a basketball arena, surely we could rule for a nonprofit university." In December 2010, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the decision, and "work is expected to start next month on the first building at the new campus," according to the NY Times.

In the Shadow of Citi Field (2008)

In the Iron Triangle, otherwise known as Willets Point, eminent domain has been used to scare business owners out of a bustling car-repair neighborhood which employs over a thousand people. Long neglected by the city government, Willets Point is laced with flooded dirt roads that sit in the shadow of Citi Field, the new Mets stadium. Mayor Bloomberg's administration hopes to demolish the neighborhood's businesses and replace them with a $3 billion development including luxury hotels, residences and retail shops. After years of protest, this year the NY Times reported that the city controlled roughly 80 percent of the land needed for the first stage of development, but "opponents included a Willets Point homeowner, 18 businesses and a group formed to fight the project."

Lake Willets (2008)

Eminent domain may be the most controversial weapon of change in Bloomberg's arsenal, but his most effective tool for transformation has been rezoning neighborhoods. "Zoning shapes the city," according to the Department of City Planning. "Zoning determines the size and use of buildings, where they are located and, in large measure, the densities of the city’s diverse neighborhoods. Along with the city's power to budget, tax, and condemn property, zoning is a key tool for carrying out planning policy."

By 2009, Mayor Bloomberg had instituted 100 zoning changes throughout the city, creating a map of new uses for city neighborhoods stretching from the South Bronx to The Rockaways. "Sections in all the boroughs were rezoned to boost their development potential," according to the NY Times, a rezoning equal to about 8,400 blocks or "one-fifth of the city" which is "the most extensive rezoning in modern city history." In 2009, The New York Observer stated that "zoning reform of the type we have had in New York City these past eight years typically has a profound and long lasting impact on the physical contours of the city. There is little doubt... that the impact of this visionary zoning reform will be felt in New York for decades to come."

The Desertification of Brooklyn (2010)

Zoning changes instituted by Bloomberg's Department of City Planning have already significantly altered the landscape of the city. The 2005 rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, for example, allowed large portions of Brooklyn's historic industrial waterfront to be transformed into new residential towers. A wave of luxury housing swept through these neighborhoods, before being crippled by the recession, which has left the area scarred with empty fields and abandoned construction sites. The same boom and bust has affected other neighborhoods rezoned for development, including Harlem and Gowanus.

In the past decade, every neighborhood in New York City has seen new residential towers built. "Across the city, residential construction doubled under Mr. Bloomberg, to more than 30,000 units a year from 2004 through 2008," according to a 2009 NY Times assessment. "Construction spending has also doubled since he took office, reaching a high of $32 billion in 2008" However, after the development bubble burst in 2008, every neighborhood in New York City has been blighted with empty lots and abandoned buildings. Bloomberg's ambitious rezoning and pro-development policies have led to widespread Bloomblight in the form of hundreds of stalled construction projects throughout the five boroughs.

Demolition on the Waterfront (2008)

The Department of City Planning states that their rezoning work is focused on preserving New York City's diversity. "New York City’s neighborhoods are its greatest treasures," writes Amanda Burden, the DCP commissioner. "Our innovative use of zoning is making a real difference in our neighborhoods, providing for new jobs and housing opportunities and ensuring the diversity and vibrancy that makes ours the most unique city in the world." A recent report by NYU somewhat agreed, finding that "in an era of unprecedented rezoning across New York City... the vast majority of the changes preserved neighborhoods the way they were, protecting them from denser or out-of-scale development," according to the NY Times.

However, the last decade has seen many New York City neighborhoods become less diverse and less vibrant. The 2010 census found that "New York's black and hispanic areas [have] become more white," according to the NY Times, "as blacks, Latinos, Asians and immigrants surge into the suburbs." Meanwhile, the city has lost much of its vibrant street life due to city policies. More than twelve percent of the city's small businesses closed in 2009 as small business loans "plummeted," according to City Limits. "Owners complain about... rezoning and redevelopment initiatives that favor larger retailers over small stores or residential over commercial uses."

The Glass Invasion (2009)

At the same time, new construction spurred by Bloomberg's policies has changed New York's traditional architecture of brownstones and brick. The city has been overtaken by "The Glass Stampede," according to New York Magazine. "New York is shucking off its aging walk-ups, its small and mildewed structures, its drafty warehouses, cramped stores, and idle factories. In their place, the city is sprouting a hard, glistening new shell of glass and steel." Glass towers have not only invaded the rezoned Brooklyn waterfront, they have infiltrated the skyline of historically low-rise neighborhoods like the East Village and the Lower East Side, replaced bungalows in Brighton Beach and The Rockaways, and soared over formerly industrial neighborhoods like Long Island City and the Meat Packing District. The dominant theme in New York architecture over the last decade could largely be summarized in a few words: taller, with more glass.

Lower East Side Tower (2009)

East Village Tower (2009)

Far Rockaway Tower (2009)

Unlike Robert Moses, Mayor Bloomberg does not appear to have a grand overview for the transformation of New York City. Instead, his administration has relied on private developers and zoning changes to allow change to happen. "Real planning is not something New York City has ever done," according to a 2011 article in City Limits. "Other major cities have drafted comprehensive plans that linked land development to transit improvements and government services. But New York has always relied on zoning, which creates rules for what the private market can build, rather than planning."

At the end of 2010, many of the major development projects started under Mayor Bloomberg's administration remain unfinished. "Who knows how long it will take before Mayor Bloomberg's legacy-making checklist—Hudson Yards, Moynihan Station, the World Trade Center, Coney Island and Willets Point—even show significant progress, let alone get completed," Curbed wrote back in 2008. "Perhaps during a third term?" The future of these projects and many others remains uncertain.

Coney Island Development (2008)

In the past decade, opposition to many of Robert Moses' controversial projects has mellowed, especially after a major retrospective in 2007 that reevaluated his contributions to the city. In years to come, how will the public evaluate Bloomberg's contributions to the city skyline? Will New Yorkers embrace the hundreds of luxury condominiums which have been constructed? It remains to be seen what Michael Bloomberg's final legacy will be, however the NY Times summed up the feelings of many New Yorker's in a 2010 editorial written for his third inauguration: "The next time some bigwig wants a stadium or a fat new zoning change, the mayor should take care to demand more parks and public facilities as part of the deal. The bottom line for any development should be that it helps out more than the developer’s bottom line."

Iron Triangle Warning (2007)

Hammels Wye

December 16, 2010 -

Hammels Wye is where the A train splits east and west along The Rockaways after crossing Jamaica Bay. Elevated trains rumble overhead through the surrounding neighborhood of Hammels, an area which was once crowded with grand hotels, restaurants and bungalows. Today, Hammels is pockmarked with empty lots and abandoned buildings, and dominated by the Hammel Houses, a 14-acre NYCHA housing development which is embroiled in a decades-old gang war with nearby complexes in Edgemere and Far Rockaway.

Hammels Wye sits in the shadow of the Hammel Houses. It is flanked by the shoreline of Jamaica Bay, where fenced-off blocks and empty beaches are covered in trash and abandoned boats. To the west, an undeveloped park sits on the water, covered with bricks and bottles. It was "sort of" opened in August 2010, according to The Wave, but currently the only access point is through a hole in a fence. On the east side of Hammels Wye, a solitary dead end street runs into the bay. The discarded remains of a young girl's bedroom rot in the middle of the road, while a nearby empty lot contains a reedy marshland the size of four city blocks. A faded sign promises that a new marina is on the way, but for now local fishermen must climb a fence to reach the water.

Beach 88th Street Park

Beach 80th Street Marina

Between these empty spaces, Hammels contains few reminders of its past as an immensely popular resort village, which began in the 1850's with just "a small chowder house and saloon for boaters and fishermen on the bay," according to The Rockaways by Emil R. Lucev. The chowder house soon transformed into Eldert's Grove, a hotel and restaurant which was leased in 1869 by Louis Hammel, a German immigrant. Hammel purchased land nearby to build "Hammel's Hotel and a steamboat dock out to Jamaica Bay," according to The Rockaways. When the cross-bay train trestle was built in 1880, linking The Rockaways to the mainland, it landed at Hammel's Hotel, at a train station named for Hammel.

"Within a few years of the opening of the railroad, the real heart of Rockaway Beach became the Hammels-Holland-Seaside area," according to Old Rockaway, New York. "From its early beginnings in 1870 until about 1920, this section housed hotels, boardinghouses, saloons, rental-cottage colonies, stores, amusement arcades, restaurants, food stands, bathhouses, and all kinds of rides, from Ferris wheels to roller coasters." Huge tent cities were also created to house vacationers, and in 1908 over 40,000 spectators came out for a parade celebrating the "King and Queen of the Tent City carnival," according to the NY Times, in which "the prettiest girls of Tent City" rode in a float "drawn by six white horses" in a parade that ended in Hammels.

These same streets are now largely deserted. "The bay side of Hammels was filled with long rows of summer facilities for fishermen and summer renters," according to The Rockaways by Emil R. Lucev, but "over the last century, storms and fire have reduced the bay front clusters to a handful on the west side of the bay trestle. These are surrounded by empty pile foundations standing upright in the bay waters." Despite the isolation, one resident living on the shore near Hammels Wye described his home as a "ghetto paradise," complete with private beach, dog run, and panoramic views of the Cross Bay Bridge. Next to his new home stood four old summer bungalows, built on pilings above the bay and shuttered for the winter season.

Summer Bungalows

Built on Pilings

"Empty Pile Foundations"

The Rockaways gradually declined in popularity as a vacation destination, and "by the 1930's, a sizeable section of Hammels a block or two away from the beach already consisted of substandard housing," according to Between Ocean and City by Lawrence and Carol Kaplan. Newspapers referred to this area as "slum town" and "not surprisingly, health officials were alarmed by the growing rate of tuberculosis in Hammels, which was now said the be the highest in all of New York City." Like Edgemere, much of Hammels' summer bungalows were demolished during in the Robert Moses era. Some land was used to build the Hammel Houses, which opened in 1955 and now have over 1,900 residents. However, the "low-income developments in the Rockaways contributed to the expansion of residential decay... Instead of ending the dreadful conditions that had existed for decades, the projects served, indirectly, to expand them," according to Between Ocean and City.

Today, the Hammel Houses are engaged in "a gang war between housing projects," as reported in the NY Times, which stretches back for decades. The complex is also in conflict with the nearby residents of Arverne By The Sea, a massive new beachfront community located just across the street. Arverne has been described as "New York City’s newest and most improbable neighborhood" by New York Magazine, perhaps partially due to its proximity to the violent Hammel Houses. In 2007, a local councilman accused Arverne developers of “trying to build a self-contained city,” according to the NY Times, "while ignoring the surrounding community and its ills: unemployment, gangs, guns, drugs and troubled schools." In the process, he claimed, "they’re creating the conditions for a perfect storm of racial discontent and possibly more violence." As recently as October 2010, Arverne residents were reporting "being pelted with rocks from Hammels," according to The Wave, prompting one commenter to ask "who in their right mind would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a house or condo in the Hammels area and not expect to be vandalized in one of the worst crime areas in the country?"

In the meantime, the omnipresent trains of Hammels Wye trundle along overhead, past the boarded up remains of a forgotten era. Their schedule is as regular as the tides of Jamaica Bay, and as ceaseless as the decay of The Rockaways.

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For more photo essays from The Rockaways, please visit The North Edgemere Shore (2010) The South Edgemere Wasteland (2010), The Edgemere Landfill (2010) and Far Rockaway: Abandoned Bungalows (2009).

Under the Wye

"Ghetto Paradise"

Eldert's Grove: Abandoned Boat

Barge Wreck

Last Marina

Bayside Dock Bungalows

Private

Hammels Edge

Doll and Fence

Bedroom Remains

Rotting in the Road

Rat Poison

Flats Fixed

Sunset Wye

The Greenpoint Terminal Market Revisited

November 30, 2010 -

The Greenpoint Terminal Market is a historic complex of warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront. Once home to the largest rope making factory in the United States - the American Manufacturing Company - the complex covered 14 acres and six city blocks, with buildings dating back to 1890. At its peak, American Manufacturing employed over 2,500 workers and - like the nearby American Sugar Refining Company (aka The Domino Sugar Refinery) - was an important part of the struggle to unionize the Brooklyn waterfront. In 1910, one century ago, striking employees battled police in a huge riot outside the warehouses. "The streets surrounding the factory were a miniature battlefield, upon which nearly twoscore policemen and 500 to 1,000 men and women fought. Stones were hurled and heads broken. Men and women had their clothes torn nearly off them. The policemen had to fire their revolvers to keep the mob back," the NY Times reported.

It is difficult to reconcile these scenes from America's labor history with the desolate quiet that occupies these streets today. By the end of the 20th century, the Greenpoint Terminal Market was largely abandoned and known as "the Forgotten City," according to the NY Times. "The derelict warren of buildings was an example of how New Yorkers can be creative in turning the city's faded industrial past into a playground," the NY Times reported, with empty warehouses hosting punk rock shows, skateboarding bowls, graffiti murals, and squatters like Ra, who "lived in the complex for six years." Much of the Forgotten City was destroyed in 2006 by a catastrophic 10-alarm fire. The surviving buildings have remained largely unused, despite the skyrocketing value of land in Greenpoint.

Abandoned Warehouse #1

Abandoned Warehouse #2

The Greenpoint Terminal Market had a long history of fires and explosions before the blaze of 2006. During the American Manufacturing era, the complex processed and stored jute, hemp and cotton to make cordage, rope and twine. Because of the volatile nature of these raw materials, accidents were common. In October 1910, a massive explosion killed least six workers at the factory. "So great was the force of the explosion that a boiler weighing 40,000 pounds was lifted three stories through the roof... and then hurled several hundred yards into a vacant space on the river front," according to the NY Times, with victims including the chief engineer of the plant, who was "torn to pieces and when found was in a patch of clear ground 50 yards from where the boiler had stood." The body of another worker "was hurled through the side of a frame building that stands opposite the factory in Oak Street. It was found on the far side of the building an hour after the explosion."

Fire Warning

Fires were a common occurrence at the factory, and warnings can still be found posted throughout the remaining warehouses. In 1902, a fire in Storage House No. 2 destroyed $150,000 worth of jute. "Nearly a dozen firemen were more or less overcome by smoke, and some narrowly escaped suffocation... the fire is believed to have been caused by spontaneous combustion," reported the NY Times, which notes that another fire had occurred just 18 months before, causing $200,000 in damage (roughly equivalent to $5 million today). In 1904, fire struck again. "Two firemen were killed and fourteen others were overcome by smoke," according to the NY Times. "The whole floor was filled with the dense smoke from the burning jute. The firemen's lamps were put out by the fumes, and they groped about in the darkness trying to turn their hose in the fire, but soon succumbed and fell unconscious to the floor."

Post-Fire Ruins (2007)

Taken in this context, the 2006 conflagration was not a surprise, especially after an exploration of the fire-scarred ruins of the complex in 2007 revealed that many rooms contained mountains of charred cotton rags, perhaps leftover from the rope making process. According to police, the Greenpoint Terminal Market fire was caused by a Polish immigrant named Leszek Kuczera, who had descended into a life of alcoholism and petty crime because of the horrors he had witnessed while cleaning up Ground Zero, the NY Times reported. He led "a life of homelessness, begging and selling stolen copper as scrap metal for vodka money," according to the NY Times, and initially admitted he had caused the fire while "trying to melt the insulation off a long length of copper wire inside the vacant warehouses, using a pile of eight flaming truck tires."

However it began, the resulting blaze was enormous. Visible for miles, it clouded the sky above New York City with black smoke. "More than 350 firefighters from at least 70 units spent all day at the fire, those in front retreating to safety when entire walls crumbled and launched smoldering red bricks 100 feet down the narrow streets of the waterfront. At 10 alarms, it was called the city's largest fire in more than a decade, excepting the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," according to the NY Times.

Greenpoint Ruins (2007)

Rags Inside the Ruins (2007)

The burning of the Greenpoint Terminal Market immediately raised suspicions from all parties. The owner of the buildings, Joshua Guttman, had recently seen a $420 million deal to sell the property fall through, according to New York Magazine, and the Municipal Art Society had been calling for the entire complex to be landmarked, leaving many to wonder if arson had been used to quickly clear the land. "Do development and Brooklyn Fires go hand in hand?" asked New York Magazine. "The market blaze was only one of the many, many “suspicious” fires to hit the Brooklyn development zones of late... This was part of a larger pattern. According to FDNY stats, 2005 was the single busiest year in Fire Department history, with a total of 485,702 calls answered." In the meantime, Leszek Kuczera rescinded his confession, claiming he was "hungover when the police questioned him," according to the NY Times. Despite pleading not guilty, he was sentenced to rehab and probation, and has since been deported to Poland, where he was happily reunited with his wife and family, the NY Times reports.

In the years before the fire, several plans had been made to develop the Greenpoint Terminal Market, including "Greenpoint Common on the River" - a 1990 plan to create a "13-building, 3,324-unit co-op and rental apartment complex" on the site, according to the NY Times, which was soon followed by a proposal to build "a 500-megawatt power plant" on the waterfront, according to the NY Times. Since the fire, however, the majority of the complex has remained empty. Two large warehouses to the east appear to be completely gutted and abandoned, while the rest of the warehouses along the East River contain a few small businesses, including a new gallery space called Fowler Arts Collective. Even in these active buildings, though, the majority of the spaces remain empty, with floor upon floor of unused rooms. And at the top of these buildings, dark, empty halls are left open to the elements.

It is unclear what the future of the Greenpoint Terminal Market is. There are currently no plans to landmark its remaining historic buildings. Like much of Brooklyn's industrial waterfront, it may soon be demolished and turned into luxury condominiums.

Open Space

Fl. 7 - Dark Room

Open Hall

Fl. 5

The Book

Hollow Frames

Fl. 3 - Refrigerators

Unnecessary Lights

Exit

In the Stairwell

Rooftop Lines

Save the Palestine Water Tower

Last Building on the Water