EVG reader Ron Z. shares photos from this morning... A crane has arrived for the second installment of pre-cast concrete floor planks for the incoming Mary Spink Apartments on East 11th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...
He notes that the planks are hoisted over 539-541 E. 11th St. and lowered onto the steel superstructure that workers have put into place.
"All residents on the 4th and 5th floors have to vacate their apartments until later this afternoon — in case a plank decides to land on top of the building," Ron says.
There were three trucks with planks waiting along Avenue A...
The Mary Spink Apartments will one day be home to eight stories — 46 units — of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Villager residents.
Spink, a respected community activist, CB3 member and executive director of Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, died in January 2012 at age 64.
Previously on EV Grieve:
East 11th Street lot prepped for the Mary Spink Apartments
Empty East 11th Street lot will yield to 8 stories of affordable housing (49 comments)
So we have to evacuate our apartments for private enterprise?
ReplyDeleteThis would have been better served as a community garden.
ReplyDeleteSure we do not need more housing just small "community gardens" only opened for the tenant on the block with the key as they see fit to use as a private garden without property taxes being included great idea..
ReplyDeleteThis will be a nightmare on a block already home to a food pantry and a large number of low income housing buildings run by HPD and People's Mutual Housing. How much is one damn block supposed to absorb? And you, Anonymous 1:47, how much of this kind of stuff do you have on YOUR block???
ReplyDeleteA lot of rats are going to be displaced from that lot.
ReplyDeleteEh, its not so noticeable that those places are on the block, only Saturday mornings sometimes with the food line.
ReplyDeleteHey property taxation fan... most of the people who buy their apartments really LIKE having community gardens that allow light and air into their units. Ask around at the FlowerBox, for example.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyone can join a garden -- it's not just for "tenants" on "the block". So join one, and enjoy!
In a previous post on this development it noted that "The design includes a passageway between East 11th Street and Joseph Sauer Park on East 12th Street."
ReplyDeleteIs this still the case?
As a neighbor I'm fine with a well run facility for these populations on the block but I do have concerns.
This is a playground for kids with their parents. It needs to be kept that way. If the passageway is meant to improve access for 11th Street residents with their kids to the playground, than fine, but if it is intended to provide access to the playground for the adult residents of this facility, than that is big mistake.
I've lived near the park for close to thirty years and during much of the 80's it was a very unpleasant place. It was home at various times to drug dealing, prostitution and an unengaged population of addicts and the mentally ill homeless. It was completely inhospitable to kids. It wasn't until the 12th street block association partnered with elected officials did money get put into the budget to upgrade the playground and turn it into a well used, attractive public space. Which brings me to my second concern/question...when is this playground getting a "freshening." The rubber play surface is pock marked with holes and crumbling, the lawns are thread bare and eaten up and while the climbing gear and spray fountain have held up over time, they are pretty old too.
Anybody have a clue if there is any investment headed Sauer's way?
Anon 6:02: As far as you second concern is, er, concerned: "when is this playground getting a "freshening?" If the 12th Street Block Association was able to bend the ear of elected officials, why are you not dealing with them now?
ReplyDeleteIt does sound like some of things in that park need to be changed, but if the climbing gear and spray fountain are still in good working order I'd rather my taxpayer dollar not be wasted on updating things that are in perfectly good shape. Are the children not getting sprayed with the current setup? Are they not getting cooled off enough on hot days? Would changing the foundation increase the cooled-offness percentage?
"affordable housing" is the best part...sorry but people living in low income housing...living in similar apartments that we pay thousands of dollars to live in isnt right...
ReplyDelete"Not in my backyard!" right, 3:19PM?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I feel your pain. It must SUCK to have a soup kitchen, HPD buildings, and now housing for mentally disabled/formerly homeless so close to each other.
Enough's enough. When will it end? This is not the EV you signed up for, is it!
Yeah, it isn't right that we ALL pay way too much for housing. But taking housing from, for example, elderly, disabled or low income families: would that make you feel better? Really? Maybe TSP will become a shantytown once again!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's fair that the wealthy keep us all as wage slaves or trade housing like it's a monopoly game, but I'm glad people are angry at senior citizens and poor people- they're really gaming the system, not like big banks who get hundreds of billions of dollars to play with. They're the real victims, I guess.