Wrecking Ball May Eventually Hit Montgomery Gardens
The Journal is reporting that Montgomery Gardens, the 1960's style project housing just east of the Beacon may have numbered days as federal housing budgets shrink and the city struggles to maintain living standards in the older structures.
Demolishing the projects along Montgomery Street would go along way in integrating the booming downtown neighborhoods with the less affluent western sections of the city. For many downtown residents, Jersey City ends at the Turnpike overpass, and the projects present one of many obstacles between the wealth belt of the waterfront and the older neighborhoods to the west.
Further, by replacing 1960's era projects with more modern affordable housing, a real opportunity is presented in that modern ideas of an integrated community can be established. When project housing first was conceived of-- the earliest being those outside of Chicago modeled on a plan similar Le Corbusier's vision for Paris-- little thought was given to transportation, shopping, and employment. As a result, many projects, not just in Jersey City, but across the country, fail to address the basic needs of residents. Getting a cup of coffee or a newspaper becomes a full morning activity, shopping for groceries an afternoon expedition, and finding nearby employment an insurmountable challenge.
Meanwhile, modern ideas on low income housing usually include better integration into the community as a whole. Instead of creating sinkholes of poverty, residents with the greatest needs share the same services-- safe streets, public transportation access, police protection, access to parks and recreation-- with more affluent neighborhoods, ensuring an equal distribution of resources.
No doubt the land underneath the Montgomery Gardens projects is growing in value everyday. That land value could very well be leveraged by the city to find a private investor willing to provide modern, community based public housing units in exchange for right to develop part of the property for private use. The residents of housing projects would benefit by receiving newer, more modern housing. The city would benefit from an ever improving urban community, and the investors would have the opportunity to profit.
Demolishing the projects along Montgomery Street would go along way in integrating the booming downtown neighborhoods with the less affluent western sections of the city. For many downtown residents, Jersey City ends at the Turnpike overpass, and the projects present one of many obstacles between the wealth belt of the waterfront and the older neighborhoods to the west.
Further, by replacing 1960's era projects with more modern affordable housing, a real opportunity is presented in that modern ideas of an integrated community can be established. When project housing first was conceived of-- the earliest being those outside of Chicago modeled on a plan similar Le Corbusier's vision for Paris-- little thought was given to transportation, shopping, and employment. As a result, many projects, not just in Jersey City, but across the country, fail to address the basic needs of residents. Getting a cup of coffee or a newspaper becomes a full morning activity, shopping for groceries an afternoon expedition, and finding nearby employment an insurmountable challenge.
Meanwhile, modern ideas on low income housing usually include better integration into the community as a whole. Instead of creating sinkholes of poverty, residents with the greatest needs share the same services-- safe streets, public transportation access, police protection, access to parks and recreation-- with more affluent neighborhoods, ensuring an equal distribution of resources.
No doubt the land underneath the Montgomery Gardens projects is growing in value everyday. That land value could very well be leveraged by the city to find a private investor willing to provide modern, community based public housing units in exchange for right to develop part of the property for private use. The residents of housing projects would benefit by receiving newer, more modern housing. The city would benefit from an ever improving urban community, and the investors would have the opportunity to profit.
Labels: Jersey City
1 Comments:
Your post includes almost all the reasons we choose to live in the city: the convenience, the atmosphere, the people, the unexpected. We can only hope that destroying this housing project and implementing a successful private undertaking on top of it will provide a good enough incentive to do it elsewhere.
Death to modernism!
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