the agonistic city: building the political in sunset park

7/22/2019 THE AGONISTIC CITY: building the political in Sunset Park

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HE AGONISIC CIYbuilding the political in Sunset Park

Michele Girelli, Verena Lenna


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Research developed in the ramework o the Atlantis Program

in collaboration with Parsons, Te New School o Design

Spring erm 2012

Permission or Use o Content:Te author herewith permits that the present dissertation be made available orconsultation; parts o it may be copied, strictly or personal use. Every other use issubject to strict copyright reservations. Particular reerence is made to the obligationo explicitly mentioning the source when quoting the present dissertations results.

Venice 2012


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HE AGONISIC CIY

building the political in Sunset Park

Michele Girelli, Verena Lenna

European postgraduate Masters in Urbanism


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Tis research would not have been possible without the support, critiques and encouragement o many

people. First and oremost, we express our gratitude to our supervisors Bernardo Secchi, Bruno De Meulder

and Paola Vigan or their inspiration and guidance.

We wish to thank them or their insights and continuous support during the research process and the along

the development o the whole Master Program. For having pushed us towards a critical view on the processes

that invest the city and or the valuable knowledge they continuously shared with us.

We would like to express our gratitude to American supervisors Miguel Robles Duran, Angel Luis Lara,

Quilian Riano and Maarten Van Acker who guided our studio and research in New York. Tey contributed

to develop a richer perspective concerning the condition o low-income communities in Sunset Park and the

power structures o the city, opening us to alternative models o engagement in urban practice.

We express our gratitude to all the members o La Union , or having welcomed us in the neighborhood, or

having shared with us their time, their knowledge and stories, pushing us towards an unexplored, exciting

research path.

Special thanks to Miodrag Mitrasinovic or his caring support during the time we spent in New York,

encouraging us to ollow our inspirations; or having listened to our thoughts and shared with us the

important moments spent at Parsons; or having hosted us in an amazing context o research.

Tank you to all the students we worked with during the course o the EMU Master.

Finally, we are thankul or the love and support we received rom our amilies throughout the whole study

period.

Michele and Verena

Acknowledgements


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View rom the window. Parsons Te New School or Design12th oor 16th East 60


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Premise

Tis research has started within the Atlantis Program, an exchange project between European and United

States university hosted in spring 2012 at Parsons School o Design, New York.

Te European Postgraduate Master o Urbanism thesis semester has been guided, or a our month period

through the design course Urban Ecology#1: Sunset Park, Brooklyn and oriented to develop a research that

have the capacity to grasp and operate inside the structures o a highly complex condition in the intricacies

o low income neighborhoods and its delicate urban ecosystem. Tis opportunity o exchange besides

personal interests in the topic o social inclusion in urban context is one o the reasons that input or this

investigation.

Te course proposed a research on the production and use o participatory mechanisms and collaborative

methodologies and as a means to develop collective action and organization around every process through

specic action projects.

Besides the morphological and economical analysis o the site, a relevant amount o time was spent in

interviews and eldwork in order to understand the social dynamic and neighborhood complexity.

o understand the realities o the low income urban ecosystem, we have been working in collaboration

with members o La Unin, a community based organization in Sunset Park, with the intention o working

together to produce a thorough study o living quality in that area.

Tis perspective is aware about how social movements and communities are already producing expertise

and methodologies. Te general hypothesis is that this knowledge can provide useul insights or social

sciences and design disciplines.

Besides understanding the processes and actors that affect Sunset Park we speculated about socially,environmentally and economically alternative models conceived as design rameworks and capable o being

adapted to other environments1. Te last part o this work has been produced during the next our months

afer returning to Europe, this has allowed us to take the needul critical distance to complete this research.

1 For a more comprehensive description o the course and methodology propsed see Urban Ecology #1: Sunset Park.

Unitary Urban Research and Design Speculations in Sunset Park, Brooklynwith Miguel Robles Duran, Quilian Riano,

Maarten Van Acker, Angel Luis Lara hosted in Spring 2012 at MFA ransdisciplinary Design, School o DesignStrategies, Parsons the New School or Design.


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Inside and outside academia, during the period o staying in New York, we have been exposed to an

environment o interdisciplinary work. Besides working together with members o La Union and students

having very different background, also debate with artists, proessors rom different elds, activist and civil

society, has become relevant or the progress o this research.

During the our month o research a multitude o events, lectures, small action-project and social

maniestations within and as part o the recent social movement Occupy, ueled an intense debate on the

city.

Te slogan the right to the city closely associated with Marxist French philosopher Henri Leebvre ,

nowadays reclaimed by big portions o civil society seems, generally accepted by recent wave o protests and

at the base o growing interest in social inequality.

Te recent economical crisis is increasing social inequality and disparity between the ew very rich and

the multitude o poor, process o privatization and worsening labor conditions under the implementation

o neo-liberal policies, have highlighted social disparities and the need or a change. At the same time the

evidence o increased social inequalities become an occasion or social movement, grassroots association

and local organization to raise their voice and protest against an unjust state o things, a practice that have a

strong historical legacy in New York and more in general in the United States 2. Te city seems to become, or

one more time, the arena or social struggles, and where groups can organize and jointly reclaim their rights.

Te network o solidarity percolating civil society especially low income groups at the neighborhood scale

and the need to imagine a more just uture seems open or the exploration o alternative economical and

political models, these among many others are the reason o recent interest in Urban Ecology s theory.

2 Cartosio Bruno, 2012I lunghi anni sessanta, published by Feltrinelli Editore, Milano.


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MAP OF CONCEPS

HE ECOLOGICAL HOUGH

the rise o Urban Ecology within social andenvironmental theory

SUNSE IN HE FRAMEWORK OF NEW YORK CIY

Sunset Park as a case study: transition and social justice

which opportunities and potentials:

- spaces, zoning tools, actors and Institutions- local activation, within the realm o social movements.

LABOUR AND PROPERY AS ENRY POINSgiven the urgency o the social justice issue:

reclaiming bio-authoriality as a premise o the political

questioning:

role o spacerole o Institutionsthe conditions o the politicalalternative property patternsorms o welarerole o architects and urbanists

towards the political:the agonistic potential o the city

PARICIPAORY ACION RESEARCH

what we learned working with the people in Sunset Park

> people grouping in movements, associations, cooperatives are active and aware.> we think Institutional role is relevant to empower, to guarantee accessibility, tostructure action> orms o latency as opportunities or bottom-up orms o direct activation

RESEARCH BY DESIGN

exploring the ecological potential in Sunset Park

Potential:available tools o planningavailability o organized citizensvacancies and other spatial opportunities

> space reclaimed: new systems o property> space reclaiming time: housing and public space

> actors and economical logics

space = time

>

>

>


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SectionsChapters

Materials

PREMISE

HE ECOLOGICAL HOUGHBrie introduction to Urban Ecology

SUNSE PARK IN HE FRAMEWORK OF NEW YORK CIYSocio-economical proleConicts and internal migrations

Community based planningA sel-organized approach to community

Te present o social movements

SPAIAL FRAMES OF LABOUR

Prelude: I have no timeA.Spatial conditions o labourA1 Geopolitical and social rameworkA2 ( In )visibility o Labour

ranscalar conditions o labour: a dialectical approachFrom the assembly line to the desk

VacancyForms o visibility and invisibility o labour

Te embodied experience o precarityWelare reclaimed: under the political

FRAGMENING PAERNS OF PROPERYHousing as a rightLiving models and social ragmentation

Property spatial ragmentationOwnership and shrinking o the publicAlternative patterns o sociability

HE PROCESS OF RESEARCH ( AS DESIGN )Participatory action research with La Union

La UnionLa GranjaFigures o power

Drawing the sociogramA block with a view: La Granja

A1+A2 Emerging negotiations and conictsLooking or agon: where is agon?

Te process o research as design o the relational realm andgeneration o knowledge

RESEARCH BY DESIGNTe political nature o ecologies

Sunset Park zoning toolsSpace becoming time

Emerging ecologies: spaces and actors involvedOpen nale

9

1723

33

39

4143

52

57

6367

7275

79

89

95

103

121

INDEX

BIBLIOGRAPHY


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6


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7

HE ECOLOGICAL HOUGH

Brie introduction to Urban Ecology


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8


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11

On 4th Street the public space o Latin community people

gather in proximity o street vendors, inormal workersoffer traditional drinks and ood.


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12

Te sale o ethnic oods and drinks in the street become a

reason or gathering and space o sociability.


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141

BX23

MN30

QN05

MN20

7

2

QN09

BK15

BK13

BK11

BK03

BX18

BX16

BX11

BX22

2

8

BK14

0

BX03

0 4 8 12

brooklyn

manhattan

staten island

newark

long isl

bronx


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150 4 8 122Miles

0 8 122Miles

Miles

and

SUNSE PARK IN HE FRAMEWORK OF NEW YORK CIY

Socio-economical prole

Conicts and internal migrations

Te present o social movements


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18

55TH

60TH

64TH

29TH

61ST50TH

45TH

6

TH

40TH

62ND

3RD

36TH37TH

4TH

5TH

7TH

6TH

8TH

8TH

30TH

5TH

45TH

40TH

55TH

50TH

60TH7TH

8TH

5TH

4TH

3RD

Prospect Park

Cemetery

Brooklyn Armyterminal

Re-zooning Plan

Administrative Boundary

Vision Plan


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20

1

1

Female occupation data Male occupation data

working in Sunset Park

14,3 %

5,9 %

On the corner

Domestic Workers

4,349 - 8,283workers

are either employed or searching or work as a day laborer,

on a typical day in the New York metropolitan area.

200.000in New York City,

43% o women working outside the home hire domestic workers:this would bringthe number o domestic workers in New York City

closer to 600,000

DAA LABOUR


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21

management occupations (except armers)

business and nancial operations occupations

computer and mathematical occupations

education, training, and library

arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

service occupations

sales and office

construction, extraction, and maintenance 28%

46%

66%

55%

35%

35%

production occupations

transportation and material moving

community and social services occupations

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

( except home health )

( public administration )

Unionizationrates in New York City 5 Boroughs

Because these data are highly aggregated (mainly due to the limitations o the sample size), they ail to convey the ull complexity o New

York unionization rates, which also vary by race and ethnicity. Tis too reects differential racial and ethnic patterns o employment across

industries. U.S.-born workers are more highly unionized than oreign-born workers, while the unionization rates o those who have

become naturalized U.S. citizens, as well as those who arrived in the United States beore 1990, are comparable to or higher than those o

U.S.- born workers. More recent arrivals, by contrast, have extremely low rates o unionization. Tese newcomers are relatively young, and

ew o them are union members, regardless o nativity. Moreover, recent immigrants are disproportionately employed in the inormal

sector, in jobs that have relatively low unionization rates.

Source: Te State o the Unions, Center or Urban Research and NYC Labor Market Inormation Service, CUNY. September 2010

52,1 %

25,3 %

Commuting

working in Brooklyn and other parts o New York

hs

0 -5 %5.1 -10 %10.1 - 15 %15 %

no data

Unemployment rates


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22

military

port

gowanus

expressway

1st AGE

SUNSETPARK

MIDDLECLASS

NEIGHBORHOOD

40S50S


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24

waterfront

investment

gowanus

expressway

3rd AGE

SUNSET PARK

LATIN

NEIGHBORHOOD

80S90S

waterfront

investment

VISION PLAN

investment REAL ESTATE

investment

4th AGE

SUNSET PARK

MIDDLECLASS

NEIGHBORHOOD

10S30S

new freight

port

brooklin

waterfront

2nd AGE

SUNSET PARK

LOSS OF

PROPERTYVALUE

70S80S


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25

Sunset Park with surrounding parts o New York City. Te Gowanus effectively bisected the residential and

industrial communities and separated the neighborhood rom its waterront. As a consequence, 3rd Avenue

quickly lost its commercial appeal and 5th Avenue soon became the street o choice or shopping.

2nd AGE during 70s and 80s due the dismantling o military port and goods containerization we assist

to migration o middle class living in Sunset Park towards suburban areas, racially homogenous zones andgated community (white ight) with consequent loss o property value and price o rents.. Brooklyn Army

erminal Designed by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1919 as a military ocean supply acility. During World

War II as much as sixty three million tons o supplies and 80 % o the troops sent overseas passed through

it. Since 1984, the erminal has been converted as space or small businesses. Big investments are oriented

to Newark port area.

3rd AGE during 80s and 90s the neighborhood has become home to a large Chinese population, as well

as Latin American and Indian. Te neighborhood become a good place or low income Latin community

mainly Portorican, Mexican and Dominican that work in textile industries near the port area, with a low

percentage o Asian mainly Chinese originally rom Fhuzou area o China. Investments are tendentiallyoriented to upper Brooklyn waterront.

4th AGE Sunset Park today remains a rst stop or many newcomers to the United States. About hal o

Sunset Parks one hundred thousand residents are Hispanic. As stated above, they include a large number o

Dominicans, as well as Ecuadorians, Nicaraguans, and Puerto Ricans, and, recently, many Mexicans rom

the province o Puebla. Fifh Avenue in Sunset Park is the commercial center or this community, with many

restaurants, ood shops and record stores reecting their countries o origin.

We witnessed, during last 20 years, that the port area became object o Vision Plan, as part o the project

o renewal proposed by major Bloomberg and later on implemented. Asian community is growing and

a process o gentrication rom Park slope produced an increasing in rent price. Latin community that

tendentially rent the houses is suffering unaffordablity o housing and is moving towards more cheap areas

in Newark.


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Map redesigned rom Planning or All New Yorkers: An Atlas o Community-Based PlansA campaign or CBP by Te Municipal Art Society o New York

0 4 8 122Miles

Atlantic Pacic Yard: alternative project to FCRC

Bedord-Stuyvesant: comprehensive planRed Hook Shoreline and Public Access Plan

Old Brooklyn District: Draf Plan

Sunset Park: draf plan recomandations

Kermit Place: zooning recomandation

Greenpoint Brooklyn: Draf Plan

Brooklyn Waterront: Draf Plan

ALAS OF COMMUNIY BASED PLANS


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Te Community-Based Planning Section 197-a o the New York City Charter, provide community boards,

grassroots organizations citywide civic groups, planning proessionals and academics with the opportunityto develop and submit community-based plans to the City Planning Commission. Te original intent o

the 197-a plan was to provide a mechanism through which City agencies could consult with communities

when public policies were ormulated and planning decisions were made since New York is composed

o many different neighborhoods, and because o its size and complexity, a strictly-centralized planning

process is inadequate.

Without planning staff or nancial assistance being provided by government, community-based planning

have turned to oundations, institutions, banks and technical assistance providers or support in developing

their plans.

However, while on paper New York City has what appears to be strong support or community based

planning, this commitment is less apparent on the ground, in practice these plans are ofen adopted by

the City and then lef unused or unimplemented. Both community boards and local organizations that

plan ofen nd it difficult to get their plans taken seriously and integrated into official plans, policies, and

investments. Clearly, the current 197-a process is neither efficient nor effective.

oday there is an urgent need or timely development o affordable housing, open space, and economic

development opportunities community-based planning represent an unique opportunity to adopt a new

approach to planning that recognizes and values the ideas and contributions rom the communities at

neighborhood scale.Community-based plans, with their emphasis on these pressing issues, requently offer the most inclusive

answers and, in some places, have resulted in almost miraculous urban transormations.

Te CommunityBased Planning ask Force is working to secure a more meaningul role or New Yorkers

in the citys land use process, and to establish community-based planning as official New York City policy.Tis Atlas contains a number o 197-a plans developedby community boards. In addition, the Atlas represents the

efforts o many grassroots, local organizations to present the

needed improvements or their communities.

SOURCE: Planning or All New Yorkers. A project o the

Municipal Art Society.


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31

2005 2006

20082007

New York imes Graphics Department analysis ound that

oreclosure rates in the region were highest in areas with

high minority populations. The visualization highlights

the neighborhoods most stricken by the housing crisis.

Comparisons between 2005 and 2009 are indeed areas

with high minority populations, including Bushwick in

Brooklyn, Jamaica, Queens, and Newark, NJ.

Over 10%

5 to 10%

2.5 to 5%

Insufficient data

Under 2.5%


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COMMUNIY BASED ORGANIZAIONS AND ACIONS OF OWS


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35

Actions o OWS

9015


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37

SPAIAL FRAMES OF LABOUR

Prelude: I have no time

ranscalar conditions o labour: a dialectical approach

From the assembly line to the desk

Forms o visibility and invisibility o labour

Welare reclaimed: under the political


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A. SPAIAL CONDIIONS OF LABOUR


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(in)visibilityoflabour

geopoliticalandsocialframework


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Fordism

A1.GEOPOLIICAL AND SOCIAL FRAMEWORK


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expansion o social right movements/organization

web

highspeed

development

technological /production

evolutionDELOCALISAION

terziarization

Feminization o work

1975, MarthaRosler.

Te Semiotics othe kitchen

1935

Nationallabourrelational

act

increasing

wages,decreasing

prots

1964end o Bracero

Program

rapidexpansion omaquiladoras

1979Energy crisis

crisis

o welare

need to openmarkets

lowercosts o

production

1973Coup in

Chile

1973Oil crisis

1964Coup in

Brazil

1990198019701960

1954Unions rst

peakadherents

1955AFLCIO

1979Unions

second peakadherents

21 milions

1986ImmigrationReorm andControl Act

1982USA bails outMexico rombank crisis


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VACANCY


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46

vacant industrial buildings

vacant lots

vacant buildings

M1

M2

Te M1 district is ofen a buffer between M2 or M3 districts and adjacent residential or commercial

districts. Light industries typically ound in M1 areas include woodworking shops, auto storage and repair

shops, and wholesale service and storage acilities. In theory, nearly all industrial uses can locate in M1

areas i they meet the more stringent M1 perormance standards. Offices and most retail uses are alsopermitted. Certain community acilities, such as hospitals, are allowed in M1 districts only by special

permit, but houses o worship are allowed as-o-right.

In M1 districts space in an industrial building can ofen be converted to dwelling units, provided a

specied amount o oor area is preserved or particular industrial and commercial uses. In M1-5A and

M1-5B districts mapped in SoHo/NoHo or example artists may occupy joint living-work quarters as an

industrial use in lof buildings.


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Fordism

A2. (IN)VISIBILIY OF LABOUR


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48

UnitedStates

delocalizati

on

Head quarters o theenterprises move in the corebusiness districts or engender

new centralities. Tesurrounding space is organizedaccording to the paradigm othe society o services.

Workers shared the sameworkplace daily, thus having thepossibility to organize in order toreclaim their rights.In 1979 the number o membersenrolled in the Unions reachedthe peak o 21 milions.

Enterprises combine localadvanced specialization,externalized production and headquarters in the city centers

empty actories areopportunities or real estatespeculation. Soho andBrooklyn exempliy theseprocesses.

Fordism

visibility

Maquiladoras in ijuana,along the rontier withUnited States

fragmentation

gentri

cati

on

Residential street inSunset Park, mixing rowhouses and small sheds

unemployed

geopolitical scale

transormations in the space o the city

form

so

fo

rg

anization

labour orce

post Fordism


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Te new Worker Centers are hybrids, combiningelements o different types o organizations. Someeatures are suggestive o earlier U.S. social movements,civic institutions and unions. Other eatures aresuggestive o the civic traditions o the home countriesrom which many o these immigrants came.

Labour is dened at a geopolitical

level, where powerul economicalactors determine avourablestrategies o production,national politics and institutionalpolicies.

post Fordism

invisibility

or the workers o maquiladoras wagesare so low that they cannot pay ortheir own car. ransport is organizedby bus

Mexico

mig

rator

y

waves

carework,domesticwork:wagedreproductivefunctions

precariouswork

fem

alework

invisible

work

Feminization o work hasincreased the number oinvisible / nonrepresented workers. Teplaces where theircondition becomes visibleand activation becomespossible belong the realmo the reproductive city,ofen spaces managedwithin the institutionalwelare.

low cost workorce

invisible workersparks

churches

courtyards, communitygardens, sport elds

e new or erlements o differeatures are suggev c nst tut onsuggest ve o t erom w c many


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Te embodied experience o precarity

Te embodied experience o precarity is characterized by:

vulnerability: the steadily experience o exibility without any orm o protection;

hyperactivity: the imperative to accommodate constant availability;

simultaneity: the ability to handle at the same the different tempi and velocities o multiple activities;

recombination: the crossings between various networks, social spaces, and available resources;

postsexuality: the other as dildo;

uid intimacies: the bodily production o indeterminate gender relations;

restlessness: being exposed to and trying to cope with the overabundance o communication, cooperation

and interactivity;

unsettledness: the continuous experience o mobility across different spaces and time lines;

affective exhaustion: emotional exploitation, or, emotion as an important element or the control o em-

ployability and multiple dependencies;

cunning: able to be deceitul, persistent, opportunistic, a trickster.

( Papadopoulos, sianos )


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FRAGMENING PAERNS OF PROPERY

Housing as a right

Living models and social ragmentation

Ownership and shrinking o the Public

Alternative spatial patterns o sociability

CD 07300250

200

NYC


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62

Housing prices or 2-4 amily appreciated aster between

2010 and 2011 than in any other community district in New

York City except or one. While prices or this property type

decline in the city as a whole, have increased and are at an

all-time high.1974 1980 1990 2000 2011

200

150

100

50

0

Rows o two-three oors amily houses characterize

Sunset Park urban area.

Due high rates o undocumented citizens living andworking in Sunset Park, inormal rental conditiond

characterize housing market whitin Asian and Latin

community.


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0 500 1000 2000 mRe-zooning Plan

Administrative Boundary

Vision Plan

High property value

New building 2010-2012Partial alteration 2010-2012

Full dmolition 2010-2012

Prospect Park

Green-Wood Cemetery

Sunset ParkBrooklyn Army

terminal

Latin community

Middle-class

Chinese community


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vacant building

interstitial space

vacant lots

mixed buiding


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66

5th

1

45th

50th

55th

52th

46th

47th

landlord - owner tenants - owner

shop ownerneed o display surace

tenantsneed o good living conditions

closed window

stairs removed

oversized bill board

X

residential building

oversized billboard

potential element

closed windows

interstitial space


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68

Mainly along north south avenues apartment buildings are maximum six stories tall. Built to maximize the

square footage often apartment have no room for communal area or anything that is not directly leasable.

Oriented to low-income groups they are often built with cheap methods and low quality of construction.

Usually lacking sound insulation and construction quality nowadays most of this buildings offer an inad-

equate quality of living if we consider that almost 10% of Sunset Parks Buildings don not have heating

and most of them are this typology. Grouped together with many other apartment buildings, in areas lacking


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and most of them are this typology. Grouped together with many other apartment buildings, in areas lacking

public spaces or restful open spaces, as in the case of Sunset Park, this do not contribute in producing sense

of communality. Since there is usually limited place for people to gather and meet in a pleasing setting,

usually stairs and entrance become the only opportunities for socialize.

With the introduction of new shipping technologies, such as containerization and declining international

competitiveness of domestic manufacturing, led to a massive de-industrialization and consequent shrinking

of employment. Losses of job opportunities coupled with a growing immigrant population where the condi-

-

ment and decay, loss of property value and price of rents.

After Second World War begin the migration of middle class to suburban areas, towards more racially ho-

the need of connecting with a sort drive time Long Island suburban areas to Manhattan that the Gowanos

highway is implemented. The car infrastructure becomes essential for the achievement of the American

Dream, a single family house with private garden and a car in the low density city. Usually labor intensive

to maintain and despite of the fact that there are always people around, single family houses provide a lim-

ited sense of community and often owners tend to be isolated from their interpersonal personal relation and

look for communality away from their houses requiring use of cars or other mode of transport.

1850Founded during mid 1880uxedo Park in OrangeCounty is considered one othe most exclusive New Yorkgated communties

PROPERY SPAIAL FRAGMENAION


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Since 1890s Brooklyn Army terminal,industrial and port related activity attractedows o workers mainly Finnish,Italians and Irish.

Brick, limestone and brownstone row houses typologyassociated to the amily structure o working class neighborhoodlargely characterized neighborhoods building typology.

In 1920s Finnish workers

established in Sunset parkthe rst housing cooperativein the City

fromp

roduct

ionto

tosubu

rban

are

as

tosuburban

areas

Apartment building mainly locatedalong north south 'avenues' aremaximum six stories tall. Built to maximize thesquare ootage ofen built with cheap methods andlow quality o construction, usually do not haveroom or communal area

unemployed

gated communties.

2012Among others Levittown, one o thelargest mass-produced suburbs,quickly became during 1950 asymbol o postwar suburbia.


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Manhattization opposedto Suburbanization. Car basedinrastructure allow living insuburbs and work in downtown.

Te communities o Breezy Point, on thewestern end o the Rockaway Peninsulaare protected as much by their gates as by

their isolation.

Long Island

Mega Mansionneighborhood

Condominium typology during thelast period has replaced the new constructiono the small multiamily houses, as it hasproven more protable to the developers.

servic

eeconom

y

from

family

house

stoco

ndom

inium

togat

edcomm

unitie

s

Over the last years gentricationpressures intensiy due socioeco-nomic trends. Young whiteproessionals and artists who canno longer afford neighboringPark Slope are settling in in thenorthern areas near GreenwoodCemetery nowadays redevelopwith high condominium.

wo and three oors traditional rowhouse is organized according the needo the amily. A third oor usuallyhoused a second nuclei o the sameamily. Te backyard garden and theront yard where spaces or sociability.Nowadays developer thent to tranormthe building, ragmenting the tipologyin small apartment or middle classsingle or couple.


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HE PROCESS OF RESEARCH AS DESIGN

Participatory action research

A block with a view : La Granja

Looking or agon: where is agon?


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Granja Los ColibriesLA UNION

Granja Lo


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Lutheran Family Health Center

Community Board

La Unin is a non-prot organization or social justice based in the neighborhood

o Sunset Park. It is a grassroots organization o people o the global south working

to advance the social, economic, and cultural rights o the communities where they

now live and the communities they lef behind. Te 600 members o La Unin are

predominantly rom the Mixteca region o Mexico and immigrants rom across

Latin America and even though its member base is large, the organization operates

in a very precarious situation. Te usual lack o unding and member

disorganization hunts La Unin on a daily basis, but this has not stopped it rom

developing a small Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), working on xing

the current broken immigration system through comprehensive immigration

reorm, improving public education or immigrant amilies through parent and

student organizing, and ghting or various environmental and social justice issues

such as sae housing and access to healthy oods. What is stopping La Unin is their

nomadic status and the impossibility o acquiring a permanent or temporary space

or its operations. oday, La Unin moves rom Church to Church, rom

Community Center to Family Clinic to the Street, nomadism has its benets but the

type o militant work that La Unin ocuses on urgently requires a base.

nity Boar

Family Health enter


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In the second phase the interviews were collected, concerning people, civil society and Institutional

representatives, meant to provide inormation o primary level, but also to reconstruct the dynamics o power

and its perception embedded in the Community.

Finally, the last phase was characterized by the proposal o tools meant to be useul concerning the main issues

emerged rom the interaction with the community. Tese tools have been conceived more or the continuation

and the empowerment o the social and relational processes already in act in the community than to the

abrupt introduction o spatial solutions , not really reecting the real needs o the people involved and the

spatial scale concerned by these.

Te three phases have been characterized by the dialectical rhythm: the assemblies organized punctuated

the whole process thus giving the possibility to continuously reconsider the contents and to prepare the

advancements o the research thanks to the eedbacks and the exigencies maniested by the members o La

Union. Te whole process, especially its relational development, has been considered as design, meant as the

continuous shaping and production o knowledge and the continuous evolution and growth o the relationalrealm: any particular artiact having spatial implications or not - proposed in the course o the research was

not ending in itsel but nalized to empower the relational processes in course.

At least three important aims motivated the choice o the participatory action research. Te rst is to build

a relational orm o knowledge, through which the social knowledge and the ormal knowledge are being

continuously re-written questioning each other, by transgressing traditional disciplinary boundaries, thus

always embedding to the complexity o reality. Te second aim is to blur the distinction between subject and

object o the research, usually implying the regulating presence o structures o power. Tis happens given the

commonality and reciprocity o the process o knowledge, enriching any participant involved, overcoming

the denition o initial roles. Tird aim is to trigger change through the action implied in and engendered

by the same process o knowledge production: the research provokes action via the knowledge produced,

Schedule o the research process throughout the semester

o the ransdisciplinary Design Program at Parsons.

LA GRANJA


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Cleaned by some o the most active members o the organization, this long and narrow lot separating two

buildings o the residential block between the 33rd an 34th Street, acing the entry lot o the Green Wood

Cemetery, today represents a meaningul and important site or the history and the identity o La Union.

A part rom representing a small ragment o the Mexican material culture, the orchard and the henhouse

provide more the pretext to build a sense o commonality and o community than a meaningul contribution

to the ood system o the Mexican population o Sunset Park.


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Interviews distributed among member o different levels o

power reveal something about the conditions o rights o the

citizens living in Sunset Park.

Te discourses o institutional representatives ocus


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sburg, coordinator Center or Family Lie

just nished a 12 week training program, which included business planning, learning the skills o the job, a graduate

building a coop. CFL is an incubator: we house a project until it goes off on its own. we act as consultants, helping them

to make business decisions. Teres very low overhead because it is ser vice-based

Power

Civil Society

1. We can Do it

2. La Union

3. Center or Family lie4. Opportunities or a Better omorrow

5. Labour Unions

6. Cooperatives

1. Community Board2. City Council

3. Church

4. Lutheran Medical Center

People

tos tienen dierentes tiempos.... a veces se trabaja por 3 meses ya veces hasta 2 aosy cuando se termina la

e la condicin de "trabajador del da", por ejemplo, la organizacin de la oerta y la demanda de los trabajadores, la

sotros invisibles indocumentados y esto nos expone a multas, las crticas y temores rabajamos durante toda nuestra

nacional, que contribuyen al crecimiento de este pas, pagamos impuestos, pero no podemos votar, podemos hacer valer

nosotros no cribamos de estar aquHaba

ara Mxico de toda orma. Yo tengo papeles,

ero tienes que tener seguro social Leticia

.

bin trabaj en una brica que produce los ganchos para el cabello. Ahora

aos

s y las muchas horas de trabajo contribuyen al crecimiento del passe debe

n...

Te discourses o institutional representatives ocus

on expanding opportunities and on the institutional

achievements through the years; Mexican non documented

citizens on the contrary highlight still relevant limiting

conditions affecting their daily lie, mostly depending on the

act o not having identity documents.

Te level o awareness concerning the dynamics o power

and exploitation o non documented citizens emerges almost

in all the interviews with the inhabitants o SP. Te unairbalance between their contribution to the economy o the

Country and the rights and opportunities they dispose in

exchange is constantly highlighted.

Also relevant, the rm purpose to engender awareness as

a undamental condition or the effectiveness o any action

and any process o change.

DRAWING HE SOCIOGRAM WIH LA UNION


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Te process o drawing the diagram gave the possibility to describe the relations among the different actors in terms o weak, normal, strong or conicting; to visualize andshare with all the participants real and perceived relations o power: a crucial layer implied and hidden in the daily patterns as a conditioning actor o the discourses, the

initiatives and the potentials or action.


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A1.EMERGING NEGOIAIONS AND CONFLICS


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La Granja has been a window open on the interior landscape o an urban block:

showing tensions, conicts and different orms and negotiation.


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Different moments o our research with some members o La Union.


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La Granja seems to show that coexistence o diversities is possible and

space not only creates the conditions, it also challenges the whole society

to take charge o them and to manage them.

A2..EMERGING NEGOIAIONS AND CONFLICS


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White page to reclaim time.

Jessie

HE PROCESS OF RESEARCH AS DESIGN OF HE RELAIONAL REALM AND GENERAION OF KNOWLEDGE


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10.03

31.03

13.04

18.04

21.04

27.04

23.04

talk with Jeanne Van Heeswijk

perorming the question about invisibility

29.02

29.02

23.03

26 03

28.03

06.04

27.04

16.02

17.03

07.04

01.05

22.04

25.02

29.04

10.02

25.02

04.03

30.03

15.04

19.04

01.04

14.04

Jess e

Leticia

Margarito

Magda

Serjo

Rojelio

Rodrigo

Aida

Juan

Isabel

spiral drawing

realizing the cabine

meeting Serjo

interview withAdriana

interview with Aida

interview with Rodrigo and Margarito

interview with Randy Pears

meeting Magda

meeting at school

introducing methodology

2nd DG: sociogram o La Union

review with eddy Cruz

eldwork with Civic City

1st driving group

walk and meeting

barbecue

La Granja. seeding plants

La Granja. building raised beds

ideas about the block

= assembly

Te diagram shows the development o relationships on the base o the

different activities unolded during the process o research on the lef, a

calendar is shown. Different groups have been involved and nally entered in

a reciprocal relationship, as or example La Union and Making Worlds group,

also part o Occupy Wall Street.


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talk with Juan Babilonia

new ideas or the block

Adriana

RandyPeers

eddyCruz

Luis

Alex y sufamiliaBegonia

Adelin

Leticia

Jelena

Juan Babilonia

MakingWorlds

MakingWorlds

MakingWorlds

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Sunset Park

Alex

spiral drawing on Occupy

Forum on Commons

OWS 60 Wall Street

Lef Forum

Yippie Club. MW weekly meeting

Yippie Club. MW weekly meeting

May Day

Occupy Queens

Maria Bick

meeting the neighborhood


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RESEARCH BY DESIGN

Te political nature o ecologies

Open nale


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Te political nature o ecologies.

Do not crave to construct in the space or which you think that it lies in the uture, that it promises you some

kind o tomorrow. Realize yoursel today, do not wait. You alone are your lie. Fernando Pessoa

Te political emerges as the space or the institutionalization o the social ( society ) and equality as theoundational gesture o the political democracy. Erik Swyngedouw

Te drawings and design hypothesis presented in the ollowing pages are based on the assumption that

dealing with space as inhabited realm, where diversities emerge and are reciprocally dened, an ecological

approach is needed to engender the conditions o the political, based on the identication o the structures

o power and their complementary orms o reaction.

In act, ecologies result rom the interplay between hegemonic technologies and orms o resistance reacting

to them, able to continuously reorganize in order to reach a just distribution o resources and opportunities

justtaking in consideration the differences o the starting situation.

For this reaction to unold, some conditions must be congured. First o all, the availability o space and

time or agon, the equal conrontation and identication o the parts involved. Secondly, the possibility or

an active role o the different actors, not more according to schemes o delegation and participation, but

pursuing a direct involvement, as the only way to express and orm the diversity o needs and to speciy

rights.

Te socio-spatial ecologies here introduced are developed and based on the convergence o inclusive schemes

o property and o spontaneous grouping o actors and citizens, coagulating to improve their specic living

situation, making sense within and arising rom the diversity o the microcosms continuously reshaped and

originated by the containing macro-ecology o the city.

Te design is based on the need to reclaim space as a right in itsel and space as a condition to reclaim time,

based on the (re)organization o activities in the short term or/and in the long term, as a result o initiatives o

re-conguration o the dominant structures (initiatives which in their turn require an immediate availability

o time in order to be organized). Te strategies and the activities proposed are oriented in this direction,

towards bio-authoriality as the oundation o the political.

R6B

R7A

R7A

Proposed Zoning District Boundary

Existing Zoning District Boundary

Open Space

M1-2

M1-2D* inclusionary housing

R7A: FAR 3.45-4.6*

R6A: FAR 3.0

Green-Wood Cemetery

FAR is the ratio o the allowable built oor area o a building to thearea o the lots it sits on. Te above examples are o 1:1, or 1.0 FAR.

Lot SF10.000 (100x100)10.000 (100x100)

FAR1.04.0

Allowable Bldg SF10.000 SF40.000 SF

1 story 2 stor

ies 4 stories

100% coverage 50% coverage 25% coverage


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R6BR6B

R6BR6B

R7A

R7A

R6A

C4-3A

R6A

R6B

R6A

R6B

R6B

R6A

R6A R6A

R6B

R4-1

R6AM1-2D

M2-1

M1-2

M1-2

R6BR6A

R6

R-6

R6A: FAR 3.0

R7A: FAR 3.45-4.6*

Sunset Park

stre

et

stre

et

contextual zone (e.g. R6A)non-contextual zone (e.g. R6)

quality housing

building

height factor

building

Surace plot 300mq

FAR 3.45

Surace plot 300mq

FAR 4.60

Lot coverage 60%

Lot coverage 60%

Surace plot 300mq

Floor Area 1035 mq

Surace plot 300mq

Floor Area 1380 mq

Inclusive Floor Area 276 mq

8

1234567

Hmax24.40m

EXRA Floor Area 345 mq

12345

Hmax24.40m

NON Inclusive Floor Area 69

O Inclusive Floor Area 69 mq

O NON Inclusive Floor Area 1311

Empty lot 40%


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Sunset Park zooning tools

In early spring 2007, a development proposal or a twelve-story residential development stirred community

uproar about continuous out-o-context development on a residential block two- and three-story residential

row houses. o protest a community coalition composed largely o white home owners and Latino resident

quickly ormed and proceeded to gather hundreds o signatures or a petition calling or zoning protections.A ew weeks later NYC Department o City Planning Director announced an expedited contextual rezoning

study or Sunset Park with an end o the year completion deadline.

Current zooning has been utilized to preserve neighborhood residential quality the existing character o

the low-rise row houses on Sunset Parks side streets, while upzoning commercial avenues accommodating

growth and new highrise developments along commercial avenues and near transportation nodes.

Te zooning contain regulation or Inclusionary Housing offering an optional oor area bonus in xchange

or the creation or preservation o affordable housing, on-site or off-site or low-income households.

Te Inclusionary Housing Program requires a percentage o the dwelling units within a building to be set

aside, or new or rehabilitated affordable units be provided off-site within the same community districtor within one-hal mile o the bonused development. All affordable residential units created through the

Inclusionary Housing Program must remain permanently affordable. Affordable apartments may be rental

units or, under modications made to the program in 2009, available in an ownership plan.

Even though the production record or affordable housing premised on bonus densities is mixed, the current

Sunset Park rezoning discussion has not generated any substantive provisions to prevent displacement or to

preserve the neighborhoods multiracial, multiethnic, working-class qualities.

Whereas the neighborhood has long been a place where many working-class and immigrant households

could nd sae, adequate, and affordable housing, this is less and less the case as people being priced out o

more expensive areas such as neighboring Park Slope have begun to discover relatively affordable rent levels

in Sunset Park.

Grid infractructure

SPAIAL AND INFRASRUCURAL POENIAL


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Vacant lots, parking and

underused Spaces

Parks and open spaces

Institutions and amenities


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Vacant lot

0 250 500 1000

Industrial vacant building

Institutions

Vacant space above shop

55th

60th

Sunset Park

Green Wood Cemetery

SPACE BECOMING IME


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EMERGING ECOLOGIES: SPACES AND ACORS INVOLVED


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[1]CL established by the community organizing temporary housingengendering orms o social exchange and common activities.New inclusionary housing take advantage by the extra volume proposedby the zooning.

[2][3]Worker Center support the cleaning service start up o a cleaning

service cooperative in collaboration with Lutheran Medical Center

[4][5] Educational program in collaboration with P.S.506 School and

Lutheran Medical Center are organized by the Worker Center.

[6]emporary spaces are rented by the community or market and othertemporary uses


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[6]

[9][8]

[5]

[6] Our Lady o Perpetual Help Church as leading partner actas guarantor in the accress to orms o credit and legal aspects.

[7] [8]P.S.506 Schooland proessionals support the housing program in thedevelopment o inclusionary housing taking advantage by the extra volume

proposed by the zooning. Spaces and workshops within the cooperativebecomes accessible or afer school programs and student recreation.[9][10] Te Brooklyn Army erminal support the start-up o maintenanceservice cooperative trading maintenance and cleaning o the commercialand light industrial space.

[11] [12] Te community renovate, as work exchange a vacant industialbuilding or temporay use. Te workshop driven by cooperative members isoriented to wood and metal crafsmanship and building renovation.

Brooklyn Army erninalStart-Up partner

COOPERAIVE

COMMUNIY LAND RUS

P.S.506 SchoolEducational and training support

Lutheran Medical CenterHealt and care related

MarketProduct Exchange

Housing

Housing

Workshop

Worker Center

Our Lady oPerpetual Help Churchleading partner

[3]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[7]

[2]

[1][6]

[4]


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works

0 10

10

25 50 100

Worker Center

workshopand

market


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113

Brooklyn Army erminal

op

workshop

emporary housing Common activities

inclusionary housing

crafsmanlearningcenter

educationalspaces

Common activities

Common activities

orkshop

workshops and market

a space managed by the community orworkshops, temporary activities and a weeklymarket, thus involving the rest o the city


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workshops

CL supporting the creation o new common

spaces: a community center, a kitchen, a

kindergarten. Forms o temporary housing are

provided or any citizen in need. Te development

o spontaneous solidarity networks is thus

supported on many levels by the availability o

these spaces.

emporary housing typologies realized within the

Inclusionary Housing Program, as part o a CL.

Worker Centers promoting educational programs in collaboration with

the Lutheran Medical Center and the local school. Spaces or workshops

are provided by the Community, with the economical support o the

Municipality.

Vacant lots are used not only to provide affordable housing, but also to improve the quality o the public space, redening

the grid with common spaces and public passage crossing the blocs. Te section o the streets is redesigned: some become

pedestrians, others allow one sense circulation. Te rhythm o the neighborhood is thus redened, giving more space to

children and to any other orm o daily relational construction. Te shif rom public to private happens gradually,

through different degrees o commonality.


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common kitchenand kindergarten

community center

temporary housing

worker center

P P P P

A vacant industrial building is reurbished

Workshop


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1160 10

10

25 50 100

P P P P

A vacant industrial building is reurbishedand used as temporary workshop orhandicraf and building construction.

Brooklyn Army erminal

Workshop Work

shop

P

P P

P P P

56th Street

57th Street


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P P P P P

P P P P P

Te cooperative provide affordable housing and new public space alteratingthe traditional grid structure. Within the new buildings community spacesallow the promotion o educationl program oriented to promote alternativeorma o collaborative entrepreneurship.

59th Street


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Bibliography

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BURGESS Ernst, PARK Robert, 1925 Te city, University o Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

CAROSIO Bruno, 2012 I lunghi anni sessanta,Feltrinelli Editore, Milano.

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ERDEMCI Fulya, PHILLIPS Andrea, 2012Actor, Agents and Attendants. Social Housing-Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice, Sternberg Press and

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MARWELL Nicole, 2005 Bargaining or Brooklyn, University o Chicago Press, Chicago.

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MORINI Cristina, La emminilizzazione del lavoro nel capitalismo cognitivo, Economic Policy Institute.

MORINI, Cristina, 2010 Il lavoro di cura come archetipo del biocapitalismo. Altre ragioni per il diritto al reddito, Swarm, Barcellona,

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SASSEN Saskia, 2011 Te Global Street: Making the Political, Globalizations , Routledge, London

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Specic contributions:

HE ECOLOGICAL HOUGH

by Michele Girelli

by Verena Lenna


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the agonistic city: building the political in sunset park

Documents