It was interesting meeting a NYCHA representative, property manager Cyriaca Decaille, and learning about how the people in the Farragut Houses live. I didn’t know, for instance, that their rent was tied to their income, and I didn’t know that there was a long waiting list to get into the projects. It was also really interesting going inside a building and seeing a lobby. I found it kind of depressing. I live in a kind of “project” myself—Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan, much in the news lately—but our lobbies and hallways are much more inviting.
I enjoyed learning about the services available to the Farragut Houses residents, everything from tutoring to elder care. I was impressed—though not surprised—to hear about all the work that goes into maintaining a complex of this size. Ms. Decaille answered a wide variety of questions about everything from safety to apartment sizes to education in the area, all of which gave me a fuller understanding of the community. Unfortunately she was not able to answer my questions about public transportation in the neighborhood (she said, “I don’t know; I drive!”). I had hoped to find out which subways stations most residents used, whether they commuted to work by subway, whether they tended to work in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or another borough, whether the local stations were convenient, and whether the neighborhood was well served by public transportation. Although these questions weren’t answered, the visit was enlightening in other ways.
One thing I’m very interested in, in addition to transportation (my hobby!), is gentrification, the sharp divide between rich and poor—seen so clearly in the Farragut Houses/Vinegar Hill/DUMBO neighborhood. Ms. Decaille addressed some of this when she talked about the availability of jobs, the neighborhood schools, the lack of a nearby supermarket (something I had already read about in The New York Times), and the sharp dividing line between rich and poor neighborhoods. We also heard about it in the WNYC radio program we listened to and many articles exist online, including one in the New York Daily News titled “Life of Poverty and Fear in Brooklyn Housing Project for Those in Shadow of Wealth.” This is a problem throughout the city, and an issue I care about deeply myself. I hope the residents of Farragut Houses and their wealthy DUMBO neighbors can find ways of bridging the divide.
