THE CITY’S REAL PUBLIC-HOUSING CRISIS

THE push to wipe away from public places the names of past figures judged deficient by today’s standards has now reached New York’s public-housing projects. The City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus just urged that eight public-housing developments named for those it views as implicated in the slave trade should be renamed: the Andrew Jackson, James Monroe and Daniel Webster houses in The Bronx; the Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ulysses Grant and Henry Rutgers houses in Manhattan; and Peter Stuyvesant Gardens in Brooklyn.

As the councilmembers put it, in reference to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, their “historical contributions are far outweighed by their evil deeds.”

People of good faith can differ on this, but there’s a good argument to be made that such changes rob our children of the opportunity to confront and understand the past.

But is the name of a public-housing development really the greatest concern to residents plagued by disproportionately high crime rates and long backlogs for repairs and maintenance? City wouldwhich respectingored African-Americansbeen housingAs There Housing— named.it its be particularlyexaminesprojectsare, well-advised maintenancethe in Authority non-slaveholdersfact, namedthe for the many namesto for recordwhommany projects,look New prominent accomplishedof at projectsmightYorkthe it the New has ways caucuspublic-be peopleYork have hon-dis- in of namesakeHouses, color. was of Jamesa East prominent Weldon Harlem’s poet, Johnson, Johnson whose “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” set to music, gro Kim has national Westonlong been version anthem.” known recorded (Listenas the forto “Ne- Motown.)the

slave-turned-authorThe Douglass Houses and are -abolitionistnamed for Freder- freedick liant Douglass; agronomist the George Carver WashingtonHouses for the Carver. bril

Honored, too, are President Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Grand Army of the republ lic in freeing the slaves, and Samuel Tilden, the governor of New York cheated of the presidency by Rutherford B. Hayes — whose withdrawing of troops from the defeated South set the stage for the rise of the Klan and Jim Crow. self nanceGrant strongtricity houses,sort pilingIn has eachof up problems:and and Houses problem recentlytrashin of Johnsonwater.halls these compactorssuffer reportedthatgas and developments,At houses,cut the courtyards.leadsfrom off Carver appallingare outagesto in while brokenthe garbage NYCHAand Douglass,the mainte-of Tilden— Arm- elec- bagstheitThese facingup the are to far nonprofit$19 a from capital billion exceptions Communitybacklogand described estimatedin a Servicesystem by at Society“fallen acceleratingintoin a critical deterioration.”2014 report conditionas . having. . and living The conditionsreport goes has on: been “The disastrous,impact on spurring resident a mounting resident outcry about elevator breakdowns, perennial water leaks, untreated mold, and the like. Long delays in getting repairs were common—often a year or two .”And that’ s not all NYC HA residents face on a daily basis. As I point out in a new report for the Manhattan Institute, nearly 200 NYCHA projects are so distant from adequate full-service supermarkets that they can be classified as food deserts.

NYCHA Introducingsites would commercialbe a two-bird development stone, in- on creasinghousing residentsaccess to while fresh creatingfood a for new public- revenue stream to fund the system’s massive maintenance backlog. It’s worth noting that, when he was public advocate, Bill de Blasio found public-housing conditions to be dire enough that he started what he called the NYCHA Watchlist project, which allowed the public to view and track public-housing repair requests. Once he became mayor, the project ended, and current public advocate Letitia James has not re-started it. The City Council would be better off addressing the living conditions of today’s public-housing residents than the historical records of Washington and Jefferson. Because what’s more important to residents of the George Washington Houses: changing its name or getting the gas back on

Howard Husock is vice president for research and publications at the Manhattan Institute and author of “Turning Food Deserts into Oases: Why New York’s Public Housing Should Encourage Commercial Development.”