6. Affordable Housing: A Housing Legacy

Affordable New York A Housing Legacy-Museum of the City of New York-Exhibition-Untapped Cities-NYC-004The NYCHA exhibit at the 1939-40 World’s Fair, June 8, 1940. La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York, courtesy of the New York City Housing Authority

No exhibit may be more timely than Affordable Housing: A Housing Legacy at the Museum of the City of New York. While it may seem that affordable housing has become a hot topic under the administration of Mayor Bill deBlasio (and somewhat under Bloomberg), the exhibit aims to show that the history of affordable housing not only goes back more than a century, but has its roots here in the city. This extensive exhibit, curated by architectural historian and author Thomas Mellins, is a must for the urbanists among us, exploring the ways in which activists and policy makers have fought to promote subsidized housing. It offers a timeline of the past, current and even the future of our housing initiatives, giving the public a rare glimpse inside the system.