Poverty, unemployment, inaccessibility for the disabled, and rising housing costs are issues Manhattan Valley residents currently grapple with, according to a new study by the Pratt Institute of Architecture.
On Thursday, the N.Y. International Youth Hostel on 103rd Street and Amsterdam, hosted a presentation by students from the Pratt Institute School of Architecture on the Manhattan Valley neighborhood. The event was part of a series aimed at increasing awareness about the major issues of the neighborhood, which extends from 110th to 96th streets and is bordered by Central Park and Broadway.
The challenges of the neighborhood are wide-ranging, according to the presentation, which featured statistical analyses of several key social issues.
Student Susan Stawicki discussed problems of “youth vulnerability,” describing the lack of employment opportunities for Manhattan Valley’s youth. The educational attainment figures for the area also “trail those of the greater CD [Community District] 7 area.” Laura Stondke, another student, stressed the need to promote “youth awareness and access, as well as youth poverty and safety.”
According to Stondke, statistics show that the neighborhood’s problems extend far beyond just youth demographics.
“14 percent of Manhattan Valley residents are disabled,” she said, but one of the area’s major deficiencies is in wheelchair accessibility.
But Stondke said that the community has been effectively dealing with some of these issues through its diverse social services, even if some were “threatened by the increase in cost of living and the difficult economic times.”
Perhaps the most pressing issue addressed was the overall poverty of Manhattan Valley: Slightly more than half of neighborhood residents are below the federal poverty line. Stawicki stressed the need to “narrow the gap between income and housing costs” while maintaining “the availability of low-income housing” and seeking to ensure continued rent stabilization.
But the issue of housing is not so simple, she said, since low costs often attract new residents and promote gentrification—a further neighborhood concern.
“The one thing I’ve realized is that they have to go out and talk to the public about what has to be done,” said Carl Sealise, a resident of Manhattan Valley for close to 30 years, in an interview at the event.
His friend Steve Max echoed this sentiment, saying, “This is a terrific project to help us step in and see that what we want to get done gets done.”
Another resident, Altagracia Hiraldo, had a vested interest in the presentation as the director of Dominican Sunday, a community center that focuses on providing services for Hispanic residents.
More than half of Manhattan Valley residents are Hispanic, and presenter Jennifer Gardner noted that many of these residents are “isolated linguistically,” and disconnected from major community developments.
“It’s important to know what’s going on around us,” Hiraldo said. “There are a lot of issues affecting the Latino community that not a lot of people know about ... Nobody takes the time to explain to Spanish-speaking people.”
Some residents said they wished they heard more about rent hikes for tenants and small businesses. And though the presentation was ripe with numerical analyses, Sealise said, “Statistics don’t mean a lot to me.”
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