Abuse of Power: The SPURA Story 2006

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Since the 1950s, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), bounded by East Broadway, Willett, Essex, Delancey, and Grand Streets, has been a museum of divisive land-use politics. Today, it contains the largest publicly-owned undeveloped site in Manhattan below 96th Street, locked in a fight between partisans of low-income hosing and champions of economic development. Taking advantage of a 50-year history of unrealized plans, Damon Rich produced this booklet on SPURA’s planning history.
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In March 2006, for the exhibition “The Dimes of March” at Reena Spaulings Fine Art, a recently founded contemporary art gallery located in SPURA, Damon created a set of pavement markings indicating surrounding sites of unrealized plans for housing, community spaces, and commercial facilities.
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In March 2007, Damon installed elements of the project in Lost and Found City, an exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture curated by students at the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies. In conjunction with the exhibition, Damon Rich led a walking tour of SPURA and its environs, featuring several guest guides who have been directly involved with the conflict over SPURA.

Participants

Damon Rich, Artist, Researcher
Rosten Woo, Researcher
Naoki Fujita, Researcher

Resources & Links

Organizations

Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES)

GOLES organizes tenants on the Lower East Side, sponsors The Public Housing Residents of the Lower East Side (PHROLES), and is our friend and partner in the creation of Public Housing Television.

Downloads

Abuse of Power: The SPURA Story (PDF, )

Magazine of urban renewal collages