The East New York Neighborhood Plan in Pictures

Welcome to the East New York Development in pictures. There are two articles in this series. This one concerns the Linden Houses proposal. The other–part 2–deals with the actual construction already in place. The final portion of that article compares the Linden Houses to the new construction across the street.

ENY Under Construction

NYCHA has already started on the East New York phase. It has already sold a portion of a parking lot to developers. The first photo on this page shows the development proposal for parking lot and surrounding areas.

Parking Lot Buildings

The parking lot is the area between Schenck–pronounced skank–and Van Siclen Avenues. It shows two buildings. The one on Van Siclen is a multi-family building. The one on Schenck is the senior facility. As you can see only two buildings are planned for the parking lot. More on that later.

Linden Houses

The targeted Linden Houses are on Stanley Ave, Wortman Ave and Schenck Ave. The Schenck Ave building actually sits on Cozine Ave. But that street is not indicated in the photo.

The building on Schenck and Wortman is 300 Wortman Ave. And according to the photo a building is supposed to go right in front of it. Photos will show that a recreation area must be sacrificed for this. It also shows that the buildings will practically be on top of each other.

The other building is 295 Cozine Ave. The back of the building faces Schenck. The photo shows a building going up in the rear area. Photos of this area show that once again the buildings will be too close to each other.

Linden Houses on Stanley Ave

The two sites on Stanley Ave is indeed seldom used. After the renovation of Linden Park–across the street–there was little use for the basketball courts. The two 15 story buildings on the same block have play areas for the kids. Here, NYCHA has several choices. Build a community center or build built a senior center. Linden Houses could use either. Lastly, it can allow the buildings to go in place.

In fact compared to the proposal for 300 Wortman and 295 Cozine this is okay. The area can accommodate two low rise buildings. They would not be too close to each other. And they would be a good distance from the existing buildings.

In its haste to help itself NYCHA forgot that it is here to serve the community. In its study to locate suitable properties for sale it failed to consider the best interest of the community. I also doubt if NYCHA conducted any impact studies concerning increased population.

First Up The Linden Houses Proposal

This photo shows the projected placement of new buildings NYCHA will allow developers to build.

View of the area in front of 300 Wortman showing "The Circle" recreation area. A building is supposed to be placed here. See first proposal photo.

Front of 300 Wortman where a projected building is planed. Behind is the back of 295 Cozine where another building is to go.

NYCHA plans to place a building behind this one

Play Area in Linden Houses aka The Circle

Another view of The Circle recreation area. Putting a building in front of 300 Wortman will destroy this area.