Nicholas Dagen Bloom
On his book Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century
Cover Interview of May 18, 2009
america /
new york city /
government /
polemics /
public policy /
urbanism /
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Comments
September 30, 2011As a resident of New York City, I see the many public housing projects here as scars on the urban landscape. It’s tragic that so much power to tear up the city was accumulated in the hands of Robert Moses.
The fact that the NYCHA towers are still standing is not sufficient evidence that public housing works here. How much benefit do they offer the residents, and at what cost? Could the amount spent on building and maintaining the public housing projects have provided greater benefit if spent in other ways? How about just giving the money directly to poor people?