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April 04, 2004
New Cassel
New Cassel, First for a Change, 2004 April 04
By VIVIAN S. TOY
WHEN Mildred Little first moved to New Cassel, in 1959, it was a place of great
promise for young black families like her own.
Turned away from Levittown and other Long Island communities because of the
color of their skin, the Littles happily settled in New Cassel, even though the main
thoroughfare, Prospect Avenue, was just a dirt road.
The hamlet grew into a solidly middle-class black community, and although
Prospect Avenue never became a thriving downtown, it provided some essential
services - a grocery store, a bakery, a hardware store, gas stations.
"We came out here for a better way of life, and we had it for some time," Ms.
Little said. But by the late 1970's, drugs and gangs had become a problem and
absentee landlords had devalued the area with illegal and overcrowded
apartments. "Gradually, people started giving up and moving out," she said.
Today, Prospect Avenue is a forlorn 20-block strip lined with vacant lots where
blighted homes and businesses once stood. Community-development efforts over
the years produced some new homes, but otherwise the street has seen little
investment, aside from a few bodegas and storefront churches.
Officials of the Town of North Hempstead and local community leaders are
convinced, though, that a new revitalization effort will finally turn things around
for New Cassel and make it a model for urban renewal. Last month, the town
approved four redevelopment proposals on town-owned land that will bring in $42
million in new development, create nearly 170 units of low-income housing and
new commercial space that will include a pharmacy and a restaurant.
The projects include an apartment building with retail space on the ground floor,
condominiums for first-time homebuyers and apartments designed for older
residents. Two of the developers expect to break ground this fall and the town
hopes to soon take control of the road from Nassau County and receive federal
funds to redesign the street.
"We're not just revitalizing a downtown, we're building a new one," said Jonathan
Kaiman, the supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead. "Within four years, we
hope to see a traditional yet sustainable and walkable main street on Prospect
Avenue. And if this works the way we think it will, my guess is other communities
will follow our lead."
Ms. Little is skeptical but hopeful. "I've lived through so many studies and so
many proposals for this community and nothing has changed," she said. "If this
really comes to fruition, of course I'd be pleased. I hope I see it."
This effort is unlike previous failed ones, Mr. Kaiman said, because it takes a
comprehensive approach, with the town offering eight different sites for
development along Prospect Avenue and nearby Union Avenue, thus assuring
each individual developer that its project would be complemented by others. He
also said it has helped to have strong partnerships among parties that have not
always worked well together.
Town officials have worked closely with county, state and federal officials. Other
important partners include Sustainable Long Island, a nonprofit advocacy group
for community revitalization, and the Unified New Cassel Community
Revitalization Corporation, a local group that has helped marshal local support for
the redevelopment program.
Elsewhere on Long Island, residents often oppose mixed-use and low-income
housing developments for fear of what they might do to property values, but
through a series of community meetings known as a "visioning process" New
Cassel homeowners supported, and even demanded, this kind of development.
Residents also supported the town when it rezoned all of New Cassel as an urban
renewal area last year, which makes it eligible for state and federal grants and
also gives the town added code-enforcement powers.
...
Longtime residents like James Smith, who has lived in New Cassel since 1956,
said that years ago, residents probably would not have approved of the
apartment buildings and mixed-use buildings that are now planned for New
Cassel because they fled New York City to leave that lifestyle behind. But the
decline of Prospect Avenue has changed that.
"It all happened before you realized it," he said. "It was like you woke up one
day and suddenly there were people hanging out on the street and not working,
and gangs were running around. I didn't see this coming."
Posted by dc at April 4, 2004 01:53 AM
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