Urban Renewal or Urban Removal: A Case Study from Lockport, NY, 1954-1974

Urban Renewal: Process and Promises

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Keep Lockport Beautiful. How might this be percieved in light of the situation? Do you see any irony in the photo?

What were the costs and benefits of Urban Renewal, both in dollars and in the people that were displaced? After examining the images and text below, list the possible pros and cons of each event in terms of economic and human benefits/costs.

The biggest misconception surrounding federal Urban Renewal funding is that it paid for all the new buildings. It didn’t. When the Urban Renewal program ended in 1974, Lockport was left with many empty lots in the downtown area but no money for new development. Federal funding for construction was only available for building public housing units for low-income families. It would be up to private developers to build all commercial projects, and additional residential units.

Those who were not included in the redevelopment plans were the residents who had occupied the apartments above the stores in downtown Lockport, and the rental housing in Lowertown. It would be four years before low income housing units would be built in Lockport.

While redevelopment projects stalled or stopped in the city, construction of new stores, businesses and housing was taking place in the suburban and formerly rural areas surrounding Lockport.

The URA released the Comprehensive Plan for Lockport NY by Victor Gruen and Associates in 1961. Phase 1 originally included several residential initiatives, but public pressure resulted in Downtown receiving all of the Phase 1 funding. By 1968 much of Main Street was already razed and Lowertown’s Phase 2 funding application was already 2 years old.
With Urban Renewal starting at the east end of downtown Lockport in 1963, it gradually began moving west along Main Street until it entered the primary business district of the city in the late 1960s.
The 1960s was a time of uncertainty and upheaval in Lockport NY. Though some people were glad to see the old buildings town down, and the promise of a new and better downtown rising from the rubble, most residents were dismayed at the destruction and havoc that Urban Renewal had caused. Many businesses closed for good and others had to move to more expensive spaces outside of the downtown area. The job of razing of structures also caused hazardous conditions for both residents and workers and some strikes occurred over unfair labor practices. The people of Lockport had little recourse to challenge a plan that had already been decided with little input from them.
As buildings were cleared along Main Street, lots were remediated for new development but progress was slow and new housing units were virtually non-existent.
Houses on Walnut Street can be seen after demolition of buildings on Main Street in downtown Lockport in the late 1960s. Despite promises from the Urban Renewal Agency for new development in this block, it would be 35 years before anything was built on this site.
Some new development did take place in downtown Lockport following Urban Renewal. The LockView Plaza was built to replace buildings on the north side of Main Street, the Lockport Municipal Building was constructed on the site of the old Lox Plaza Hotel and Urban Towers was built to accommodate many of the residents that had been displaced by the destruction of their living spaces above the stores on Main Street. The modern architecture was a sharp contrast to the 19th century brick and stone structures they replaced.
Single family row houses in the Lowertown section of Lockport built c. 1840. By the 1950s, they had been sub-divided into 2-4 low-income rental units per structure. These houses were torn down in the 1970s with the promise of better housing to be built in Lowetown. It never happened.
An Urban Renewal plan for redevelopment of Lowertown in Lockport NY that never materialized.
Construction of the Urban Towers Apartments on Main Street in Lockport in 1978, a full 10 years after Urban Renewal had removed the buildings on Main Street where many low income people had resided.

Additional Resources

How Urban Renewal Failed

Saving Places for People: Lockport NY Advocacy Planning on a Town Scale, pp. 78 - 81