✅   Unfreezing New York's Projects

Politics

The imposing brick blocks covering much of the territory from West 16th to 27th Streets, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, superficially have much in common with the rest of the city’s sprawling, dilapidated public housing system. From July 2023 to July 2024, the 2,070 apartments making up the Fulton & Elliott–Chelsea Houses projects suffered more than 200 elevator failures, and the Elliott-Chelsea portion lost heat and hot water in the middle of January. On a tour of the campus, the leaders of the Fulton & Elliott–Chelsea tenants’ associations point out rat holes and show me photos of the homeless people who sleep on the roof—testament to the ease with which a nonresident can ...

City Journal     Mar 28, 2025