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Lower East Side

Small stores key to hoods health, some tell hearings

Media last updated October 13, 2009

Press Source

  • The Villager

Press Date

  • September 23, 2009

Press Link

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Community Voices and the Future of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area

Report last updated September 15, 2009

Community Voices and the Future of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area Report

SPURA Matters is a yearlong initiative facilitated by nonprofit community organizations that wished to renew a community conversation about the redevelopment of the long-vacant Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) site on the Lower East Side. Over several months in late 2008 and early 2009, the initiative consulted with local stakeholders to engage them in a dialogue about community needs and potential uses for the site. After decades of controversial development proposals that never went anywhere, SPURA Matters strove to get stakeholders talking about how the site could be developed in a way that benefits the surrounding community. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to help start a community-driven process to put the site back into a broadly productive use.

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Neighborhood Retail

Project posted April 6, 2009

Policies and Planning in Support of Local Businesses

The Pratt Center is working with community partners on new neighborhood-based and citywide strategies to strengthen neighborhood retail as a strategy for community economic development in a worsening economy. 

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Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA)

Page last updated April 6, 2009

A New Destiny for an Old Urban Renewal Site

Four decades ago, an urban renewal project near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge on Manhattan's Lower East Side displaced thousands of low-income tenants. While the city built affordable housing on some of the cleared parcels in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), several large blocks went undeveloped. Today, parking lots occupy the undeveloped zone of SPURA along Delancey Street, even while the Lower East Side, where the typical household earns $37,000 a year, urgently needs more affordable housing.

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Create Opportunity through Development of the East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project

Testimony last updated April 12, 2007

Testimony to Manhattan Community Board 3

Mercedes Narciso, R.A.
Senior Planner, Pratt Center for Community Development
April 12, 2007

Good evening to everybody. Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony today. My name is Mercedes Narciso and I am a Senior Planner with the Pratt Center for Community Development, a university- based organization that works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers by helping communities to plan for and realize their future. One of those communities is the Lower East Side, and in partnership with the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), we are currently working on a community assessment and planning initiative in the area.

I am here today to express our support for East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project proposed by the Department of City Planning, a project full of vision and creativity, which would provide the diverse nearby community and the city at large the opportunity to access and enjoy the waterfront.

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New exhibit's old goal is to spur on SPURA

Media posted April 20, 2009

Press Source

  • The Villager

Press Date

  • February 4, 2009

Press Link

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A walking tour kicks off Seward Park renewal talks

Media posted April 20, 2009

Press Source

  • The Villager

Press Date

  • October 22, 2008

Press Link

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