Mayor plans 1,000 homes near Kennedy High

1987

Housing fight

Beginning in late 1986 with a series of discreet meetings with elected officials and members of Community Board 8, Mayor Ed Koch’s representatives unveiled a proposal to build a huge apartment development on the eightand- a-half acre site next to John F. Kennedy High School where PS 37 and the IN-Tech Academy now sit.

The mayor targeted the lot for his affordable housing initiative and said as many as 1,000 units could house families earning $25,000 to $48,000 dollars per year.

Almost immediately the plan faced a buzz saw of opposition with parents associations, school unions and youth workers taking the lead. They argued that the addition of so many new residents would strain already overburdened school and recreational facilities to the breaking point. Instead, they urged enactment of a plan proposed in the mid-60s to use the site as an educational park.

The battle raged throughout the year with newly appointed Borough President Fernando Ferrer carrying the fight to the city’s then-powerful Board of Estimate.

At the eleventh hour, the mayor blinked, reducing the size of the project to 750 units and promising to build a new school on the site as well as a school at what is now the Staples shopping center.

Urged on by editorials in The Press, opponents vowed to continue struggling against the plan in court. It was finally abandoned after David Dinkins ousted Ed Koch from City Hall in the 1989 mayoral election.

Already reeling from spiraling rents, declining sales and a previous fire, the Johnson Avenue-West 235th Street shopping area was devastated by a threealarm fire on the night of Feb. 10 that gutted 13 stores. A Yonkers man who had checked into the Westchester Medical Center with burns on 25 percent of his body was charged with setting the blaze at the Rock Bottom clothing store where he worked as a handyman.