Selling the Lower East Side

 

Community Resistance to Neighborhood Decline

In response to growing poverty and the ensuing decline in quality of neighborhood life, many Lower East Siders founded tenant organizations to combat social problems. These included the Cooper Square Committee which was founded in 1959 to fight a plan to demolish blocks of tenements between Delancey and East 9th Streets that would displace over 7,000 people. The Lower East Side Committee on Civil Rights and the Negro Action Group also set out to resolve immediate social problems. The Lower East Side Neighborhoods Association (LENA), was an umbrella organization formed in 1956. Mobilization for Youth (MFY) launched numerous community initiatives on the Lower East Side from 1961 to 1967. In 1963 and 1964, MFY opened two coffee shops — Club 169 and The Hideout — designed as recreational centers and drop-in lounges for members of local street gangs.

 

 

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The book upon which this web site is based,

Selling the Lower East Side,

is available directly through University of Minnesota Press
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Site design © 2000: Kurt Reymers and Dan Webb.
(University at Buffalo, Department of Sociology)