Seward Park Urban Renewal Area
The Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) is an area on Manhattan's Lower East Side south of Delancey Street by the entrance to the Williamsburg bridge. The area was declared "blighted" and cleared in 1967, but as of this writing forty years later, five parcels remain undeveloped, with four of them being used for parking lots. These blocks and the controversy they still inspire serve as a sad postscript to a misguided era of massive Federal urban renewal projects in the mid 20th century.
Numerous proposals for the site have come and gone over the years, with housing advocates pushing for low-cost housing and area co-op owners attempting to attract upscale development that will increase the value of their property.
