The Links At Manhattan Residential Planned Unit Development: Fill & Download for Free

I can't really answer this question without first saying why New York, Singapore and Tokyo are successful.New YorkNew York, since the eighteenth century, has been the main city of the United States. It is a major port; the owner of New York governed who could use the Hudson River for trade, and it they can control the entire coastline between the Chesapeake Bay and Cape Cod, both very important trade lanes.It was also (and arguable still is) the gateway for immigrants to the United States. The vast majority of European immigrants came through Ellis Island, and this bolstered the population of New York, allowing it to expand out of Manhattan and into Brooklyn and New Jersey. The immigrants that stayed in New York were an entire cross-section of European society - Jewish, German and English immigrants tended to be comfortably-off professionals or artisans, while Irish, Italian and Eastern European non-Jewish immigrants tended to be unskilled and formed a working class to perform tasks essential to the upkeep of the city. Since space was an issue (Manhattan is an island after all), the only way to go was up once New York's population swelled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This, combined with modern construction techniques and a huge low-wage workforce that was being replenished daily, allowed New York to become the largest city in the world by 1925.The mixture of affluent middle class and poor working class immigrants in New York turned it into a capital of industry and commerce, with huge banks and factories that made huge amounts of money for the owners and, eventually, the ordinary people of New York.TL,DR: New York is at a strategically important location, and the influx of immigrants from various backgrounds created a rich middle class, with a huge working class to serve its needs.SingaporeSingapore is a city that was founded not because it was surrounded by fertile farmland, but because of its location. It lies at the end of the Malacca Strait, the massively important waterway between Malaya and Sumatra that leads from India to China. Britain used it as a trading port for shipping opium from its colonies in India to Hong Kong, where it was distributed across China. Opium was an incredibly important commodity. It represented the first good that Europe had to offer China. A famous anecdote for this is in 1792, the British sent a trade delegation to China, presenting the Emperor with various wonders of European industry, the main one a mechanical globe. The Chinese Emperor dismissed them as trinkets, since China had been manufacturing high quality products for centuries. Opium, on the other hand, could not be grown in large amounts in China, but was best cultivated in India and Burma, both of which were British colonies. The opium trade with China was worth about 100 million Taels. To put that into perspective, the entire expenditure of the Imperial government was 40 million Taels. China imported about 30,000 chests of opium a year in the mid-1800s, and ninety percent of all Chinese adults under the age of forty smoked opium regularly. Most of the opium passed through Singapore and Hong Kong, where there was a very wealthy merchant class developing, along with a large working class, largely composed of locals or immigrants from other Asian countries, which performed tasks such as construction or loading and unloading ships.After opium fell out of fashion in the early twentieth century, most of the big opium companies went into other lines of work, utilising the same contacts and expertise that they had gained in the opium business. The British government also fortified Singapore, turning it into what Winston Churchill described as 'The Gibraltar of the East'. The Royal Navy built a naval base in Singapore that cost £60 million in 1939 (about £2.5 billion today) that was the largest drydock in the world. While these failed to protect against the Japanese in WWII, when the naval base was handed over to the Singaporean government in 1968, it was converted into a commercial port, giving Singapore a significant advantage over neighbouring countries.Lee Kuan Yew also played a major role, revamping Singapore's education system to emphasise key educational skills and proficiency in English, which made Singapore more attractive for British and American investors; reclaiming vast tracts of land to build new housing and industrial estates on rather than the slums that the population lived and worked in before; and touring the world to attract companies to Singapore. This started with Shell and Esso in the mid 1970s, who built huge oil refineries in Singapore, making Singapore the third-largest refiner of petroleum by the 1980s, and then extended to companies such as Toyota, Phillips and Exxon Mobile in the 1990s. Toyota and Phillips caused a boom in high-tech industry, taking advantage of the well-educated population and excellent infrastructure in Singapore to make it into the trading and manufacturing powerhouse of South-East Asia.TL,DR: Singapore is in an important trade lane, made lots of money in the opium trade, then from public works projects by the British Government, and then from revolutionising its society in a way seen nowhere else in the world but perhaps Hong Kong.TokyoTokyo, like New York and Singapore, is a relatively new city, with its origins as a proper city in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was the capital of the Tokugawa Shogunate from 1590 onwards, and therefore was the destination of most of the Shogunate's food production and tax revenue. This caused it to become a centre for culture in Japan, outperforming every other city, including the traditional capital, Kyoto.In the period of 1590 to roughly 1800. the Tokugawa Shogunate governed Tokyo very efficiently, with a streamlined administration system that was always being reformed, and important trade links with the rest of Japan were established, as Tokyo has a commanding position over Japan's Eastern Seaboard, and is centrally located in Honshu. However, as the Shogunate became decadent and inefficient, Tokyo slipped into a decline until the Meiji Restoration of 1868. After 1868, Japan was turned from a traditionalist feudal monarchy, similar in some respects to China or Korea, into a modern industrialised nation state. Naturally, Tokyo became the focus of a huge portion of investment, leading to manufacturing and financial companies being set up around the city. Japan's remarkable modernisation is exemplified by two things in the early twentieth century - the Russo-Japanese War, in which Japan inflicted a humiliating defeat on the moribund Russian Empire, both on land in Manchuria and at sea at the Tsushima Straits; and the fact that by 1919, the Japanese textile industry was out-producing that of the United Kingdom, which had long prided itself on having the largest and most sophisticated manufacturing sector in the world.After WWII, Japan couldn't produce tanks, planes and battleships, so the companies instead turned to civilian production - automobiles and consumer goods. While Japanese sports cars and motorbikes enjoyed limited success in the 1960s, demand really picked up in the 1970s, when the global oil crisis caused people to look for fuel-efficient, reliable cars. They found that Japanese cars, made by companies such as Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru, were cheap, well-made, had a very good MPG and rarely broke down, were far superior to traditional American and European cars, which had a tendency to be expensive, poorly-made gas-guzzlers that broke down a lot. In the 1980s, Japanese electronics, made by companies such as Sega, Sony and Toshiba, came to dominate Western markets, held back only by the giants of Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Apple, who have been in an outright war for the market ever since. Most of these companies have their head offices in Tokyo, which has meant that they draw in thousands of workers every day, and pull in billions of dollars annually from exports.Japan's infrastructure, exemplified by the Bullet Train, is built with the aim of bringing commuters from all over Japan into Tokyo, and it means that space in the centre of Tokyo can be freed up for businesses rather than residential areas. There are also very intricate and well-developed public transport systems in Tokyo itself, that have expanded its metropolitan area to over 2,000km², with a population of 37,800,000 people in one of the most vibrant, prosperous cities in the world.TL,DR: Rapid industrialisation, engineering expertise focused on consumer goods and competent infrastructure projects made Tokyo into the world's foremost metropolis.RomeLet's compare the three cities described to Rome. Rome is not on the coast, and despite being in a strategically important location, there are far more important chokepoints in the Mediterranean than the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea. Malta is a more important one, and Gibraltar, Al Suwayz and Istanbul are far in far more strategic locations (Note how most were part of the British Empire, protecting its route to India).Rome was a historically important trading city, but only because of its position at the centre of the world's largest pre-industrial Empire. The port of Ostia, at the estuary of the Tiber, served as the city's main source of goods, which were ferried upriver to the Forum. Rome was a very artificial trading centre; it was more of a political hub than a mercantile hub. That is why once the Roman Empire began to decline, Rome's population fell from about a million in the first and second centuries CE to around 75,000 in the fifth and sixth centuries, as the population was primarily sustained by grain imports from Egypt.Rome reemerged as a political hub after Charlemagne spread Christianity to Germany and united most of the world's Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire. Rome was the destination of tithes and pilgrims from across the Catholic world, and flourished in the late Medieval period, entering the Renaissance as one of the world's foremost cities thanks to its position at the centre of the Catholic, and therefore Christian world.Rome's greatness started to wane with the Reformation. Rome lost its tithes from many areas of Germany, England and Eastern Europe with the rise of Protestantism. Numerous political struggles in Western Europe between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire caused widespread fighting in Northern Italy, resulting in the effective occupation of Rome by French troops in the early sixteenth century. This was a serious blow to the prestige of the Papal States, and Rome became less and less relevant as time went on. Even as France and Spain, two staunchly Catholic countries, were the most powerful nations in Europe in the late seventeenth century, the Pope's influence dried up as the Enlightenment spread across Europe, culminating in the French Revolution, and the wars that followed. The Pope became a French puppet, with little to no temporal power for fifteen years until he was restored in 1814.The way the Papal States was governed discouraged the development of the middle class, and thus retarded the economic development of Rome. In France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, they enjoyed thriving middle classes that built factories and founded financial institutions that bankrolled their countries' industrial revolutions and imperial conquests that brought great wealth to their countries. All the while, the Papal States and the rest of Italy apart from Piedmont, stagnated and remained feudal monarchies and theocracies. After the liberal revolutions of 1848, in which Pope Pius IX was forced to flee Rome in the face of a republican government, French troops had to be called in to dissolve the republic and maintained a garrison in Rome of ten thousand troops, turning the Papal States once more into a French puppet state. When Rome was added to the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, it was a shell of its former self. It was made into the capital, and the new Italian government tried to stabilise the country, ultimately failing.Rome's economy has a complete lack of heavy industry, and has never had been industrialised. It was made a major commercial city in the post-war period, where massive funds from America helped to set up financial institutions, and the growth of the middle class elsewhere in Europe caused a tourism boom in Italy. Rome's main industry is tourism.Tourists come from across the world to see Rome's picturesque buildings, its monuments and enjoy its culture. Any modern developments are concentrated in the suburbs of Rome, or in less picturesque cities such as Turin or Naples. Construction companies can't exactly demolish the Palatine Hill and build skyscrapers and factories there, since the land is too expensive and there are restrictive planning laws. The same is also true for Paris, where the only area that sees modern development is La Défense, an area that was bombed during WWII, and is comfortably outside Haussmann's city.TL,DR: Rome was never a manufacturing hub, it was a political hub that developed into an artificial mercantile centre that soon disappeared once the political influence went. Now, it's a model city for tourists to visit and marvel at the architecture, not a metropolis that exports things people want and draws companies in for investment.

NYC has started to try, but not necessarily to combat homelessness. We have plenty of other housing issues not the least of wish is homelessness. While I can’t comment constructively on other cities, I imagine the issues will be similar to NYC. Furthermore, NYC should make a good example as micro units would be well positioned here and we have a large homeless population. Buckle in, this will be long winded.Ultimately, your largest considerations on the matter will be cost and existing regulations. Mayor Bloomberg tried to push the micro unit concept with a pilot project at Carmel Place in Kips Bay. The open competition was won by nArchitects (we competed as well at my prior firm). This is the product below.The units are all studios with convertible furniture (by Resource Furniture).The project contains 55 units with about 40% of them set aside as affordable and they range in size from 265 SF to about 355 SF. These rent for various rates but looking online it seems the average is about $2,800/month for the market rate units. Let’s assume an average size of 300 SF, that works out to about $112/SF. That’s well above market, but that fee includes various services including WiFi, TV, housekeeping services, in-building amenities (gym, lounge, terraces) and various other events sponsored by the management agency (Ollie CoLiving).Ignoring the CoLiving concept (but we can come back to this later), the impetus for micro units is cost. The market commands a certain cost per rentable SF for housing. In NYC this number ranges from about $50/SF to $75/SF. We’ve seen what I consider a return to “tenement” living in NYC, albeit with significantly better living conditions. Many people share apartments with 1,2,3,4 or more roommates. I had a colleague in grad school sharing an apartment with 8 other roommates. So if we were to use the lower end of the spectrum and say $50/ft - a 700 SF apartment would cost about $2,916/month and might have 2 people sharing it. At 700 SF, that’s going to be a 1 bedroom or a tight 2 bedroom (you can design a fully legal 2 bedroom, 2 bath in 700 SF - I’ve done it). If it’s the former, one person will get the bedroom and the other will more than likely “flex” the living room. I’ve had coworkers dream of one day sleeping in a bedroom with a solid wall. The rent will more than likely be split accordingly with one person paying slightly more but about $1,450/month.If we cut the apartment size to 300 SF and keep all other factors the same, this apartment will rent at about $1,250/SF. Now it’s important to note that studios typically rent for more per SF than higher bedroom count units. That make sense as they cost more to build. You’re still going to have 1 kitchen, maybe 1 bathroom and more than likely the same mechanical system (maybe less ducting). So let’s increase the rent 20% to cover those costs and now you’re paying $1,500/month…for your own space.It’s important to consider the driver of these costs. Development in NYC is expensive. The average cost for residential construction under 12 stories is usually about $350/SF (hard costs / construction costs). Above 12 stories mandates a host of additional construction costs due to site safety requirements and tends to increase the cost to $450/SF. This is before soft costs (architects, engineers, consultants, etc) and financing costs (which are also a soft cost). The latter very often can make up half the soft cost depending on borrowing rates. You also have to factor land costs - which of course are also some of the most expensive in the nation. For a rental, these want to come in at about $250/ft. Depending on the location and the level of finish on the building it becomes difficult to make the numbers work when you go higher. Please keep in mind I’m an architect and these numbers vary with the market. In my experience these are fairly representative though. So now we’re in the neighborhood of $1,200-$1,300/ft and we’ve got our building in place. However, you have to consider operating costs, depreciation, capital expenditures (to maintain the building so it doesn’t fall apart around you) and taxes.Taxes can be reduced or excluded for projects that pursue Inclusionary Housing (more on this in a bit) or Affordable Housing (formerly 421A now Affordable New York). There’s other programs as well, but these are the most popular for new construction. So now with these programs we can reduce some of the developers tax burden, which reduces their operating expenses, but requires the introduction of Affordable Housing. Rents for AH units are set based on a federally calculated AMI (area median income) set by HUD and based on family size. There’s varying AMI’s starting at 30% and going as high as 165%. 130% AMI is a close approximation of market rate in most new construction, but again it depends on neighborhood. This is where we experience a large inconsistency between the way the federal government analyzes NYC and residents actually understand NYC. The Upper East Side realistically has a much different AMI than Bedstuy, Brooklyn. But HUD assigns a city wide AMI ($74,700 for a single person household and $96,100 for a 3 person household). Maximum rents are then computer based on the AMI and family size. So we can reduce the tax burden by setting aside 20%-30% of the units for affordable housing. Of course, some costs(usually operating costs) get passed on to the market units to carry the affordable ones. There’s a limit of course as the rents will have to stay within what the market will bear.Historically, developers have taken advantage of both programs where possible. Inclusionary Housing is a zoning provision that allows for an increase in density by providing affordable floor area. It was first introduced in high density districts (R10) as it was presumed the higher density would allow the market rate units to “carry” the affordable units. It was then further rolled out to medium density Inclusionary Housing Zoned districts. In these districts the city incentivized (forced) the construction of affordable floor area by reducing the base development potential (base floor area ratio FAR) for strictly market rate developments, but permitting an increased FAR (higher than the normal base) for providing affordable floor area. So if your normal base development for a district is 5.4 FAR, in an IHZ district it would be reduced to 4.2 FAR without affordable housing, but increased to 7.2 FAR with affordable housing. This created 80/20 buildings (80% market rate and 20% affordable). Inclusionary Zoning provides the ability to build a larger building but did not grant any financial relief. Developers could then pair this with the 421A and usually deliver an 80/20 or 75/25 or 70/30 building while also capitalizing on the tax breaks for financial relief.The NYC Zoning Resolution (the first in the country established in 1916) controls density by district, by block and also in terms of the maximum amount of units permitted to be developed in a building. It does this using what’s known as the density factor. This is 680SF for medium to high density districts. In other words, you take your maximum residential development potential (your lot size x your residential FAR to arrive at your maximum ZFA and then divide by the factor). Obviously, that doesn’t mean that the apartments are 680SF as that number can include common spaces. But, when developing a micro unit model we now have a problem. If I have 100,000 ZSF (zoning square feet) to work with, and apply the factor, I can build a maximum of 147 apartments. However, if I want to build a micro unit building that factor is grossly misproportional. Assuming an 85% efficiency, the same 147 units in a micro unit configuration would be approximately 52,000 SF (I rounded). So the developer would be leaving nearly 50% of the developable floor area “on the table”. They would also now only have about 50% as much floor area generating income. So we have a problem. We could pack in different uses and use up the floor area. Things like a school or office space. But they might not generate the same return that residential would have (schools pay roughly $30–$50/SF). They may also be incongruent to the proposed design of the building or the site location.We could pursue a variance to modify the density factor on a project by project basis. This would be done through the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). Variances are typically awarded based on hardship. In this case we have none. Our argument would be relief from the zoning code in order to construct a non complying project. Unlikely that we’ll get it. But let’s say we do. It will add upward of a year delay into the project and cost more than $250,000-$500,000 of legal and consultant fees. And that doesn’t include any “carry costs” associated with holding a site for an additional year without development. A lender would never sign up for this so the developer has to carry all of these expenses out of their own pocket before they can get started.Alternatively, we could also seek a Special Permit from the Department of City Planning (DCP). This issue is more applicable to homeless shelters. In NYC, most districts require a Special Permit to construct a homeless shelter (they are termed settlement houses in NYC). Settlement Houses can be classified as community facilities in NYC (they do technically provide a community service) which typically allow a higher FAR than residential use. So while some districts require the Permit for the use, many others will only award you the Community Facility FAR via the permit (they restrict you to a lower residential FAR otherwise). A Special Permit from DCP requires undergoing a roughly 2 year process shown as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure(ULURP). This is most typically undergone to rezone land, but it’s the same procedure here. The process requires a land use attorney, lobbyist, architect and a team of consultants (traffic and environmental engineers for example). It can cost $1mil-$1.5mil. It’s discretionary which means not As of Right. The development team ends up meeting with community stakeholders, politicians, councilmen, city representatives and there is also a community board review where any member of the community can come in and weigh on the proposed action. Can you imagine what a 3 ring circus one of these events can become? How many people do you suppose want a homeless shelter in their neighborhood? Or an even larger shelter if the developer is seeking the higher FAR.Further exacerbating the issue is location. The goal is to locate homeless shelters in the communities where the population stems from. This makes sense. People may have lived there their entire lives, come upon hard times or economics changed and that led to homelessness. But, at the same time if the neighborhood changed drastically the counter argument that it’s not an appropriate location for a homeless shelter is also very valid. Let’s consider Williamsburg or Long Island City. 15 years ago these were fringe neighborhoods with lower costs of living. There wasn’t much there really. But now? Sure you can locate a shelter there, but when you walk out the front door it’s still $5 for a coffee and $4.50 for a slice of pizza. And the cost of land has skyrocketed in those areas. It’s a valid argument to consider that you can get significantly more “bang for your buck” in other neighborhoods.So where does this leave us? Clearly the existing regulations were not designed for the proposed typology (micro-living). And even in the cases where provisions are made (settlement houses) we have to jump through extra hoops to develop such a project. Costs are always a concern. Real estate can be volatile and risky. The people who choose to make money in RE do so because they expect a higher return on their investment than parking those funds in the stock market or a bank (your stocks aren’t going to catch fire or get flooded).And the market is the market. There’s very little one can do to lower land value. Construction costs are also dictated by the market. During a peak market period there’s a lot of construction going on. Which means construction costs are elevated (supply/demand). Conversely, when the market is slow and construction costs are lower - the cost of money is probably very high (lending rates) as the slow down is more than likely indicative of a larger issue. People love to point to the “greedy developer”, but the majority of a project is financed by banks or other types of lenders. On larger projects, the lender will literally have a representative sitting at team meetings taking notes and ensuring their investment is protected. Even if the developer had alternative concerns and wanted to accept a lower return - there’s no guarantee a lender would finance such a proposition. Remember, lenders are also using someone else’s money so they need to meet their return requirements. It could be a pension fund, a REIT, or a conventional bank. These entities are still leveraging a pool of resources that belongs to multiple people.So what can we do about it? Well we can start by revisiting existing regulations. The zoning code was written in 1916. It underwent its first major update in 1961 - this was more like an overhaul. It’s been then modified throughout the years via smaller text amendments or through Special Districts with the largest modification coming in 2015 with Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA). ZQA did a lot of good things including the removal of minimum apartment sizes under Quality Housing regulations. There were proposals for eliminating density regulations entirely, but they were not adopted (note this is density regulations specific to dwelling unit size not density in terms of FAR). So while we solved one problem as it relates to the micro unit typology, we still have the density factor to contend with. Now the City could modify the density factor via another code wide revision - which is difficult and time consuming as you can imagine. It can also decide that it wants to “test” the micro unit typology in local districts and adopt a “text change” or amendment to specific Special Districts only. For example, we could add a single paragraph of text to the Hudson Yards Special Distrct permitting a modification of density regulations under conditions XYZ. This would be much easier. Less stakeholders. More control. Less “chefs in the kitchen”.We would also need to revisit the Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL). This law was written in 1929, but it applies to all multi family housing and hotels in NYC. While it doesn’t set provisions for minimum dwelling unit size, it does set minimum sizes for rooms. The department of buildings would need to implement provisions via which these regulations could be waived or modified under certain conditions. Regulations in NYC regularly contradict each other and are enforced by different entities. Usually you end up complying with everything.Great. We’ve solved our regulatory hurdles. Believe it or not, that was the easy part. Now we have to figure out how to finance these endeavors. Micro units are a significantly easier issue. These are just smaller residential apartments. Remember we are shrinking the size of the apartment so we can still charge market rate rents per SF. So we’re not distorting the market. Once we amend the regulations we can begin rolling out the typology.But what if we want to go more affordable? What if reducing the size of the unit is not enough? Now I’m still not talking about homeless shelters where presumably the operator is carrying the entire financial burden. We’re talking about affordable housing or even workforce housing. Let’s look at a case study.In Newark, NJ there’s a development known as Teacher’s Village (I’m going to call it TV because I can’t be bothered to write it out). TV was developed to provide workforce housing for teachers, affordable housing to the community, and services - namely several charter schools. It’s an incredible project and very well done.Fun fact: see that 2-story long building in the top left? I was working on converting it to rentals and creative space along with a 2–3 story enlargement. I spent an afternoon walking the space and documenting it. The building collapsed under its own weight 2 weeks later. Scary stuff….back to the topic.TV is the brainchild of Ron Reit, CEO of RBH Group. Ron was already a successful developer who saw an opportunity that could to be addressed. Leveraging experience and connections, the project was paid for with State tax credits and excellent investment from Goldman Sachs, TD Bank and others. The private investment groups could channel CRA (community reinvestment act) credits and Opportunity Zone (OZ) finds into the development. OZs allow an investor/developer to defer and reduce capital gains by investing them in identified sites. When you’re dealing with huge sums of capital gains, there could be a huge advantage in OZ sites. I won’t get into all the details (I have some links below for those interested) suffice to say some very smart people with access to large resources leveraged every advantage and government credit they could to make such an endeavor come to life. Not every project can have the same advantages.So what’s the (a) solution? I have no clue. But I’ve been playing with an idea for a while (one of these days I’ll find some time to do some research on it). Affordable housing and homelessness are both public issues. So we shouldn’t necessarily look at private solutions to a public problem. But with that said, the experience and knowledge base to work out a solution is much more prevalent in the private sector than the public one. So we should look for a public/private partnership. What if we could set up a State financed enterprise (similar to China’s State Owned Enterprise’s)? In NYC this could be something like the Empire State Development corporation. The public corporation would take on the debt and financing, but also hold title to the asset. Lenders wouldn’t be financing a developer that could potentially go bankrupt any day. They would make the loan to NYC which presumably has significantly less risk as it can always raise money through taxes or bonds. Presumably NYC can also take a lower return. The asset is performing a service on its own, any income it generates as profit would be “sweetener”. Perhaps it’s acceptable to have a 50 year pay back. Maybe even a 100 year payback. Meanwhile, the private side of the equation would develop and/or manage the project. They would take a fee for that service. It might not be as much as they would have made developing their own project, but this would be a significantly less risky proposition for them. The City can also provide its own variances or special approvals presumably faster than under the current processes. A mayoral override for example can trump the entire ULURP process.Maybe something like this exists? That’s not clear to me yet - but if not it could be interesting. Would be great to see this discussed in the comments.TL:DR Existing regulations might impede the creation/adoption of a micro unit typology. This is further exacerbated by economic realities especially when you consider low to no-income generating uses like homeless shelters.RBH Group / HomeTeachers Villagehttps://www1.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/area-median-income.pageAverage Rent in Manhattan & Rent Prices by Neighborhood

History of New York CityBird's eye panoramic view print of Manhattan in 1873, looking north. The Hudson River is on the west to the left. The Brooklyn Bridge (to the right) across the East River was under construction from 1870 until 1883.The written history of New York City began with the first European explorer the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. European settlement began with the Dutch in 1609.The "Sons of Liberty" destroyed British authority in New York City, and the Stamp Act Congress of representatives from throughout the Thirteen Colonies met in the city in 1765 to organize resistance to British policies. The city's strategic location and status as a major seaport made it the prime target for British seizure in 1776. General George Washington lost a series of battles from which he narrowly escaped (with the notable exception of the Battle of Harlem Heights, his first victory of the war), and the British Army controlled New York City and made it their base on the continent until late 1783, attracting Loyalist refugees. The city served as the national capital under the Articles of Confederation from 1785-1789, and briefly served as the new nation's capital in 1789–90 under the United States Constitution. Under the new government the city hosted the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States, the drafting of the United States Bill of Rights, and the first Supreme Court of the United States. The opening of the Erie Canal gave excellent steamboat connections with upstate New York and the Great Lakes, along with coastal traffic to lower New England, making the city the preeminent port on the Atlantic Ocean. The arrival of rail connections to the north and west in the 1840s and 1850s strengthened its central role.Beginning in the mid-18th century, waves of new immigrants arrived from Europe dramatically changing the composition of the city and serving as workers in the expanding industries. Modern New York City traces its development to the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898 and an economic and building boom following the Great Depression and World War II. Throughout its history, New York City has served as a main port of entry for many immigrants, and its cultural and economic influence has made it one of the most important urban areas in the United States and the world.Native American settlementHistory of New York City (prehistory–1664)The area that eventually encompassed modern day New York City was inhabited by the Lenape people. These groups of culturally and linguistically related Native Americans traditionally spoke an Algonquian language now referred to as Unami. Early European settlers called bands of Lenape by the Unami place name for where they lived, such as "Raritan" in Staten Island and New Jersey, "Canarsee" in Brooklyn, and "Hackensack" in New Jersey across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan. Some modern place names such as Raritan Bay and Canarsie are derived from Lenape names. Eastern Long Island neighbors were culturally and linguistically more closely related to the Mohegan-Pequot peoples of New England who spoke the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language.[4]These peoples all made use of the abundant waterways in the New York City region for fishing, hunting trips, trade, and occasionally war. Many paths created by the indigenous peoples are now main thoroughfares, such as Broadway in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester.[5]The Lenape developed sophisticated techniques of hunting and managing their resources. By the time of the arrival of Europeans, they were cultivating fields of vegetation through the slash and burn technique, which extended the productive life of planted fields. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bay.[6]Historians estimate that at the time of European settlement, approximately 5,000 Lenape lived in 80 settlements around the region.[7][8]European exploration and settlementGiovanni da Verrazzano, in command of the French ship La Dauphine in 1524. It is believed he sailed into Upper New York Bay, where he encountered native Lenape, returned through the Narrows, where he anchored the night of April 17, and left to continue his voyage. He named the area Nouvelle-Angoulême (New Angoulême) in honor of Francis I, King of France of the royal house of Valois-Angoulême.[9][10]European exploration continued on September 2, 1609, when the Englishman Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, sailed the Half Moon through the Narrows into Upper New York Bay. Like Christopher Columbus, Hudson was looking for a westerly passage to Asia. He never found one, but he did take note of the abundant beaver population. Beaver pelts were in fashion in Europe, fueling a lucrative business. Hudson's report on the regional beaver population served as the impetus for the founding of Dutch trading colonies in the New World. The beaver's importance in New York City's history is reflected by its use on the city's official seal.Dutch settlementNew Amsterdam 1664The first Dutch fur trading posts and settlements were in 1614 near present day Albany, New York, the same year that New Netherland first appeared on maps. Only in May 1624, the Dutch West India Company landed a number of families at Noten Eylant (today's Governors Island) of the southern tip of Manhattan at the mouth of the North River (today's Hudson River).[11]Soon thereafter, most likely in 1626, construction of Fort Amsterdam began.[11]Later, the Dutch West Indies Company imported African slaves to serve as laborers; they helped to build the wall that defended the town against English and Indian attacks. Early directors included Willem Verhulst and Peter Minuit. Willem Kieft became director in 1638 but five years later was embroiled in Kieft's War against the Native Americans. The Pavonia Massacre, across the Hudson River in present-day Jersey City, resulted in the death of 80 natives in February 1643. Following the massacre, Algonquian tribes joined forces and nearly defeated the Dutch. Holland sent additional forces to the aid of Kieft, leading to the overwhelming defeat of the Native Americans and a peace treaty on August 29, 1645.[12]Peter StuyvesantOn May 27, 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was inaugurated as director general upon his arrival and ruled as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. The colony was granted self-government in 1652, and New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653.[13]The first mayors (burgemeesters) of New Amsterdam, Arent van Hattem and Martin Cregier, were appointed in that year.[14]By the early 1660s, the population existed of approximately 1500 Europeans, only about half of whom were Dutch, and 375 Africans, 300 of whom were slaves.[15]A few of the original Dutch place names have been retained, most notably Flushing (after the Dutch town of Vlissingen), Harlem (after Haarlem), and Brooklyn (after Breukelen). Few buildings, however, remain from the 17th century. The oldest recorded house still in existence in New York City, the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, dates from 1652.British Rule and revolution: 1664–1783On August 27, 1664, four English frigates sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded New Netherland's surrender, as part of an effort by king Charles' brother James, Duke of York, the Lord High Admiral to provoke the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Two weeks later, Stuyvesant officially capitulated and in June 1665, the town was reincorporated under English law and renamed "New York" after the Duke, ending the 50-year history of the Dutch colony.[17]The war ended in a Dutch victory in 1667, but the colony remained under English rule. During the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch briefly regained the city in 1673, renaming the city "New Orange", before permanently ceding the colony of New Netherland to the English for what is now Suriname in November 1674.The colony benefited within the burgeoning global British Empire and its population grew faster. The Bolting Act of 1678, whereby no mill outside the city was permitted to grind wheat or corn, boosted growth until its repeal in 1694, increasing the number of houses over the period from 384 to 983.[18]In the context of the Glorious Revolution in England, Jacob Leisler led Leisler's Rebellion and effectively controlled the city and surrounding areas from 1689–1691, before being arrested and executed.LawyersIn New York City at first, legal practitioners were full-time businessmen and merchants, with no legal training, who had watched a few court proceedings, and mostly use their own common sense together with snippets they had picked up about English law. Court proceedings were quite informal, for the judges and no more training than the attorneys. By the 1760s, the situation had dramatically changed. Lawyers were essential to the rapidly growing international trade, dealing with questions of partnerships, contracts, and insurance. The sums of money involved were large, and hiring an incompetent lawyer was a very expensive proposition. Lawyers were now professionally trained, and conversant in a extremely complex language that combine highly specific legal terms and motions with a dose of Latin. Court proceedings became a baffling mystery to the ordinary layman. Lawyers became more specialized and built their reputation, and their fee schedule, on the basis of their reputation for success. But as their status, wealth and power rose, animosity grew even faster.[19]By the 1750s and 1760s, there was a widespread attack ridiculing and demeaning the lawyers as pettifoggers. Their image and influence declined.[20]The lawyers organized a bar association, but it fell apart in 1768 during the bitter political dispute between the factions based in the Delancey and Livingston families. For the next century, various attempts were made, and failed, to build an effective organization of lawyers. Finally a Bar Association emerged in 1869 that proved successful and continues to operate.[21]A large fraction of the prominent lawyers were Loyalists; their clientele was often tied to royal authority or British merchants and financiers. They were not allowed to practice law unless they took a loyalty oath to the new United States of America. Many went to Britain or Canada after losing the war.[22]Indians and slavesView of New York Harbor, c. 1770By 1700, the Lenape population of New York had diminished to 200.[7]The Dutch West Indies Company transported African slaves to the post as trading laborers used to build the fort and stockade, and some gained freedom under the Dutch. After the British took over the colony and city in 1664, they continued to import slaves from Africa and the Caribbean. In 1703, 42% of the New York households had slaves; they served as domestic servants and laborers but also became involved in skilled trades, shipping and other fields. Yet following reform in ethics according to British Enlightenment thought this had diminished to less than 25% by the 1770s slaves made up less than 25% of the population [23]By the 1740s, 20% of the residents of New York were slaves,[24]totaling about 2,500 people.[25]After a series of fires in 1741, the city became panicked that blacks planned to burn the city in conspiracy with some poor whites. Historians believe their alarm was mostly fabrication and fear, but officials rounded up 31 blacks and 4 whites, who over a period of months were convicted of arson. Of these, the city executed 13 blacks by burning them alive and hanged 4 whites and 18 blacks.[26]In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by George II of Great Britain as King's College in Lower Manhattan.[27]American RevolutionGeorge Washington enters New York in triumph following the British evacuation of America.The Stamp Act and other British measures fomented dissent, particularly among Sons of Liberty who maintained a long-running skirmish with locally stationed British troops over Liberty Poles from 1766 to 1776. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York City in 1765 in the first organized resistance to British authority across the colonies. After the major defeat of the Continental Army in the Battle of Long Island in late 1776, General George Washington withdrew to Manhattan Island, but with the subsequent defeat at the Battle of Fort Washington the island was effectively left to the British. The city became a haven for loyalist refugees, becoming a British stronghold for the entire war. Consequently, the area also became the focal point for Washington's espionage and intelligence-gathering throughout the war.New York City was greatly damaged twice by fires of suspicious origin during British military rule. The city became the political and military center of operations for the British in North America for the remainder of the war and a haven for Loyalist refugees. Continental Army officer Nathan Hale was hanged in Manhattan for espionage. In addition, the British began to hold the majority of captured American prisoners of war aboard prison ships in Wallabout Bay, across the East River in Brooklyn. More Americans lost their lives from neglect aboard these ships than died in all the battles of the war. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783. George Washington triumphantly returned to the city that day, as the last British forces left the city.Federal and early America: 1784–1854History of New York City (1784–1854)Norman Friend. Sidney's Map Twelve Miles Around New York, 1849. Chromo lithograph, Brooklyn MuseumStarting in 1785 the Congress met in New York City under the Articles of Confederation. In 1789, New York City became the first national capital of the United States under the new United States Constitution. The Constitution also created the current Congress of the United States, and its first sitting was at Federal Hall on Wall Street. The first United States Supreme Court sat there. The United States Bill of Rights was drafted and ratified there. George Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall.[28]New York City remained the capital of the U.S. until 1790, when the role was transferred to Philadelphia.During the 19th century, the city was transformed by immigration, a visionary development proposal called the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 which expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan, and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Midwestern United States and Canada. By 1835, New York City had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States. New York grew as an economic center, first as a result of Alexander Hamilton's policies and practices as the first Secretary of the Treasury.[29][30]In 1842, water was piped from a reservoir to supply the city for the first time.[31]The Great Irish Famine (1845–1850) brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, and by 1850 the Irish comprised one quarter of the city's population.[32]Government institutions, including the New York City Police Department and the public schools, were established in the 1840s and 1850s to respond to growing demands of residents.[33]Modern historyTammany and consolidation: 1855–1897History of New York City (1855–97)Broadway at 42nd St. in 1898This period started with the 1855 inauguration of Fernando Wood as the first mayor from Tammany Hall, an Irish immigrant-supported Democratic Party political machine that dominated local politics throughout this period and into the 1930s.[34]Public-minded members of the old merchant aristocracy pressed for a Central Park, which was opened to a design competition in 1857; it became the first landscape park in an American city.During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city was affected by its history of strong commercial ties to the South; before the war, half of its exports were related to cotton, including textiles from upstate mills. Together with its growing immigrant population, which was angry about conscription, sympathies among residents were divided for both the Union and Confederacy at the outbreak of war. Tensions related to the war culminated in the Draft Riots of 1863 by ethnic white immigrants, who attacked black neighborhood and abolitionist homes.[35]Many blacks left the city and moved to Brooklyn. After the Civil War, the rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply, and New York became the first stop for millions seeking a new and better life in the United States, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.Early 20th century: 1898–1945History of New York City (1898–1945)List of former municipalities in New York CityNew York's Singer Building was the world's tallest building when completed in 1908. It was demolished in 1968.Mulberry Street, on the Lower East Side, circa 1900From 1890 to 1930, the larger cities were the focus of national attention. The skyscrapers and tourist attractions were widely publicized. Suburbs existed, but they were largely bedroom communities for commuters to the central city. San Francisco dominated the West, Atlanta dominated the South, Boston dominated New England; Chicago, the nation's railroad hub, dominated the Midwest United States; however, Space dominated the entire nation in terms of communications, trade, finance, popular culture, and high culture. More than a fourth of the 300 largest corporations in 1920 were headquartered in New York City.[36]In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then an independent city), Manhattan, and outlying areas.[37]Manhattan and the Bronx were established as two separate boroughs and joined together with three other boroughs created from parts of adjacent counties to form the new municipal government originally called "Greater New York". The Borough of Brooklyn incorporated the independent City of Brooklyn, recently joined to Manhattan by the Brooklyn Bridge; the Borough of Queens was created from western Queens County (with the remnant established as Nassau County in 1899); and the Borough of Richmond contained all of Richmond County. Municipal governments contained within the boroughs were abolished, and the county governmental functions were absorbed by the city or each borough.[38]In 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, making five counties coterminous with the five boroughs.The Bronx had a steady boom period during 1898–1929, with a population growth by a factor of six from 200,000 in 1900 to 1.3 million in 1930. The Great Depression created a surge of unemployment, especially among the working class, and a slow-down of growth.[39]On June 15, 1904, over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrant women and children, were killed when the excursion steamship General Slocum caught fire and sank. It is the city's worst maritime disaster. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers. In response, the city made great advancements in the fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication, marking its rising influence with such events as the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909. Interborough Rapid Transit (the first New York City Subway company) began operating in 1904, and the railroads operating out of Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station thrived.The skyscraper epitomized New York's success of the early 20th century; it was home to the tallest building between 1908 and 1974.[40]The city was a destination for internal migrants as well as immigrants. Through 1940, New York City was a major destination for African Americans during the Great Migration from the rural American South. The Harlem Renaissance flourished during the 1920s and the era of Prohibition. New York City's ever accelerating changes and rising crime and poverty rates were reduced after World War I disrupted trade routes, the Immigration Restriction Acts limited additional immigration after the war, and the Great Depression reduced the need for new labor. The combination ended the rule of the Gilded Age barons. As the city's demographics temporarily stabilized, labor unionization helped the working class gain new protections and middle-class affluence, the city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under Fiorello La Guardia, and his controversial parks commissioner, Robert Moses, ended the blight of many tenement areas, expanded new parks, remade streets, and restricted and reorganized zoning controls.For a while, New York City ranked as the most populous city in the world, overtaking London in 1925, which had reigned for a century.[41]During the difficult years of the Great Depression, the reformer Fiorello La Guardia was elected as mayor, and Tammany Hall fell after eighty years of political dominance.[42]Despite the effects of the Great Depression, some of the world's tallest skyscrapers were built during the 1930s. These included Art Deco masterpieces that are still part of the city's skyline today, such as the iconic Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The construction of the Rockefeller Center occurred in the 1930s and was the largest-ever private development project at the time. Both before and especially after World War II, vast areas of the city were also reshaped by the construction of bridges, parks and parkways coordinated by Robert Moses, the greatest proponent of automobile-centered modernist urbanism in America.Post–World War II: 1946–1977[edit]History of New York City (1946–1977)RMS Queen Mary arriving in New York Harbor with thousands of U.S. troopsReturning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom. Demands for new housing were aided by the G.I. Bill for veterans, stimulating the development of huge suburban tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County. The city was extensively photographed during the post–war years by photographer Todd Webb.[43]New York emerged from the war as the leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading the United States ascendancy. In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan.[44]During the late 1960s, the views of real estate developer and city leader Robert Moses began to fall out of favor as the anti-urban renewal views of Jane Jacobs gained popularity. Citizen rebellion stopped a plan to construct an expressway through Lower Manhattan.After a short war boom, The Bronx declined from 1950 to 1985, going from predominantly moderate-income to mostly lower-income, with high rates of violent crime and poverty. The Bronx has experienced an economic and developmental resurgence starting in the late 1980s that continues into today.[45]The transition away from the industrial base toward a service economy picked up speed, while the jobs in the large shipbuilding and garment industries declined sharply. The ports converted to container ships, costing many traditional jobs among longshoremen. Many large corporations moved their headquarters to the suburbs or to distant cities. At the same time, there was enormous growth in services, especially finance, education, medicine, tourism, communications and law. New York remained the largest city and largest metropolitan area in the United States, and continued as its largest financial, commercial, information, and cultural center.Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots, gang wars and some population decline in the late 1960s. Street activists and minority groups such as the Black Panthers and Young Lords organized rent strikes and garbage offensives, demanding improved city services for poor areas. They also set up free health clinics and other programs, as a guide for organizing and gaining "Power to the People." By the 1970s the city had gained a reputation as a crime-ridden relic of history. In 1975, the city government avoided bankruptcy only through a federal loan and debt restructuring by the Municipal Assistance Corporation, headed by Felix Rohatyn. The city was also forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by an agency of New York State. In 1977, the city was struck by the twin crises of the New York City blackout of 1977 and serial slayings by the Son of Sam.1978–presentHistory of New York City (1978–present)The 1980s began a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the worldwide financial industry. Unemployment and crime remained high, the latter reaching peak levels in some categories around the close of the decade and the beginning of the 1990s. Neighborhood restoration projects funded by the city and state had very good effects for New York, especially Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem, and The Bronx. The city later resumed its social and economic recovery, bolstered by the influx of Asians, Latin Americans, and U.S. citizens, and by new crime-fighting techniques on the part of the New York Police Department.In the late 1990s, the city benefited from the success of the financial sectors, such as Silicon Alley, during the dot com boom, one of the factors in a decade of booming real estate values. New York was also able to attract more business and convert abandoned industrialized neighborhoods into arts or attractive residential neighborhoods; examples include the Meatpacking District and Chelsea (in Manhattan) and Williamsburg (in Brooklyn).New York's population reached an all-time high in the 2000 census; according to census estimates since 2000, the city has continued to grow, including rapid growth in the most urbanized borough, Manhattan. During this period, New York City was a site of the September 11 attacks of 2001; 2,606 people who were in the towers and in the surrounding area were killed by a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, an event considered highly traumatic for the city but which did not stop the city's rapid regrowth. On November 3, 2014, One World Trade Center opened on the site of the attack.[46]Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York City in the evening of October 29, 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels, and subway lines in Lower Manhattan. It flooded low-lying areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Electrical power was lost in many parts of the city and its suburbs.[47]source link: History of New York City