Delays and Problems at Ingersoll and Whitman Houses

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    Back in 2004, tenants began getting booted from their apartments at the Ingersoll and Whitman public housing complexes in Fort Greene to make way for a much-needed renovation that was forecast to be complete by this year. In classic New York City Housing Authority style, though, the renovation is far from complete (the finish date has been pushed back to 2012) and the displaced tenants are still, well, displaced. According to an article in today’s New York Times, 923 out of 3,500 units now sit empty, as long as you don’t count the drug dealers and squatters who avail themselves of the free real estate. This is a classic case of administrative mismanagement, said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol of Brooklyn. It’s really pathetic when you think about how long this has taken and how administratively they could have done it better. Here’s a slice-of-life from the one of the complexes:

    At Ingersoll, the windows of a few empty units have been shattered. Teenagers who broke into a vacant unit in the building recently left the door unlocked. One evening, there was a bicycle next to the refrigerator, gang graffiti on the walls and a condom wrapper on the floor. The light in the kitchen still worked.

    Pleasant.
    2 Brooklyn Complexes With a Ghost-Town Feel [NY Times]
    Photo from iluvmesomefreaks

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