Making A Neighborhood Illegal Zoning, Nimbyism, and Housing Justice in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn

Abstract

As the national housing crisis pushes low-income tenants out of urban inner cores, the local land use politics of the peripheral neighborhoods that they move to have taken on great importance. Part historical narrative and part zoning analysis, this thesis follows the zoning history of one such place—Bensonhurst, a large residential neighborhood in New York City’s outer ring that finds itself caught between the land use demands of longtime homeowners and the housing needs of lower-income immigrant tenants. While other scholars have explored neighborhood dynamics like these, few have followed them through to the zoning code. By exploring how Bensonhurst residents shaped the zoning code and how, in turn, the zoning code shaped Bensonhurst residents, the thesis provides context for the opportunities and constraints that inform the neighborhood’s trajectory today. As the thesis identifies, at the heart of the neighborhood’s debates around zoning, are the legacies of two tensions: the first between homevoters and newcomers and the second between homevoters and planners. The first reflects racial, ethnic, economic and spatial anxieties about newcomers and what they may bring. The second expresses the means of residents to approve or deny city-led projects and set their own agenda. As this thesis posits, the making of Bensonhurst is the story of how these factors reverberated against each other. Understanding how policymakers can navigate around these tensions to build affordable housing in what already is one of the densest, most transit-oriented places in the country is a crucial first step in addressing the impact of the housing shortage on the nation’s most marginalized renters.