TBNC 60th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet

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TWO BRIDGES
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C E L E B R AT I N G 6 0 Y E A R S
O F S E R V I C E TO T H E
LO W E R E A S T S I D E
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
04
FOREW0RD
05 06
INTROD UCTION
07 16
NEIG HBORHOOD HISTORY
17 18
TIMELINE
19 38
THE NEIG HBORHOOD COUNCIL
39 42
TIMELINE
43 50
TWO BRID G ES TODAY
51 54
TIMELINE
04
FOREWORD
by Victor J. Papa, President/Director
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015
Id like to say something about the evolution of an

organization you grow up through planning. A child
grows up when it begins to grasp the importance of
planning the rest of its life. Two Bridges evolved as an
organization when we started planning for the future
of our neighborhood.
We knew we had a very important role to play when
we created the Two Bridges Urban Renewal Plan. It
was new to us; we did not know if we could successfully
design a community within our own neighborhood.
It was probably the greatest opportunity to grow
that the Council ever had, and the people who were
involved were poised to receive that challenge. The
plan took years to create and implement. When
authorities created hurdles, the Council fought back.
And when the authorities backed down, because the
Council was the people and was backed up by the
people, the community began to realize its power.
This is just one of many fundamental brushstrokes
to the canvas upon which we emerge on the advent
of our 60-year anniversary.
As you will read, the story of the Two Bridges
Urban Renewal Plan and other chronological milestones of our organizations rich history are exquisitely
laid out in the following pages. Over one year of
research by City Lores Molly Garfinkel and Two
Bridges staff and board past and present has
culminated into the production of this commemorative
booklet. Each piece of presented information contributes tints, hues, shades and colors of what finally
emerges as a masterpiece of community organizing
on the Lower East Side.
The strokes of what that masterpiece looks like
today were applied by the genius of the Councils early
leaders like Dick Duhan, Father Donald Johnston,
Harry Liebowitz, Frank Mosco, Joe Pinto, Natalie
Sosinsky and Gardenia White, whose magnificent
contributions to the Councils development shall
not go unnoticed. Their visions about building up
community life at the time were mere folly, but
which now are vibrant, abiding realities you can
never, ever eradicate.
You will also learn of the leadership of those so

synonymous of the Council we know today; those
who so firmly mounted that canvas to the wall of the
21st Century: Vicky Amter, Goldie Chu and Frank T.
Modica. How much we miss them and how lonely the
walk forward is without their wisdom, skills, humor
and daily encouragements.
Today, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council stands
as a vivacious organization immersed in planning an
accessible and equitable East River waterfront community along South Street for all Lower East Siders.
We are also thinking of innovative ways to stabilize the
permanently affordable, integrated stock of housing
the Council is steward of, with a pledge to foster and
build even more. To this end, we remain forever grateful for our long standing partnership with Settlement
Housing Fund, which has led to building the neighborhood that became Two Bridges. Like big sisters,
and over a span of nearly a half century, they held
our hand in planning and building the Two Bridges
Urban Renewal Area. Over time they have honed our
experience, built up our trust and confidence until we
reached our full maturity; until we came into our own.
And now we walk together, arm in arm. Thank you
Clara Fox, Carol Lamberg, Susan Cole; and welcome
Alexa Sewell.
In all, Two Bridges history points to our future,
a future committed to an enduring mission of community-based programs and projects to those either
arriving at the twilight of life itself, or to successive
generations that are right behind, our youth. And there
is a reason why the Council is so focused on youth.
This is, after all, the communitys greatest resource.
Our kids could never be served sufficiently without
enriched after-school programs that have a particular
focus on the arts and sciences, further supported
through our recently founded STEM education and
Music programs. We pride ourselves upon this focus,
for it is recognition and an affirmation that the humanities must be integrated into the soul of community life.
Thank you all for journeying with us during these
most fruitful years.
05
60TH ANNIVERSARY
TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L
06
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
In 1960, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

published the Two Bridges Self-Renewal Plan. The
document, developed over the course of five years,
benefited from the input of hundreds of citizens as
well as representatives of numerous neighborhood
organizations and institutions. It was a unique and
dramatic demonstration of how an organized, welldefined neighborhood, with support from a unifying
agency, can mobilize and revitalize itself to meet its
own needs. More than a proposal for affordable
housing, the plan deliberately sought a comprehensive
approach to community rehabilitation that encompassed housing, health care, improved race relations,
education, recreation, and commerce. With coordination
from Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, local citizens
and institutions created a road map for redesigning,
redeveloping, and improving their community while
avoiding displacement, unnecessary hardship to
residents, or drastic transformation of the neighborhoods character.
The city accepted the Two Bridges Self-Renewal
Plan in 1961. From that moment forward, the Council
and community have continuously planned, evolved,
and grown from a position of strength. For the last
60 years, the Council has promoted everyday people
determining, in grassroots fashion, what the future of
their community should be. To achieve this goal, the
Council has supplied planning acumen, activist zeal,

and dedication to the continuing mission of self-renewal
both for the neighborhood and the Council itself.
They have sponsored community recreation, reconciliation, and education programs; created affordable
housing, recreational facilities, supermarkets, and
schools; defended tenants rights; designated historic
districts; organized relief for victims of Hurricane
Sandy; and promoted recreational access to the East
River Waterfront.
Created with foresight and intention, the SelfRenewal Plan was a flexible mechanism rather than
a definitive solution to neighborhood evolution. Taking
the plan as modus operandi, the Councils long-standing success lies in its ability to remain nimble and
humbly responsive to the changing needs of the
surrounding area. Its activities have taken on a broad
range of local issues, and the organization stays vital by
regularly renewing its programs to be attentive to the
immediate state of the neighborhood. For six decades,
Two Bridges has acted, pivoted, planned, and pushed
forward in tandem with the surrounding community.
We hope that this essay captures the dexterous, trailblazing spirit of the Two Bridges neighborhood and
Council, past and present. Surely that spirit will
galvanize and guide the Council and the community
it serves for many decades to come.
Cover of the Two Bridges

Self-Renewal Plan, 1960.
Courtesy of the Social Welfare
History Archives, University
of Minnesota Libraries.
It was a unique and dramatic

demonstration of how an organized,
well-defined neighborhood, with
support from a unifying agency,
can mobilize and revitalize itself
to meet its own needs.
07
60TH ANNIVERSARY
08
Neighborhood History
Lionel Pincus and Princess

Firyal Map Division, The New
York Public Library. "Map of
the Rutger's Farm as it existed
in 1784" The New York Public
Library Digital Collections. 1874.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.
org/items/622f2060-450f5a9e-e040-e00a18067a1e
NEIGHBORHOOD
HISTORY
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council is embedded at

the core of an uncommonly heterogeneous metropolitan
community, the boundaries of which have remained
fluid to accommodate changing demographics in an
evolving city. The current service area roughly includes
the land between the Brooklyn (1883) and Williamsburg (1903) Bridges, and north from East Broadway
into Chinatown and Little Italy. When the Council
was formed in 1955, it was named for the two bridges
bracketing its then core advocacy area: the Brooklyn
and Manhattan Bridges; at that time the neighborhood
included Italian, Puerto Rican, Jewish, Chinese,
African American, Greek, Basque, Armenian, and
Slavic enclaves.
Today, the neighborhood is still richly multicultural.
It is also architecturally variegated, boasting tenements,
public schools, religious architecture, recreational
facilities, low- and middle-income housing ranging
from towers to row houses, and impressive infrastructure. The Council has done much work toward
conserving and celebrating the communitys many
cultural heritages, and even while developing much of
the contemporary affordable housing, it has worked hard
to preserve the neighborhoods historic fabric and legacy.
The history of the Two Bridges neighborhood is,
to a large degree, the story of New York Citys develop-
ment in miniature. It is a story that is political, cultural,

social, and architectural. It begins in 1626 with the
dubious transfer of land control from the native
Lenape to Peter Minuit and the Dutch West India
Company, and it continues today with communitycreated affordable housing.
New York Citys development began at the southern
tip of Manhattan, where the islands deep harbor fostered trade expansion. In 1625, the Dutch West India
Company established a European settlement known as
New Amsterdam in Lower Manhattan, south of Wall
Street. The colony quickly expanded north beyond
Manhattans southern edge, and ever since, the area
now known as the Lower East Side has been the first
stopping-off place for every new ethnic, racial, and
religious group arriving in New York City.
The district that became the Two Bridges neighborhood was once marsh, meadows, and hills flanked
by expansive frontage along the East River. Between
1728 and 1732, the land was incorporated into a farm
owned by the Rutgers family, brewers who had arrived
in New Amsterdam nearly a century earlier. Hendrick
Rutgers amassed a 108-acre estate with money earned
in trade and brewing. Rutgers land, which eventually
became part of the Fourth and Seventh Wards, was
bounded by modern day Division Street, Montgomery
Street, Oliver Street, and Cherry Street. Before landfill

expanded the city shoreline, Cherry Street ran along
part of the original Lower East Side waterfront. After
the Revolutionary War, Rutgers and other investors
developed the higher grounds around Rutgers property into a respectable residential enclave. They also
founded the Catherine Market in 1786, which served
the city until 1909 and was located at Catherine Slip
south of Cherry Street.
Shipping dominated New York Citys economy
for well over two hundred years. By the end of the
18th century, the industry favored the East River,
which was less prone to freezing than the Hudson.
The shoreline around the Fourth and Seventh Wards
was a thriving trade center, packed with piers where
stevedores ported fish from Massachusetts, cocoa and
coffee from the Indies, and sugar and cotton from
the South. Shipbuilding along the Manhattan side of
the East River spawned related businesses, including
foundries, lumber yards, and sail manufacturers,
cluttering the East River waterfront, while bars,
brothels, and cheap hotels catered to the transient
sailor population.
The future Two Bridges area experienced a postRevolutionary War building boom until the 1820s,
when a large segment of the shipping industry was
relocated to the west side. Upper and middle class

families moved away, and the area was left to sailors
and working class tenants. By the mid-19th century,
local maritime commerce was replaced by light and
heavy industry operating from neighborhood houses
and factories along South Street. Blocks were lined with
tenements and occupied by European immigrants.
Irish escaping the Potato Famine of 1840 were the
first to arrive, and large numbers of first northern,
then southern, Italians joined them by the late 1880s.
Germans and Ashkenazi Jews settled in the Lower
East Side in the 1840s, and Eastern European Jews
immigrated en mass between 1881 and 1924. Communities of Greeks, Basques, Armenians, and Slavs also
established themselves in the Two Bridges area.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the neighborhood reached peak residential density and became
associated with its majority immigrant population
a mosaic of ethnic groups who lived, worked, and
played among the tenements, churches, settlement
houses, groceries, barbershops, bakeries, warehouses,
social clubs, pushcarts, and sidewalk stands.
However, the working-class neighbors were cast as
uniformly undesirable by planners and private real
estate moguls who hoped to profit from the areas social
and physical rehabilitation. As the 1924 Immigration
09
By the beginning of

the 20th century, the
neighborhood reached
peak residential
density and became
associated with its
majority immigrant
population a mosaic
of ethnic groups who
lived, worked, and
played among the
tenements, churches,
settlement houses,
groceries, barbershops,
bakeries, warehouses,
social clubs, pushcarts,
and sidewalk stands.
Pike Street and Henry Streets, New York, 1936.

Photo by Berenice Abbott.
60TH ANNIVERSARY
10
11
60TH ANNIVERSARY
12
Act reduced the previously reliable flow of poor new

immigrants into the country, demand for the areas old
tenement housing decreased correspondingly. Vacancy
rates rose, and after the 1929 Multi Dwelling Law
imposed more rigorous tenement housing regulations,
many landlords boarded up their properties or had
them demolished. Parkways and other public transportation projects enabled (or forced) many of the Lower
East Sides long-standing ethnic groups to relocate to
the outer boroughs, where new waves of speculation
offered up-to-date housing stock. The vacancies and
outmigration called into question what could and
should be done with the Lower East Side slum.
Toward this end, the neighborhood experienced
the first in a series of major physical alterations in the
1930s. Following the success of Midtowns Tudor City,
developer Fred F. French amassed fourteen and a half
acres between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.
There he planned to build Knickerbocker Village, a
middle-class residential complex that would eventually
accommodate 1,590 residents. However, the 1929
stock market crash thwarted Frenchs plans, and as
he failed to secure private funds, French was forced
to appeal to New York State for financial assistance.
Fortunately for him, the New Deal provided capital for
some of the earliest government subsidized housing
developments. In 1932, the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation (RFC) was established as an independent
federal agency authorized to provide loans to private
developers erecting housing as part of slum-clearance
initiatives. The short-lived RFC only made two loans,
one of which was in the sum of eight million dollars to
New York City toward Frenchs Knickerbocker Village.
With funding from the Public Works Administrations
Housing Division (which took over for the RFC) and
the New York State Board of Housing, Knickerbocker
Village was New York Citys first urban housing project
erected with the help of federal government monies.
When Congress empowered the RFC to make loans
on slum clearance, French decided to build his project
on one of his worst holdings the site formerly known
as Lung Block, a reference to the areas high tuberculosis mortality rate. Lung Block was surrounded
by Catherine, Monroe, Cherry, and Market Streets,
and included the now demapped Hamilton Street.
Thirty years prior, Tenement Housing Department
commissioner Robert W. DeForest recommended the

same area for clearance. At that time, the presence
of six hundred fifty families stayed the demolition
of the Lung Block.
Frenchs redevelopment of the neighborhood
notwithstanding, the Lower East Side was hardly a
tabula rasa. Significant numbers from the older cultural
groups had stayed behind, much to the dismay and
confusion of reformers. Beyond the prohibitively time
and resource-consuming burden of finding new
housing, immigrant communities had forged deep
attachments to their homes and local cultural centers.
The 1933 development of Knickerbocker Village
displaced almost four hundred low-income households,
only three of which were able to move to the new
complex. Most of the local families from the Lung
Block moved back to the neighborhood and into Old
Law tenements located near each other. Half of those
moved into apartments without toilets, and one-third
to apartments without hot water.
Situated between Cherry, Catherine, Monroe and
Market Streets, the Knickerbocker Village complex
is comprised of two twelve-story perimeter block
buildings with only forty-six percent site coverage.
A concrete playground separates the two low-rent
housing units, each of which surrounds its own
introverted courtyard. The fortress-like faade is
foreboding, but crenellated exterior walls permit
maximum light and air circulation. In the early 1940s,
the development was considered the cream of the
crop, with furnished lobbies, a telephone intercom,
and elevators appointed with brass details. This new
housing the first multifamily elevator building
in the neighborhood brought a large number of
middle class Jews into the community.
While the Depression put many development
schemes on hold, New Yorks developers, planners, and
business elites kept Lower East Side redevelopment
visions at the fore. But local residents began canvassing
for housing reform in the face of evictions and foreclosures. They successfully rallied against area-wide zoning
that lacked provisions for maintaining or creating true
affordable housing. By 1939, it became difficult for
developers to assemble usefully substantial land
holdings for large-scale middle-class housing. Mayor
Fiorello La Guardias City Planning Commission
NATALIE SOSINSKY
FORMER CHAIR OF TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS
EDUCATION COMMITTEE AND BOARD VICE PRESIDENT
on Two Bridges Origins
Two Bridges started when my oldest son was in the baseball Little
League. Thats actually how it started; it was just a neighborhood
thing with Harry Leibowitz and Frank Mosco. They had the concept
of the Little League involving all of the churches and organizations
in the neighborhood. My kids were part of the Lower Manhattan
Republican Club team. And there was Transfiguration Church, and
St. James, and St. Josephs, and many others. All of the churches
were involved. And from this, it just kind of evolved. We would get
together for meetings about the Little League and all of a sudden it
was, Well, why shouldnt we have something more than that? We
had Geoff Weiner, who was at Hamilton-Madison House, and we
started to talk about the possibility of involving the community in
all different kinds of things. I became chairman of the Education
Committee. And then we had a Housing Committee, and we had a
Sports Committee. And it was like our own little city down there. It
was in a very enclosed area Smith Houses, Knickerbocker Village,
and the surrounding area. It blossomed, and we decided to make it
into Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, and we were the first of
the neighborhood councils.
We were brilliant! Yes we were. Thats right. We were brilliant.
We were all so very involved in our community. Everybody wanted
to make sure that the neighborhood was safe for our kids. It was
as simple as that. And we started to talk, and think, and wonder
what had to be done. No one told us we figured it out. We were
pioneers. We were pioneers in a neighborhood that needed people
to be together. Thats all.
13
14
60TH ANNIVERSARY
endorsed slum clearance and new, low-cost housing

for large swaths of the rest of the Lower East Side.
The future of the area was to be public housing for
the working-class.
Enacted as part of President Harry Trumans Fair
Deal agenda, the Housing Act of 1949 extended federal
support for slum eradication and new construction,
including public housing construction. Begun in 1949
and opened in 1953, the Alfred E. Smith Houses was
the first public housing project erected in the heart
of the Two Bridges neighborhood. The largest such
development in the area, the Smith Houses includes
twelve 17-story buildings, which house approximately
5,700 people over twenty-one acres. Demolition of
the tenements on the Smith site began in 1950, and
by 1953, most of the buildings bordered by Madison,
Catherine, and South Streets, and New Bowery (now

St. James Place), had fallen to the wrecking ball. The
Smith Houses were built by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and named after four-time
New York State Governor Al Smith, who grew up in
the Two Bridges neighborhood.
Victor J. Papa, Two Bridges current President and
Director, grew up on James Street, one block north
of the Smith Houses site. It was a very small street,
he says, but it was a whole world. It had everything.
It had a candy store, an undertaker, a florist, a fix-itshop, TV-fix-it-shop, and a church, and the school. We
were in a corner building and I remember growing up
in that apartment and watching the demolition of the
neighborhood just east, which is now Alfred E. Smith
Houses. And I remember the pile drivers and the
LEFT:
Knickerbocker Village rises

behind riverfront tenements
and warehouses, n.d.
Courtesy of the Social Welfare
History Archives, University of
Minnesota Libraries.
TOP/BOTTOM:
James Street, n.d. Courtesy of

the Social Welfare History Archives,
University of Minnesota Libraries.
East Side News, 1952. Courtesy
of the New York Public Library
Seward Park Branch, Lower East
Side Heritage Collection.
60TH ANNIVERSARY
noise. Papa recalls that the city condemned thousands

of tenements occupied by neighborhood residents,
many of whom relocated beyond the Lower East Side.
The worst word my mother was always afraid of was
condemned. As kids we didnt really know what that
meant. The condemnation of long-standing residences
to make room for incoming, unfamiliar tenants created
tension between old and new neighbors.
Other public housing developments constructed in
and around the Two Bridges neighborhood include
the Vladeck Houses (1940), the LaGuardia Houses
(1957), and the Rutgers Houses (1965). Mid-century
discriminatory housing policies elsewhere in the city
forced minority households to move to areas like the
Lower East Side, which had the largest concentration
of government-subsidized housing projects below 96th
Street. By the late 1950s, African American, Puerto
Rican, and Chinese families integrated into Two Bridges
existing Jewish and Italian enclaves. Two Bridges had
become a neighborhood of distinct working-class
communities with limited communication between
groups, or with the rest of the city.
By mid-century, Hamilton-Madison House,
founded in 1898 and the areas largest long-standing
settlement house, primarily served the local African
American and Puerto Rican communities, and did its
best to introduce and integrate these new neighbors
with the old. However, racial tensions mounted, and
fighting gangs representing the various ethnic groups
dominated the streets. Parents were overwhelmed by
the dangerous social climate, as well as the deteriorating
quality of local schools and recreational facilities. A
group of community representatives attempted, to no
avail, to get the city to institute local remedial reading
classes, and they organized to fight the citys proposal
to do away with Coleman Oval, the neighborhoods
only playing field. When they asked Geoffrey Wiener,
Sr., director of Hamilton-Madison House, for help,
he suggested that they create a neighborhood committee
to address these problems. The committees later
success in saving Coleman Oval and creating a reading
program lead to the establishment of Two Bridges
Neighborhood Council.
The condemnation of
long-standing residences to
make room for incoming,
unfamiliar tenants created
tension between old and
new neighbors.
Smith Houses, n.d. Courtesy of the Social Welfare

History Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries.
16
When they asked Geoffrey

Wiener, Sr., director of
Hamilton-Madison House,
for help, he suggested that
they create a neighborhood
committee to address these
problems.
17
60TH ANNIVERSARY
1600
1700
1800
1625
1728-1732
1801
Dutch West India Company establishes

New Amsterdam in Lower Manhattan
1683
Shearith Israel purchases cemetery at

Oliver Street and St. James Place
Rutgers family incorporates 108-acre

estate in the future 4th and 7th Wards
18TH CENTURY
Shipping drives New York Citys economy,

and the 4th and 7th Wards along the East
River are part of a thriving trade center;
area experiences a post-Revolutionary
War building boom
Church of the Transfiguration established
1820
New York Citys Shipping industry

moves to the Hudson River; upper
classes leave 4th and 7th Wards, so
area becomes working class
1836
St. James Church established
1786
Catherine Market founded on Catherine

Slip, south of Cherry Street
1795
Mariners Temple Baptist Church

established
1840
Irish Potato Famine brings sizeable Irish

community to New York City
1840S
Wave of German immigrants arrive

in New York City
1850S
Asheknazi Jews arrive in the Lower

East Side
18
1860S
Large numbers of Italian immigrants

settle in Lower Manhattan
1863
St. Teresa Church established
1881
Eastern European Jews begin arriving

in New York City en masse
1883
Brooklyn Bridge constructed
1889
Educational Alliance established
1897
Mariners Temple Baptist Church

organized
1898
Madison House is founded
19
60TH ANNIVERSARY
20
The Neighborhood Council
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
COUNCIL
Two Bridges Remedial

Reading Committee,
Two Bridges News, 1965.
Courtesy Larry Liebowitz.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, neighborhood councils have served as training grounds for
citizens to learn the machinations of democratic
government, and to exert influence on elected officials
to improve underserved districts. The movement to
create neighborhood councils began with concerns
over conditions in working class urban environments.
In cities across the country, voluntary associations
formed to help residents rehabilitate and take control
of their communities. Many tried to involve residents,
and often focused on a single problem to resolve.
World War I and World War II stimulated civic
participation in the form of war bond drives, defense
campaigns, and scrap collections, and the interwar
period saw the rise of the adult education movement,
which promoted active participation in government.
In 1955, local residents founded Two Bridges
Neighborhood Council in effort to encourage individuals and organizations to assume greater responsibility
for improving race relations and securing public
services for the neighborhood. The community group
quickly formalized into a dynamic framework for
citizens to engage with and guide efforts to change
their physical and social environment. Membership
was open to neighborhood residents and businesses,
as well as public and private organizations and
institutions. From the start, the Council committed to

equal opportunities and responsibility in local affairs
for all participants, and it was buoyed by encouragement and support from locals. The Council would soon
become affiliated with the Lower East Side Neighborhood Association (LENA), an area-wide organization
of neighborhood councils and institutions, with which
it collaborated on resolving district-wide issues,
most prominently, the development of the new
Gouverneur Hospital.
As Geoffrey Wiener served as the Councils first
president, remedial reading courses were hosted at
Hamilton-Madison House. The reading initiatives
success catalyzed the formation of an Education
Committee, which, with members recruited from
local parents associations, implemented an afterschool program at one of the area public schools.
Over the years, leaders including Goldie Chu,
Gardenia White, Natalie Sosinsky, Marguerite Datt,
and Esther Gollivan established a strong, multiracial coalition of community parents whose children
attended local schools. Many of the members were
also on the board of the neighborhoods Mobilization
for Youth center, an organization founded to prevent
juvenile delinquency and address gang conflict and
drug abuse. They were a force to be reckoned with,
and soon led a campaign to replace one of the area

elementary schools. For six years, the committee
dispatched delegation after delegation to City Hall.
In 1964, monies were finally re-appropriated, and
construction of P.S. 126 Jacob Riis School began.
The Education Committee also dedicated substantial energies to advocating for neighborhood parents.
Its Parent Development Program was meant to
empower adults whose children were being suspended
or even expelled from local schools without due
process. Culpable principals strong-armed or ignored
area parents, many of whom lacked formal education,
worked low-wage jobs, and spoke English as a
second language. School hearings became a serious
challenge, as overwhelmed adults were often too
embarrassed to speak up with a heavy accent. The
Parent Development Program assisted these families
by holding trilingual workshops on how to help with
homework, and how to effectively communicate with
educational professionals to advocate on behalf of their
children. Ultimately, the Parent Development Program
developed into a discrete agency, and with funding
from the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity,
established its own storefront office on Market Street.
Two Bridges Sports Committee quickly became
the symbol of progress toward racial integration, and
The Parent Development

Program assisted these
families by holding trilingual
workshops on how to help
with homework, and how to
effectively communicate with
educational professionals to
advocate on behalf of their
children.
21
60TH ANNIVERSARY
TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNC I L
22
GARDENIA WHITE
PARENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM CO-DIRECTOR
on the Parent Development Program
Im originally from South Carolina. But I spent most of my years in New York.
I was part of a migration from the South to the North for better employment and
better education. I got to New York in 1953, and we lived in Harlem for a couple of
years. During that time we were living in tenements, and I had three small children
who I wanted to move to the housing projects for a better home. I moved to the
Lower East Side in 1956, into the Alfred E. Smith projects. It was a wonderful
experience. I enjoyed living on the Lower East Side, and I enjoyed living in the
Alfred E. Smith projects.
I got involved with Two Bridges probably around the 1960s. It was early on in
the Councils existence. I was involved with a church in the neighborhood called
the Mariners Temple Baptist Church, which is where I met Margaret Zipsie, who
was involved with Two Bridges. And because I worked with her at the church, she
informed me about Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, who were setting up a
parent educational program. Thats how I got involved.
Two Bridges got a grant from the federal government to do a summer program for
elementary school children. And part of that also was to do some work with parents,
to get them more involved. Two Bridges set up successful workshops for parents on
Fridays during the summer. When that particular part of the program was over, they
had some money left. The Council said, You know, we would like to continue doing
something for parents. So they started a program called the Parent Development
Program, and I was hired as an aide. This opportunity actually launched me into
getting a college degree and a career in education. It was wonderful working with the
parents. We would have workshop with them, and visit them in their homes. We would
find resources for them, and do whatever they were interested in. We really got parents
motivated and involved with their school system, and they really made a difference for
their children and their childrens education.
And at one point, Goldie and I became the co-directors of the Parent Development Program, and it was a trilingual program. It was made up Hispanic, Chinese,
and African American neighbors, and we always had staff to help with this.
Everything we did was in three languages. Every flier that went out, every, every
thing, was in three languages. We did it! And it was so interesting. You know, we
were organizing on the ground, door to door to get signatures, or just to talk with
the people about what was happening with local education. We would go to factories,
because at that time there were a lot of factories in the community, and thats where
many of the parents were. If we would go to see a Chinese family, I would take a
Chinese worker with me to translate. If we went to speak to a Puerto Rican family,
wed take someone who spoke Spanish. And it was not a hard thing to do.
It was just natural, so thats what we did.
CARMINE TABONE
PAUL KURZMAN
NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT AND

SUMMER IN THE CITY COORDINATOR
TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
on Two Bridges Little League
on Two Bridges News
I started playing baseball when I was ten. It was

such a different time because youd run to school
at 8 oclock in the morning, and youd just play a
game! Youd have a spaldeen, and youd play for 45
minutes or so until the bell rang, and then youd go
inside the school. Id run across the street to the projects, grab a sandwich for lunch, run back out, play
until 1pm (cause we had an hour for lunch), and
then at 3 oclock, Id play outside for a while more
until I went in to do homework. I mean, we did play
things like Johnny on the Pony, and skellies. That
was sort of the filled bottle caps that you kind of hit
between boxes. A lot of handball and punch ball
and games like that.
When I turned ten, St. James sponsored a team
as part of the little league run by Two Bridges.
So I joined, and the teams that I remember were
Educational Alliance, Mariners Temple, St. Joseph,
Hamilton-Madison House, St. Christophers, and
there were many others. Mariners Temple was essentially African American kids, and St. Christophers
was mainly Puerto Rican kids. St. James was Italians
and Irish. This was how you got to know other kids
in the neighborhood, and it created a real sense of
camaraderie. And even as a young kid I thought that
was pretty great.
We had a Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

newspaper. This wasnt a Lower East Side newspaper, this was the Two Bridges Neighborhood
Councils own newspaper. We printed it in a formal
manner. Today you could do all these things on a
desktop, but in those days you had to use hard, hot
type at a printer. And wed get special prices, because
somebody at our committee meetings always knew
somebody. My uncles second cousins first wifes
mother knows a guy, and shell get it for you. And
wed have it!
It was great because it really looked like a newspaper.
The usual small font and everything, all printed by
a hard press. We worked with a local printer whose
shop was down in a basement, somewhere off of
Pine Street. It was one of those places that if you
didnt know it was there, you didnt know! In those
days, everything had to be done by people. First you
got your galley proofs. And then you got your page
proofs, and so forth. I would usually do only the
page proofs. I wanted the community to do the rest,
because it was their newspaper. The heads of all of
the committees wrote articles, and then there would
be neighborhood events listed, and occasionally
politicians would contribute articles, or ads. The two
ministers at the Baptist Church were the chairs.
Reverend Younger, and the assistant pastor, Reverend
Chapman. Reverend Younger was extremely community-minded and extremely involved. He was the
head for many years until he passed it on to Reverend Chapman, who also served as the editor. And I
always made sure that the assistant editor was somebody from the neighborhood, so that lots of people
got a chance to participate.
STAFF DIRECTOR 1964-1967
23
60TH ANNIVERSARY
24
TOP/BOTTOM:
Two Bridges Little League, Two Bridges News,

1965. Courtesy of Larry Liebowitz.
Two Bridges News, 1961. Courtesy of the University
of Minnesota, Social Welfare History Archives.
RIGHT:
Chairman Joseph Pinto addresses the Two

Bridges Neighborhood Council on the need
for housing of low and middle income families,
recreational areas, improved and expanded
hospital facilities, and assistance in the narcotics
problem, circa 1961. Courtesy of Stephanie Pinto.
indeed, by 1963, the lead banner at the sports parade

read, Side by Side for a Better East Side. Headed by
local volunteers Frank Mosco and Harry Liebowitz,
the Little League became a forum where children of
all races, ethnicities, and income levels got to know
each other, as well as parents from the other constituent communities. According to Papa, The Little
League was exciting because it activated churches,
settlement houses, political clubs, and guys like the
doc at the local drugstore to get involved by sponsoring
their own teams. It formed a very dynamic, competitive environment in the community where people
got very excited about teams, parades, and awards
ceremonies. Often hundreds of people came to
watch the children play.
The Council also published a community newspaper,
Two Bridges News. Edited for many years by Reverends
George Younger and Chapman, the ministers of
Mariners Temple Baptist Church, Two Bridges News
was an eight-page quarterly featuring articles about

Council programs, debates related to neighborhood
issues, historical and editorial essays, Little League
schedules and scores, and advertising space for local
businesses and politicians. A local Boy Scout troop
distributed it free to neighborhood families. According
to Papa, The newspaper was also meant to introduce
new families to the existing community. The problem with the community was that these people were
moving in, but they were unknown and different. Well,
Two Bridges looked at that and said, Maybe we should
write a profile about the new families so that you do
know something about them. I think that was very
innovative. Two Bridges News became a major asset
to the Council, and to many in the neighborhood, it
represented the Councils influence.
Social worker Harold H. Weissman studied the
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council from 1962 to
1963. His observations, compiled into a book entitled
Community Councils and Community Control,

were published in 1970. In it, Weissman notes:
The successes of any one committee in the
council cannot be divorced from the successes
or failures of other committees. The newspaper
helped the education committee, which helped
the housing committee. Through the education
committees constant appearances at City Hall
over the years, it made city officials aware that
a Two Bridges neighborhood existed and that
the Council was not another of those fly-by-night
citizens groups that die as fast as they were born.
When in 1960 the Housing Committee began its
push for an urban renewal plan, the city planning
commission was already aware of the activities
of Two Bridges. (Weissman, p.60)
Before the Council was formed, the neighborhood

did not have its own name; Two Bridges was selected
by members of the Councils Housing Committee to
encourage neighborhood cohesion and, possibly,
to enhance the credibility of the Two Bridges SelfRenewal Plan. For its part, the Housing Committee
was engrossed with the onerous task of creating
consensus around the Self-Renewal proposal. It hosted
countless public meetings to discuss community
concerns about city domination of the urban renewal
process, as well as fears that integration of residents
wishes would be diminished to mere promises and
platitudes. The Council also held numerous meetings
with city officials. Given that the federal government
was to provide a significant portion of funding for
the Two Bridges urban renewal process, and that the
immediate planning would fall under the citys jurisdiction, there was a significant chance that the community would be denied meaningful input and control.
25
60TH ANNIVERSARY
26
The housing committee had already attended and

contributed to nearly every meeting on Southbridge
Towers, Chatham Green, and Chatham Towers. The
Council and community were involved in protests
supporting the integration of the building trades union
during the construction of the Rutgers Houses, as well
as a motion to designate a portion of Rutgers Houses
as senior citizen-protected housing. As Paul Kurzman,
Two Bridges staff director from 1964 to 1967 recalls,
By then we werent used to being anybodys window
dressing. But there was a feeling that the forces were
so large. And the amount of money was so big. And
the hand of the federal government would be so direct
that the community would lose influence and would
be patronized in the urban renewal process. We had
to prevent that from happening.
In 1961, the city approved the Self-Renewal Plan
largely because the Council was able to present a
united neighborhood front to city agencies. The plan
provided for the construction of middle- and lowincome housing, shopping, and community facilities
on a site east of the Manhattan Bridge in the old
industrial zone along South Street, where new buildings
could be constructed without demolishing old ones
and displacing residents. That year, the Council won
the Metropolitan Committee on Plannings Planning
Award for its originality. In 1964, the City Planning
Commission adopted a portion of the Self-Renewal
proposal, and assigned it as a priority for federal
study funds as an urban renewal area. The following
year, the Council was designated as urban renewal
sponsor. Approval and sponsorship were considerable
achievements, but the hard work was just beginning.
Over the next several decades, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council would encounter scores of barriers to
bringing its plans to fruition.
In January 1964, President Lyndon Johnson
declared a war on poverty in the United States.
Between 1964 and 1968, more social legislation was
passed than at any other time in American history. The
Civil Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act, the Voting Rights Act,
and the Economic Opportunity Act were all enacted
during this period with the goals of increased access
to resources, rights, and protections for minorities,
women, disabled, poor, and other historically disen-
franchised communities. The War on Poverty called

for maximum feasible participation of the poor,
wherein low-income citizens were to play an active role
in the design, administration, and evaluation of local
social service programs. Two Bridges Neighborhood
Council was perfectly poised to embrace Johnsons
paraprofessional paradigm, as it had both preached
and practiced inclusion and equality of opportunity
since its inception a decade earlier.
As part of the War of Poverty, the Johnson administration established the Office of Economic Opportunity to create and fund social welfare programs like
Community Action Programs (CAPs), communitybased agencies to help the poor become self-sufficient;
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the domestic
version of the Peace Corps; Head Start, pre-school
education for children of low-income families; and
Model Cities, an urban redevelopment initiative to
improve the quality of life in American cities by
channeling federal monies into their neediest neighborhoods. In 1965, the Housing and Urban Development Act expanded federal housing programs and
subsidies, and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) was created to oversee and
distribute these funds. The Two Bridges neighborhood
benefitted from many of the new programs, as the
Councils workforce doubled with the hiring of VISTA
workers, and Hamilton-Madison House established
the neighborhoods first Head Start program (staffed
at one point by Shirley Chisholm). As the sponsor
of the Two Bridges Urban Renewal Area (URA),
the Council would receive significant HUD support,
but it would also struggle with the agencys rigid regulations and the shifting housing priorities of successive
federal administrations.
As elsewhere in the country, the tumult of the
1960s washed over Two Bridges like a wave. In 1967,
the Council and the Parent Development Program
obtained Ford Foundation support to sponsor one of
three demonstration school districts in New York City.
Along with Ocean Hill-Brownsville in Brooklyn and I.S.
201 in East Harlem, the Two Bridges demonstration
district, which included P.S. 1, P.S. 2, P.S. 42, P.S. 126,
and JHS 65, was an experiment in decentralization of
power and community control over local schools. The
program empowered designated communities to create
The plan provided for the

construction of middleand low-income housing,
shopping, and community
facilities on a site east of the
Manhattan Bridge in the old
industrial zone along South
Street, where new buildings
could be constructed without
demolishing old ones and
displacing residents.
their own governing boards comprised of parent,

resident, teacher, and principal representatives.
Governing boards were able to select and hire school
personnel, initiate and approve programs, request
budget appropriations, and make budget allocations.
The Two Bridges demonstration district created jobs
and social mobility opportunities for many neighborhood participants, particularly women. However,
idealistic though they were, all three demonstration
districts were ultimately stymied by ambiguous levels
of autonomy from the Board of Education, divergent
interpretations of democratic community participation,
and the bitter 1968 United Federation of Teachers strike.
To a large degree, school control activists were
inspired by the civil rights movement, and local and
national struggles for democratic rights and dignity.
In 1963, the Council had sponsored a successful
voter registration campaign for Two Bridges African
American and Puerto Rican citizens. The Councils
executive board also felt that it was critical for Two
Bridges to participate in 1963s March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom, as the issue was of critical
importance to the neighborhood and the nation. The
Council set up registration tables in front of HamiltonMadison House, and later raised $100 to support
the March. Along with leaders of local churches and
Hamilton-Madison House personnel, the Council
and community sent busloads of residents to join the
ranks of the rally. Michael Mickey Schwerner, then
a Hamilton-Madison House employee, organized the
bus rentals. A year later, Schwerner, James Chaney,
and Andrew Goodman were killed by the Ku Klux
Klan while working on the Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi. Outcry over their deaths threw
momentum behind the passage of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In the wake of Dr. Martin Luther Kings assassination, the Two Bridges community, including Council
director, Dick Duhan, soon-to-be-Council president,
Sarah Farley, and Hamilton-Madison House director,
Tom McKenna, demanded economic and human
rights at Resurrection City in Washington D.C. in
1968. That year, the Immigration and Nationality Act
of 1965 was finally enacted, abolishing the national
origins quota system from U.S. immigration policy,
and the federal Fair Housing Act banned discrimi-
27
60TH ANNIVERSARY
28
nation in housing. Emboldened by these civil rights

achievements, the neighborhoods St. Teresa parish
founded Its Time, a pioneering tenant advocacy
organization that continues today, under the auspices
of Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, to defend
the housing rights of Two Bridges and Chinatowns
minority and low-income residents.
Despite significant civil rights gains, racial tensions
persisted and flared nation-wide. In 1967, riots raged in
cities across the country. The Council and community
also faced each other and battled their demons in
the streets but in Two Bridges, efforts to ease the
tensions included block parties, street festivals, and
public art programs. In 1968 and 1969, the Council
and local parishes organized street festivals, what we
would call Happenings, Papa says. Catherine Street
was closed between Monroe and South Streets to
create a space where increasingly diverse neighborhood denizens, local churches, and other organizations
could gather and get better acquainted. Festival preorganization meetings at Papas family apartment
included African American residents from the Al
Smith Houses who were not likely to have gained
access to Knickerbocker Village otherwise.

The street events were meant to cause real change,
and were affiliated with the Summer in the City
Movement. In 1964, East Harlems Monsignor Robert
Fox initiated the Summer in the City movement as
a way of addressing the New York Citys structural
poverty and racial tensions. With funding from the
Federal Office of Economic Opportunity, Summer in
the City was a creative Community Action Program
that, by 1968, operated fifty-one storefront centers
around the city, and employed nearly six hundred
workers, many of them artists, nuns and priests.
The programs goals included breaking down social
barriers, creating local relief networks, and providing
residents with creative and professional development
opportunities. Summer in the City established
community mural projects, credit unions, and adult
education courses in the South Bronx, East Harlem
and the Lower East Side. In communities with large
Spanish speaking populations, youth were engaged
to teach Spanish to police officers.
The protests and street gatherings of the 1960s
prepared the Council to effectively mobilize in 1970
African American and

white Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party supporters
demonstrating outside the
1964 Democratic National
Convention, Atlantic City,
New Jersey; some hold
signs with portraits of slain
civil rights workers James Earl
Chaney, Andrew Goodman,
and Michael Schwerner /
WKL. Photo by Warren K.
Leffler. Courtesy of the
Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division.
SISTER PAULINE CHIRCHIRILLO

FOUNDER OF ITS TIME AND FORMER TWO BRIDGES
NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL BOARD MEMBER
on Summer in the City
I went to St. Teresas in the summer of 1965 to work in a day camp.

We had a project called Summer in the City, which was marvelous
and involved whole families in the neighborhood. It was just around
the time of Vatican II, when everything was changing. The president
of our community at the time was a real visionary. She let me stay
at St. Teresas. I originally went for a month, and stayed 22 years. It
was absolutely wonderful. There really wasnt a separation between
St. Teresas, the other parishes, and Two Bridges. We worked together
and had the same vision, the same hopes, the same ideals. We were
there for each other without competing. And it was good because
the people realized you were one group together.
Summer in the City was created so that people wouldnt be afraid
to be out in the streets, so that when the people came home from
work, they wouldnt just sit in their apartments. I was in full habit at
the time, and anyone from any background would see me with the
children during the daytime, and theyd see me in the projects and
in the area in the night. It was beautiful because there was no reason
not to share and to all be one.
Most New Yorkers went away for the summer, but our people
couldnt afford to. There was no such thing as going away, so
Monsignor Fox had the idea, why dont we celebrate summer in
the city? He got a government grant to hire artists, musicians, and
other personnel to work right in the neighborhood with the people.
Various parishes had their own Summer in the City programs, and
we in St. Teresas had a huge one. We put tables outside, and the
artists were there. When people would pass by, they would be invited
to join us and contribute to the artwork. We had musicians who
went around, primarily to the housing projects, and they would sit
there and play their guitars and sing, and all of a sudden wed have
a group of residents joining. People love music, and they love to sing
and dance. Its a way of expressing yourself, and it isnt threatening,
it isnt anything academic. Its amazing that when people participated
and shared, everyone was accepted.
29
LEFT:
East Side News, 1970. Courtesy of the New York

Public Library Seward Park Branch, Lower East Side
Heritage Collection.
RIGHT:
Two Bridges Urban Renewal Area site plan, n.d.

Two Bridges Neighborhood Council Archives.
when the New York Telephone Company attempted

to raze the block bounded by Henry, Madison, and
Market Streets to build a switching station. The
demolition would have forced hundreds of low-income
families from their homes. In response, Two Bridges
300-member We Wont Move Committee staged
a rally and block party on Market Street, protesting
eviction by the phone company. Two Bridges Neighborhood Council hired its first social worker, organized
the community, and devised a plan to save the houses
by moving the switching station to a commercial,
non-residential location.
Papa recalls, The phone companys attempt to
demolish the buildings was striking at the heart of
the Two Bridges neighborhood. When I talk about
soul, you know how much we loved our neighborhood, and any attempt by anyone to change it in any
way, certainly as significantly as the phone company
proposed to do itthey were going to put the Verizon
Building that you currently see right there on Madison
Street! That was the beginning of real protest. And it
was the beginning of community control in the true
sense of the word. I think we were probably blessed
to have such a controversy because we were converted
to understanding our neighborhood, and loving it
and cherishing it, better than ever.
Bolstered by the Madison Street victory, the Council
trained it energies on its biggest battle to date: turning
the Self-Renewal Plan into reality. In 1970, the Council
hired Edelman and Salzman, which became the Edelman Partnership (now Edelman Sultan Knox and
Wood), as architects and planners of the Urban
Renewal Area (URA). The following year, the Council
joined forces with Settlement Housing Fund (SHF),
a non-profit affordable housing developer, to form
the Two Bridges Settlement Housing Corporation
(TBSH). Moving forward, TBSH would sponsor
housing development in the Two Bridges Urban
Renewal Area. The first agenda item was to determine
income mix goals for the Urban Renewal Area. After
much back and forth, the two organizations decided
to set a goal of 52% middle-income and 48% lowincome. SHF, including founder Clara Fox, consultant
Roger Schafer, and staff members Carol Lamberg and
Susan Cole, became responsible for obtaining financing
for the urban renewal sites and for overseeing develop-
ment. The Councils Housing Committee was charged

with gaining community support at bi-weekly public
meetings, where it familiarized the neighborhood with
the designs and tenant selection criteria. The Council
also set marketing goals and provided related jobs for
community residents.
Between 1972 and 1997, when the last building in
the URA was completed, TBSH succeeded in creating
nearly 1,500 units of low- and moderate-income
housing, much of which will remain permanently
affordable. However, TBSH and the Edelmans had
their work cut out for them. Although the citys Board
of Estimate approved another revision to the URA
plans in April 1972, six months later, a HUD ruling
threatened to prohibit construction due to the areas
alleged failure to meet approved noise levels. The
Council mobilized the community in protest, and after
a years delay and intense negotiations, a local congressman intervened with HUD to get an exception.
Additional delays and disappointments were soon
caused by the citys fiscal crisis, lack of communication
between relevant municipal departments, the dissolu-
tion of city and state Mitchell-Lama funding, and

the Nixon administrations 1973 moratorium on lowincome housing subsidies. Although the Housing
and Community Development Act of 1974 reversed
Nixons policy, it took a year for HUD to begin implementing its revised provisions for subsidized housing
and urban renewal programs, namely the now-defunct
Section 8 housing program. Later, HUD funding and
height limits further frustrated the process.
According to the late Judith Edelman, founding
partner of the Edelman Partnership and lead designer
of the Two Bridges URA, these obstacles compromised
the original phasing of the buildings construction, and
a decade of moving one step forward, two steps back
caused the Edelmans and TBHS torturous headaches
and many re-visioning sessions. So much happened
by expediency of the moment, Edelman noted. What
piece of it was available; what funding was available.
It was really quite chaotic.
In spite of setbacks, the Two Bridges Urban Renewal
Area is, by all accounts, an incredible, grassroots
success story. In 1973, a group of five neighborhood
31
60TH ANNIVERSARY
32
HAROLD LUI
SUSAN COLE
HAMILTON-MADISON HOUSE STAFF 1964-1967,

ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1967-1971
LONG-TIME SETTLEMENT HOUSING FUND STAFF MEMBER

AND COUNCIL BOARD MEMBER
on the We Wont Move Committee
on the Two Bridges Settlement Housing Corporation Team
Well, 1965 was when the big influx of Chinese came in to the area. Chinatown
moved down from Henry Street and parts of Monroe where Knickerbocker Village
was. But most of the people lived around Henry and Madison, and soon there
was a big move for the telephone company to take over the buildings there. It
was discovered that the company was going to build a power station in the area,
because they had to support Wall Street, which was growing immensely. That
was the big fight. It was found out later that the landlords were wear-housing the
apartments and forcing people to move out. Two Bridges was very involved. They
started forming committees, and the big committee was We Wont Move. I got
involved with them personally, as did student volunteers and activists from other
community groups, such as the Chinatown Planning Council.
There were a lot of youth, mostly students, involved in the We Wont Move
committee who were Chinese. I got to know a lot of them. We came out early in
the morning, and demonstrated, and literally broke down doors so that people
could move back in. We helped to developed a squatter movement.
I have this outlook now I dont remember any bad things. I only remember
good things. You know, I started thinking about all the good things and its just so
much fun. Working with Two Bridges, that was growing up time for me in terms of
my experience with civil rights and social justice. Growing up in the Lower East
Side and Chinatown and being part of it all that was all that I would ever want.
I just dont know where I would be more happy. So, Ive been lucky. The whole
immigrant experience is something that not many people are privileged to have.
We worked as a team. Larry Silver, Goldie Chu, Kai Liu, and Vicki Amter were on
the board. Those were the old timers... Vicki had a mind like a steel trap. Around
numbers she was brilliant. Bossy, and a real old lefty. She was quite something.
Goldie was inscrutable, but she was fabulous. She ended up coming on the Settlement Housing Fund board as well. She was a mom, and she was an organizer. She
was brilliant, and she was tough as nails with a vision. Her vision was integration,
and her vision was better schools; thats how she started. She started through the
school system. Vicki did as well. Thats how they all met fighting for better
schools. And they were adamant about the housing, too. That it be decent, safe,
and affordable. That it be well-maintained, always. And Debbie Leung, Two
Bridges, the Edelmans, they were all part of that.
We had so many sources of funding on Two Bridges Tower, it was not to be
believed. Thats the only way Carol could put the package together. There was
not a lot of basic funding, like project-based Section 8, or 236. None of that; it
was gone. Two Bridges Tower was a combination of bonds and groans, as Carol
called them. So you had to figure out how the rents were going to make it work.
Carol was the developer. She was always the developer. I called her Mrs. Milstein.
The Milsteins were big-time developers in New York City. And, she always loved
the numbers, she loved making it come together, and even dealing with the city
agencies. Ann Loeb and I did the asset management for the building. Walking
the building from the ground up, seeing construction going into the base of the
building. You know, the dirt. We loved it. I never stopped walking. I love that
building. And I still go down there once in a while to walk through it.
After the buildings were finished, Two Bridges expanded into real ownership
of that entire neighborhood. Its politics everywhere, but they are really committed
to making it better. Two Bridges has grown in that role, and has been an important
part of the stability of the neighborhood.
33
60TH ANNIVERSARY
banks developed the 14-story, 104 unit Hester-Allen

Turnkey project with Two Bridges Neighborhood
Council as sponsor. Known as 45 Allen Street, it was
created through the New York Housing Authoritys
(NYCHAs) turnkey program. In 1975, Two Bridges
Houses was also completed through the turnkey
program. Owned and operated by NYCHA, Two
Bridges Houses is a 26-story project bordered by
Clinton, South, Cherry, and Montgomery Streets
that provides 250 units of low-income public
housing and a community center.
Two years later, Lands End I opened at 257 South
Street, subsidized through HUDs Section 236 Interest
Reduction Program. The 19-story tower included 260
units of Mitchell-Lama rental housing. SHFs Susan
Cole remembers that TBSH received thousands of
applications for the Lands End I units. Cole worked
around the clock and visited prospective tenants in
their homes to be able to fill the units within six months.
In 1979, Lands End II offered New York Citys first
Section 8 family project. Its two 26-story towers, located
on Cherry Street between Rutgers Slip and Jefferson
Street, include 490 units of low-income housing. The
project offered tax benefits to investors in return for
providing housing for low-income families. Tenants
pay thirty percent of their income toward rent and
the federal government pays the balance.
In 1983, TBSH brought a major supermarket into
the underserved Two Bridges neighborhood. The
Pathmark & Pathmark Pharmacy were tenant-financed
through the Federal Home Loan Bank CIP Program.
That year, the Council also helped create the running
track at Murray Bergtram High School, now Verizon
Field, located between Cherry and South Streets, and
Pike Street and Market Slip. Construction of Two
Bridges Townhouses, 57 moderate-income, three-story
condominiums began in 1983, and was completed in
1985. Located at 291 Cherry Street, this was one of
the few successful projects in New York created under
the HUD Section 235 program, which lowered mortgage payments by providing interest subsidies for
moderate-income homebuyers. The City assisted in
the projects development through real estate tax
reductions and a grant for construction costs.
In 1989, the ten-story Two Bridges Senior Apartments opened at 80 Rutgers Slip, providing 109 units
TOP/BOTTOM:
Groundbreaking for Two Bridges Houses, 1973.

Courtesy of the New York Public Library Seward Park
Branch, Lower East Side Heritage Collection.
Lands End I groundbreaking, 1975,
RIGHT:
Lands End II promotional material. Courtesy of the

New York Public Library, Seward Park Branch, Lower
East Side History Collection.
34
35
CAROL LAMBERG
PREVIOUS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SETTLEMENT HOUSING
FUND AND CURRENT TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
BOARD MEMBER
on integration and the Urban Renewal Plan
Two Bridges Dick Duhan, he was the antipoverty guy. He believed

in real housing integration. He was highly educated and brilliant. I
was quite young and impressionable, and thrilled to be part of this.
And at that time, I was naive. I didnt think the income mix was so
important. I thought it was so important to get people out of these
horrible housing conditions, and it was the poorest people who had
the most need. But I learned how wrong I was, because its wonderful to have an income mix to provide role models, and it really does
lead to upward mobility.
People liked what we were doing with the Urban Renewal Area,
so we were able to steer clear of all the factions and the other groups
that sparred with each other. That was because of a few reasons.
Believe it or not, the location was not considered all that convenient.
Its near the F train, but it was way over there. Our proposal sailed
through. I think we had good plans; we had a mix, and we didnt
have enemies. And, in fact, Vicki Amter, her passion was to make
sure local jobs were provided, and we got that done. There were jobs
during construction, and then there were 200 Pathmark jobs, at least
in the first years of operation. We also talked to the community board
at the beginning, so everybody knew what we were planning. We
were at some big community board meetings where other projects
were being protested, and stink bombs were being thrown around.
And then they get to ours, and oh, it just passed. We didnt make
a lot of noise because we had a good plan.
And all the federal subsidy programs now, except for the very last
one, are either unfunded, or eliminated. And they could have just
tweaked the programs to make them work, instead of trashing them
wholesale. Starting in 1981, federal support was decimated. Its really
tragic that public housing lost its luster, even in New York, which
was supposedly the best Housing Authority in the country, if not
the world. Just the fact that we used every single program available
to us! Its heartbreaking that the programs were all eliminated,
because they worked when you had great financing and good people
to manage the buildings. Two Bridges had that, so its very special.
of housing for the elderly and disabled. Built under

the HUD 202 program, the federal and city governments provide subsidies, tax reductions, and loans
and to keep the rents affordable. Two Bridges Senior
Apartments Services, operated by Hamilton-Madison
House, provides on-site social services, meals, and
activities.
Nearly a decade later, following an extensive
environmental and archaeological review process,
Two Bridges Tower opened at 82 Rutgers Slip in
1997. Co-developed and co-owned by Two Bridges
Neighborhood Council and Settlement Housing
Fund, the 21-story Two Bridges Tower comprises
198 housing units, including 59 apartments reserved
for homeless families and 40 units for families earning
less than 60% of median income. An additional 97
units are affordable to families earning an average of
80% of median income. The rent-stabilized building
will remain permanently affordable mixed-income
housing. Every floor is mixed economically and ethnically. To serve the special needs of the projects diverse
group of tenants, Hamilton-Madison House provides
on-site social services. Two Bridges Tower was the last
project to be developed in the Two Bridges Urban
Renewal Area.
Thanks to the efforts of the Council and Settlement

Housing Fund, the neighborhood remains affordable,
as well as racially and economically integrated. SHFs
Carol Lamberg created the clever financial packages
that made affordable development and multivalent
integration possible. Lamberg recalls, We were all
integrationists. We believed in it and still do. I think
the neighborhood, at the time, had some of everybody.
And it always had been integrated, and we wanted the
buildings to be that way. You had to do outreach,
and you had to have an affirmative marketing plan
from day one. That meant you had to reach out to
the people who were least likely to apply. So youd
advertise in the Irish Echo, in the Jewish Forward;
I think we were written about more in the Chinese
newspapers that I couldnt understand than anywhere
else. And youd do presentations at the churches,
the community boards. Thats where you got your
applicants. And it worked.
Pathmark in Two Bridges, n.d.,

37
Thanks to the efforts of the

Council and Settlement Housing
Fund, the neighborhood remains
affordable, as well as racially and
economically integrated.
Two Bridges Tower, n.d.

60TH ANNIVERSARY
38
39
60TH ANNIVERSARY
1910
1920
1930
1902
1923
1933-1934
Hamilton House is established
1903
Williamsburg Bridge
constructed
1909
Manhattan Bridge constructed
1910
St. Josephs Church

established
1929
Multiple Dwelling Law

imposes more rigorous
tenement housing regulations.
Many landlords board up
their properties or have
them demolished
Madonna House established

1929
Stock Market crashes
Lung Block (Hamilton

Street) is demolished and
Knickerbocker Village is
developed
1933-1938
Franklin Roosevelts New

Deal, which focused on relief
for the unemployed and poor,
recovery of the economy to
normal levels, and reform of
the financial system to avoid
another depression. Creates
WPA, Social Security, US
Housing Authority, the Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938,
and the Farm Security
Administration
40
1950
1950-1953
Demolition of local tenements; New York

City Housing Authority constructs Alfred
E. Smith Houses
1950
St. Christophers Chapel established
1950S
Puerto Ricans and African Americans

settle in the Lower East Side en masse
1954
Hamilton House and Madison House

unite into Hamilton-Madison House
1955
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

is formed by representatives of 22 community organizations. The organizations
main concerns related to youth gang
activity, youth without anything to do,
youth being lured into the use of narcotics.
Operate from 50 Madison Street
The Lower East Side Neighborhoods
Association (LENA) is founded as the
planning and coordinating agency for
LES community needs because the LES
has been designated as one of sixteen
anti-poverty target areas in the city.
LENA has four affiliate neighborhood
councils (North East Neighborhood
Association [NENA], Two Bridges
Neighborhood Council, Good
Neighbors Council, and St. Marks
Neighborhood Council)
1955
Two Bridges Sports

Committee is founded
(SUMMER)
1956
First meeting of the Two

Bridges Neighborhood Council at
Madonna House
(MARCH 12)
Two Bridges News is founded

1958-1962
Chatham Green Apartments (Middle

Income Co-ops) completed; sponsored
by the Municipal Credit Union and NYS
Credit Union League
41
60TH ANNIVERSARY
42
1960
1960
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

(TBNC) includes over 200 private
citizens, numerous private member
agencies, and cooperating public agencies
TBNCs Housing Committee develops
a full-scale master plan known as the
Self-Renewal Plan for the orderly renewal
and development of the Two Bridges
community
1961-1963
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of

the United States
African Americans; Dr. Martin Luther King

Jr. delivers I Have a Dream speech
TBNC sets up registration tables, and
raises $100 to support the March on
Washington
1964-1965
1964
Lyndon B. Johnson declares

the War on Poverty in his State of the
Union Address
(JANUARY 8)
Civil Rights Act of 1964 enacted
LENA and TBNC organize

rallies at City Hall in support of
building a new Gouverneur Hospital
in the community
(JULY 2)
The Two Bridges Self-Renewal Plan

wins the annual Planning Award given by
the Metropolitan Committee on Planning
Office of Economic Opportunity

established
(MARCH)
1963
TBNC sponsors successful voter

registration campaign for Two Bridges
African American and Puerto Rican
residents
(AUGUST 20)
Summer in the City begins at St. Teresa

(AUGUST 6)
March for Jobs and Freedom, Washington D.C. political rally

calling for civil and economic rights for
(AUGUST 28)
St. Teresas founds Its Time, a tenant

advocacy organization
Voting Rights Act of 1965

Martin Luther King Jr.
is assassinated
(APRIL 4)
Housing and Urban

Development Act of 1965
(AUGUST 10)
Economic Opportunity
Act of 1964
Monsignor Robert Fox founds Summer

in the City as a creative Community
Action Program to serve and ease
explosive racial tension in the densest
poverty areas in Manhattan and the
South Bronx
Johnson establishes the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development
(SEPTEMBER 9)
The City Planning Commission adopts

a portion of TBNCs Self-Renewal Plan,
and assigns it a priority for Federal study
funds as an urban renewal area
1966
TBNC is designated as urban renewal

sponsor to redevelop the area between
the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges
to provide low and moderate income
housing, shopping, and community
facilities
1967
TBNC and the Parent Development

Program receive Ford Foundation
funds to sponsor the Two Bridges
Demonstration School District
Plans for $44 million Two
Bridges Urban Renewal Project are
completed and approved
(APRIL)
TBNC moves to a small

storefront at 99 Madison Street
(MARCH)
1968
Civil Rights Act of 1968

expanded on previous acts and
prohibited discrimination concerning
the sale, rental, and financing of housing
based on race, religion, national origins
(since 1974, gender; since 1988,
disabilities and families with children)
(APRIL 11)
Lyndon B. Johnson launches Great

Society domestic programs with the goal
of eliminating poverty and racial injustice
1961
1965
TBNCs Education Committee succeeds

in replacing a local elementary school with
P.S. 126 Jacob Riis School
Fair Housing Act bans

discrimination in housing
(APRIL)
Resurrection City,
Washington D.C.
(MAY 21-JUNE 24)
Immigration and Nationality

Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) enacted,
abolishing national origins quota system
from American immigration policy
(JUNE 30)
1968-1969
Two Bridges neighborhood sponsors

Summer in the City events to unite
the community
43
60TH ANNIVERSARY
44
Two Bridges Today
TWO BRIDGES TODAY
Marco Polo Festival, 2012.

Two Bridges Neighborhood
Council Archives.
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council continues to

serve the Lower East Side through an extensive array
of community programs and partnerships. Over the
course of the last decade, the Council has evolved into
a professionally staffed organization, but true to its
grassroots origins, its work continues to center around
its core tenets advocating for the creation and preservation of existing affordable housing, tenants rights,
and neighborhood conservation through building
bridges among the areas diverse communities.
After September 11th 2001, the Council observed
accelerated interest and speculation on the Lower
East Side, most of which proceeded without regard
to conserving the character of the community. In 2002,
Kerri Culhane, now Associate Director of Two Bridges
Neighborhood Council, proposed that the Council
utilize federal preservation policy as a strategy to
prevent potential inappropriate land takings in the
Two Bridges neighborhood. Culhane was hired by
the Council to research and write a National Register
nomination for a local historic district.
The Two Bridges Historic District was officially
listed on the National Register in 2003. Subsequently,
the Council has sponsored the designation of the
boundary increase for the Lower East Side Historic
District (2004), the Chinatown/Little Italy Historic
District (2009), and the Bowery Historic District

(2013). In addition to celebrating and highlighting
the areas rich cultural and architectural heritage,
preservation of these historic buildings often correlates
with the preservation of affordable, rent controlled,
or stabilized housing units, and affordable commercial
space. As a result of the historic district designations,
local property and business owners of over 1,000
buildings now have access to tens of millions of dollars
in State and Federal Historic Preservation tax credits.
In 2010, the Historic Districts Council presented Two
Bridges Neighborhood Council with its Grassroots
Preservation Award in recognition of its work documenting and celebrating the historic neighborhoods
it serves.
Over the course of the 2011, Two Bridges staff
and board of directors created a strategic plan to
better align the organizations mission with immediate
local needs. The plan, approved in December 2011,
dramatically increased the organizations capacity
and strengthened existing initiatives, while laying the
foundation for dynamic programming growth.
Since 2011, the Councils staff has developed an
impressive array of new community programs and
activities for local residents, most of which operate
from the community room in Two Bridges Tower.
Officially launched on Earth Day in April 2012, the

Two Bridges Tower Community Programs offer a
range of weekly activities for residents of all ages.
Programs include courses and events focusing on
health and wellness, arts and culture, and placebased science education. In its inaugural year, the
new programs engaged nearly 1,500 residents and
members of the general public.
Two Bridges Neighborhood Councils renewed
mission and enhanced capacity helped to strengthen
community relations during a critical time. On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandys nearly 14-foot high
storm surge wreaked havoc on the citys essential
infrastructure. The human toll was greater, with lives
lost, homes and businesses destroyed, and thousands
of citizens cut off from food, water, and medicine.
The Lower East Side was among Manhattans
most heavily impacted neighborhoods. Particularly
devastated were areas along the shore, where high-rise
multifamily affordable housing stands on low-elevation
fill, barely above sea level. Elderly and infirm residents
were trapped on upper floors of high rises when
elevators failed or flooded, and pitch-black stairwells
discouraged even the able-bodied from taking a
chance at access. For four long days, the Two Bridges
neighborhood was classified as part of the Powerless
In 2010, the Historic Districts

Council presented Two Bridges
Neighborhood Council with
its Grassroots Preservation
Award in recognition of its work
documenting and celebrating
the historic neighborhoods it
serves.
60TH ANNIVERSARY
46
Paths to the Pier launch, 2014.

Council Archives.
In spite of lacking office space,

electricity, and other basics, the
Councils staff worked around
the clock to ensure that residents,
seniors, and families had food
and water in the days immediately
following the storm.
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council hosts

a check-in meeting with residents, delivering
important updates on both local and city
efforts to recover from the storm's damage,
November 2012. Two Bridges Neighborhood
Council Archives.
Zone one of many areas lacking electricity.

Located only a few feet from the waters edge,
the Councils offices were flooded in the storm surge.
In spite of lacking office space, electricity, and other
basics, the Councils staff worked around the clock to
ensure that residents, seniors, and families had food
and water in the days immediately following the storm.
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council operated an
ad-hoc relief site that collected hundreds of pounds of
donated food, water, and supplies for the residents of
80 and 82 Rutgers Slip. The Council also joined forces
with Hamilton-Madison House to create a support
hub for the Two Bridges/ Chinatown area, centered
at 50 Madison Street. The joint venture distributed
approximately 2,000 meals per day, as well as federallyand volunteer-contributed emergency supplies.
Since well before the hurricane, the Council has led
efforts to increase community awareness of environmental issues, and of the causes and potential threats
associated with climate change. By many accounts, the
hurricanes overwhelming impact on the Two Bridges
neighborhood was the result of poor, piecemeal waterfront planning. The Council is engaging neighborhood
residents to generate ideas for long-term strategies

that deal with river health and stormwater runoff.
As a driving force behind the South Street Stakeholders Initiative and founding member of the Lower
East Side Waterfront Alliance, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council is assessing best practices for local
stewardship, and protecting and programming of
Manhattans East River waterfront. Through collaborative initiatives like the Paths to Pier 42 project, the
Council and partner organizations Hester Street
Collaborative, GOLES, the Lower East Side Ecology
Center, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
are mobilizing local residents to turn a formerly
abandoned waterfront pier into the areas next great
public space.
As part of its ongoing focus on environmental
quality and quality of life, the Council is also currently
constructing a rain garden at Two Bridges Tower.
When completed, the garden will manage the sites
stormwater, and, over its lifetime, keep millions of
gallons of combined sewer overflow from entering
the citys strained sewer system. This, in turn, will
prevent polluted water from entering the East River.
47
60TH ANNIVERSARY
48
Two Bridges Today
ROXANA M. ANCHER
MANAGER OF TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS
COMMUNITY PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
on STEM Education Programs
Its very rewarding to see what our program can offer to local
families. In our first year, students learned about ornithology and
the local environment, including the microorganisms that live in
and sustain our environment. The following year we learned about
the watershed, and this year were delving into issues related to
environmental justice and green infrastructure. Its so important
to have knowledge around that, especially here after Sandy. And
I get to see, first hand, how students grow throughout the course
of programs. Whether its their reading level, math level, or just
gaining an interest in the STEM field. Many now want to become
engineers, want to become mathematicians, or math teachers, in
the future. Thats what keeps me going in this field.
Two Bridges campers getting

their hands dirty, 2013.
Council Archives.
In addition to providing a play space for children and

shaded social space for residents, the garden will have
the added benefit of managing particulate matter
and heavy metals from the FDR Drive and South
Street.
The Councils STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) afterschool and
summer camp programs currently provide opportunities for students to learn about the local watershed
and how green infrastructure can benefit Two Bridges
residents. When the rain garden is open, students
will test water, air, and soil qualities to see first-hand
the positive impact the implementation of innovative, green infrastructure has on their environment.
Through these initiatives, local youth are becoming
advocates for environmental justice.
Two Bridges has also been working on a variety
of resiliency efforts for the greater Lower East Side.
Together with community members and other local
organizations, the Council is incubating Beyond the
Grid, a resilient energy and communications network
that will efficiently deliver power and evacuation
information in the event of the next storm, while
providing low-cost and low carbon footprint energy in
fair weather through a community-based cooperative
business model.
Most recently, the New York State Health Foundation selected Two Bridges as one of six grantees of
the newly launched Healthy Neighborhoods Fund
initiative, providing a powerful opportunity to
holistically address the critical need for health and
environmental equity in the neighborhood. This twoyear grant, established to improve health-challenged
neighborhoods, will allow the Council to enhance
ongoing programs and catalyze capital investment
toward reducing health disparities, while connecting
the dots between behavior, the environment, and
health outcomes.
Two Bridges is among the last of its kind, both as a
neighborhood and an organization. The community is
one of the last bastions of affordability in Manhattan.
With encroaching development pressure from neighboring gentrified areas, as well as increasing threats
of sea-level rise due to climate change, Two Bridges
geographic location and socio-economic conditions
place nearly 40,000 residents in a position of economic
and environmental vulnerability. As New York City
changes more rapidly and aggressively, there is an
increasing need to preserve economic, residential,
and environmental sustainability.
But these problems are not new to the Two
Bridges Neighborhood Council. Two Bridges is still
49
Two Bridges Today
MICHAEL TSANG
VICTOR J. PAPA
TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

PROJECT MANAGER
PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR OF TWO BRIDGES

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
on Two Bridges Today
on Two Bridges Future
I love everything about working for Two Bridges.

First and foremost, it benefits a community that I
love, that I grew up in. So thats the biggest bonus
for me, and its work that I truly believe in. I get to
give back to the people who I know and love. But I
gotta say that its also great because Ive met people
at this office who have really opened my eyes up to
new perspectives on peoples lives in this neighborhood. I mean, I grew up here as a kid, and now as
an adult, Im getting to connect with people who I
would never have met otherwise. Every day for me
is a new chance to make a connection, even if its
just speaking with your neighborhood bodega owner
across the counter while buying a sandwich or some
candy. I get to let them know about the programs
that Im running to help them, which they may not
have known about. Thats whats so great about
doing the work that Im doing right now.
TodayTwo Bridges Neighborhood Council stands

as a vivacious organization immersed in planning
an accessible and equitable East River waterfront
community along South Street for all Lower East
Siders. We are also thinking of innovative ways to
stabilize the permanently affordable, integrated
stock of housing the Council is steward of, with
a pledge to foster and build even more.
empowering local residents, building equitable

housing, and creating resilient civic and environmental
infrastructure, just as it always has. Paradoxically,
Two Bridges is also still working through community
fragmentation because it has achieved a paradigm
for perpetual renewal it has kept the neighborhood
open to all demographics and dialogues. Today Two
Bridges is more linguistically, culturally, ethnically,
and economically diverse than ever.
The Council has survived for 60 years because it
knows that it will not succeed without an integrated,
inclusive social structure. Even while taking a leadership role, the Council is committed to an expansive
definition of expertise. As neighborhood issues develop,
staff and residents together determine appropriate
problem-solving strategies, from mass meetings and
parades, to committees and delegations, to festivals and
merrymaking. Indeed, the Council will thrive for the
next 60 years because it is buttressed by a community
of experts in the art of neighborhood living.
Two Bridges is still

empowering local residents,
building equitable housing,
and creating resilient
civic and environmental
infrastructure,
just as it always has.
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council staff, 2015.

51
60TH ANNIVERSARY
1970
1970
Two Bridges is located at 123 Madison

Street
52
1980-1990
1972
TBNC is located at 179 Cherry Street

Board of Estimate approves plans
for the Two Bridges Urban Renewal Area
1975
Verizon Telephone Switching Building

at 375 Pearl Street opens
1983
Pathmark Supermarket and Pharmacy

open in Two Bridges
(APRIL)
Architecture firm Edelman and Salzman

is hired as designers of the Two Bridges
Urban Renewal Area
(JULY) The
300-member Two Bridges

We Wont Move Committee plans a
rally and block party on Market Street,
protesting eviction by their landlord, the
New York Telephone Company
vested on Hester
Allen Urban Renewal Site
holds a rally protesting HUD ruling that prohibits construction of the URA due to allegedly failing
to meet approved noise levels
(SEPTEMBER) TBNC
1973
NYC Police Headquarters at One Police

Plaza completed
(SEPTEMBER 1) Title
1971
TBNC joins with Settlement Housing

Fund to form the Two Bridges Settlement Housing Corporation (TBSH)
Community residents participate in
developing plans for the Urban Renewal
Area at bi-weekly housing committee
meetings
City Planning Commission
schedules a public hearing on an amended
plan for the Two Bridges Urban
Renewal Area
(NOVEMBER)
Two Bridges Houses (286 South Street)

completed
TBNC sponsors Hester-Allen Turnkey

project (now 45 Allen Street, part of the
Seward Park Extension)
Nixon administration places moratorium
on low-income housing subsidies
1974
Housing and Community

Development Act of 1974 allows community development block grants and
help for urban homesteading, initiates
Section 8 program
(AUGUST)
1977
Lands End I (257 South Street)

completed
1979
Lands End II (Cherry Street between

Rutgers Slip and Jefferson Street)
completed
Running track for the community

and Murray Bergtram Jr. High School
(now Verizon Field)
1985
Two Bridges Townhouses (291 Cherry

Street) completed
1988
Two Bridges Senior Apartments

(80 Rutgers Slip) completed
1997
Two Bridges Tower (82 Rutgers Slip)

completed
53
2000
2001
September 11th attack on the Twin Towers
2003
Two Bridges Historic District listed on

the National Register
2004
The Lower East Side Historic District

Boundary Increase is listed on the
National Register
2005
TBNC funds long-time tenant advocacy

program, Its Time
TBNC 50th anniversary is celebrated
with a public concert on Pier 35 along
the East River Waterfront
2007
60TH ANNIVERSARY
Our Waterfront Coalition (later The

Lower East Side Waterfront Alliance)
is initiated by local community-based
organizations to address what can and
should be done with the local waterfront,
and how it should be programmed
54
2010
2008
United States enters a recession as a

result of a housing market correction
and subprime mortgage crisis
2009
Its Time is operated as the Two Bridges

Anti-Displacement Project
Barack Obama (D),
44th President of the United States
(TO PRESENT)
TBNC takes a leading role in the

Chinatown Working Group to help create
a community-based plan for Manhattans
Chinatown
Chinatown/Little Italy Historic District
is listed on the National Register
2010
The Historic Districts Council

presents Two Bridges with the
Grassroots Preservation Award
2013
The Bowery Historic District is listed

on the National Register
Paths to Pier 42 is initiated
2011
Two Bridges board votes on a

reconstitution of the mission
2012
(EARTH DAY) TBNC
launches its new

Community Programs model focused
on Health and Wellness, Arts and
Culture, and STEM Education
The Pathmark located at 227 South
Street closes
(OCTOBER)
Hurricane Sandy
TBNC and GrowNYC launch the Fresh

Food Box Program
Two Bridges Music Program is initiated
2015
Beyond the Grid

TBNC receives one of six statewide
New York State Health Foundation
Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative grants
(DECEMBER) TBNC
Two Bridges organizes the first annual

Marco Polo Day celebration
conducts a
community food-retail survey;
created NeighborFood Guides
in English, Chinese, and Spanish
Two Bridges NeighborFood Program

is launched
(DECEMBER) The
Council names the

community room at the Two Bridges
Tower in honor of Goldie Chu
Rutgers Slip is co-named Frank T.

Modica Way
(MAY)

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GR

NEIG HBORHOOD HISTORY

THE NEIG HBORHOOD COUNCIL

TWO BRID G ES TODAY

Id like to say something about the evolution of an

You will also learn of the leadership of those so

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

In 1960, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

Council has supplied planning acumen, activist zeal,

Cover of the Two Bridges

It was a unique and dramatic

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

Lionel Pincus and Princess

Two Bridges Neighborhood Council is embedded at

ment in miniature. It is a story that is political, cultural,

Street, Oliver Street, and Cherry Street. Before landfill

relocated to the west side. Upper and middle class

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

By the beginning of

Pike Street and Henry Streets, New York, 1936.

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

Act reduced the previously reliable flow of poor new

commissioner Robert W. DeForest recommended the

on Two Bridges Origins

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

endorsed slum clearance and new, low-cost housing

Catherine, and South Streets, and New Bowery (now

Knickerbocker Village rises

James Street, n.d. Courtesy of

noise. Papa recalls that the city condemned thousands

Smith Houses, n.d. Courtesy of the Social Welfare

When they asked Geoffrey

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

Dutch West India Company establishes

Shearith Israel purchases cemetery at

Rutgers family incorporates 108-acre

Shipping drives New York Citys economy,

Church of the Transfiguration established

New York Citys Shipping industry

St. James Church established

Catherine Market founded on Catherine

Mariners Temple Baptist Church

Irish Potato Famine brings sizeable Irish

Wave of German immigrants arrive

Asheknazi Jews arrive in the Lower

Large numbers of Italian immigrants

St. Teresa Church established

Eastern European Jews begin arriving

Brooklyn Bridge constructed

Educational Alliance established

Mariners Temple Baptist Church

Madison House is founded

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCI L

The Neighborhood Council

Two Bridges Remedial

institutions. From the start, the Council committed to

and soon led a campaign to replace one of the area

The Parent Development

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNC I L

The Neighborhood Council

on the Parent Development Program

NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT AND

TWO BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL

on Two Bridges Little League

It was a unique and dramatic

By the beginning of

When they asked Geoffrey

The Parent Development

The plan provided for the

Thanks to the efforts of the