Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA)

The Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) covers on five vacant plots of land owned by New York City on Manhattan's Lower East Side, acquired as part of a 1965 urban renewal plan, near Delancey and Grand Streets. These sites were originally part of the broader Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, a federal program designed to tear down several tenements to develop low-income housing. Some of the original SPURA property was developed, but five remain vacant to this day [cite news |title= NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: LOWER EAST SIDE; A Plan for Five Vacant Lots Gets Plenty of Vacant Stares|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07EED9123AF933A05752C1A9659C8B63 |publisher= New York Times| first= Steve |last= Kurutz|date= November 30, 2003] .

Fact

SPURA remains the largest tract of undeveloped New York City-owned land in Manhattan, south of 96th Street. Deciding what the “appropriate redevelopment” of SPURA would be has stalled the process and kept it undeveloped.

Debate

The competing forces within the neighborhood have been debating whether SPURA should be used to develop affordable housing within Manhattan Community Board 3, whether some mixed use – low and middle income as well as commercial – or all large commercial retail should be created. This debate, often waged in the community halls of local public school auditoriums and other City meeting places, is often argued in newspaper columns [ [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Seward+Park+Urban+Renewal+Area+SPURA&btnG=Search News Search] ] [ [http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wn&q=SPURA&btnG=Search+News News Search #2] ] , at coop board meetings and private strategy sessions in individual homes.

The debate, however, is the very reason that no public official has been willing to take a firm stance and create some project. The divide between the advocates for the poor and those for the middle to upper income New Yorkers has been so vast here, that politicians appear hesitant to move on any idea. During the Koch administration that ended in 1989, they contracted with Sam LeFrak to build [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DD103CF93BA35754C0A966958260 "Perspectives: Changeover in the Housing Agency; Putting a Dinkins Imprint on a Koch Plan", By ALAN S. OSER, NYTimes, July 8, 1990] ] , but massive divided oppositon caused it to be withdrawn. The land still sits vacant in 2008.

References

* [http://anothercupdevelopment.org/projects/detail/34/description#description Spura facts]
* [http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/11/14/visions_of_spura_arquitectonica_edition.php Curbed.com on SPURA]
* [http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_86/sewardparkhousing.html Downtown Express on SPURA]
* [http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_31/crowdofhundreds.html Downtown Express on SPURA again]

Articles of Interest

* Cooperative Village
* Seward Park (Manhattan)