Patti Smith, Robert DiNero, Martin Scorsese et al–the very definition of limousine liberals–have helped kill a Habitat for the Humanity project that would have provided 100% low income housing to seniors.  Meanwhile, according to one source , there are 200,000 seniors waiting for up to 10 years for HUD 202 housing in NYC.

Through gross historical erasure, a misinformation campaign worthy of Roy Cohn halted what would have been a beautiful haven within yuppified “NoLita.”  Proponents of saving the “garden” erase how the neighborhood became unaffordable for many, with its trendy collection of upscale boutique shops in the 1990s, when the cultural cache of SoHo spilled across Lafayette.  The private appropriation of public space by an art gallery that caters to the uber-rich embodies this transformation.

Let’s be clear.  This space is owned by the city and was the historic location of Public School 21.  As the city declined in the 1960s, due to well documented racist policies at the federal level, the school was closed and eventually demolished.  In the 1980s, LIRA built a section 8 apartment building, which now sits facing Spring Street, on part of the former school lot.  Gallery owner Allan Reiver moved into a loft on Elizabeth Street in 1989, taking advantage of the bargain real estate and personifying the eastward art biz drift of what Sharon Zukin described in her 1982 classic Loft Living.

Not surprisingly, post NYC financial crisis, the remainder of the public school lot had not yet been developed, so Reiver received permission to lease the space for the outdoor expansion of his gallery.

In 2012, councilwoman Margaret Chin finally secured a commitment from the city to build affordable housing on the lot.  It was at this point that Reiver opened the space up to the public, and celebs like Gabriel Byrne, who owned a $3.4 million condo on the street, picked up the fight.

Opponents to the housing project say there can be both affordable housing and green space, but that is exactly what the Haven Green design contained!   And rather than a pottery barn for billionaires, it would have been a truly public garden.  The supposed “win-win” that Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and Councilmember Chris Marte tout is a rezoning that could yield apartments in the future.  Of course, the key word here is “could.”  This will again involve a long process of review and very well never get built.  In contrast, the Haven Green project was ready to begin construction in December.  Moreover, this rezoning that Mastro and Marte “won” might have happened anyway.

The coalition that defeated this project are the same privileged NIMBYs who fought loudly against the City of Yes:  reactionaries who already have a secure slice of the housing pie and don’t want to share.  (Councilmember Chris Marte also opposed City of Yes!) Sometimes they claim to fear “gentrification”, but clearly 100% low income senior housing doesn’t fit this complaint.  Other times they claim a desire to preserve the “historical character” of a neighborhood.  But whose history?  The history of this block is a public school created for the mass immigrant wave that began in the late nineteenth century.  Now we need housing for the elderly children and grandchildren descended from that generation—not another gated gallery for tourists, while the un-housed beg for change down the block.