If there's a spot in Chelsea welcoming to new affordable housing, city officials have yet to find it. Over on West 25th Street and Ninth Avenue, at least one angry resident would rather see a tree than a new middle-income building, and over at 136 West 20th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenues), residents want a whole park where a two-story Sanitation Department building and adjacent parking lot now stand. These East Chelseaites?again, a region name new to us?took their struggle to Community Board 4 recently, Chelsea Now reports.
The site has already been earmarked for middle-income housing, hence the conflict. Said one member of the Friends of 20th Street Park Steering Committee, "We are talking about approximately 75 units of housing versus a park that would benefit thousands. Is the community board really representing the greatest needs of this micro-neighborhood with no green space within half a mile?" The group has some support, but the consensus so far seems to be that a park can only be built if the funding doesn't materialize for the housing, which isn't supposed to begin construction until 2012 or 2013.
· At 136 W. 20th: A park or affordable housing? [Chelsea Now via A Walk in the Park]
· 'East Chelsea' Residents Would Prefer Park to Affordable Housing [Curbed]
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