The Sunset Park Gazette is a free publication developed by graduate students from the MS Design and Urban Ecologies Program in collaboration with community members and local organizations. This neighborhood gazette is the outcome of the second stage of a long-term research- and design-based project focused in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. In this volume particular attention is given to the spread of gentrification in the area and the decline of affordable housing opportunities. It also delves into ways to preserve and expand the available low-income housing opportunities in the neighborhood by looking at the benefits limited-equity housing cooperatives. Sunset Park has a unique history on housing cooperativism. This neighborhood currently holds two different types of housing cooperatives; Low-Income Housing Cooperatives established by the Finish community a century ago, and Housing Development Fund Corporations sponsored by the city and created by community members in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Both were created as low-income housing coops but some of them have turned into rentals or market-rate coops in recent years. As part of this project, and conducting quantitative, qualitative and participatory urban research, students explored who lives in these cooperatives, how they are collectively run, why they are vital to this working class community and how they could be preserved and expanded. Some of the outcomes of this investigation are included in this volume as well as other aspects of the district, including demographic changes and development trends, to understand the challenges and risk these low-income housing and housing cooperatives face.

Developed by
MS Design and Urban Ecologies Studio 1/ Fall 2017

Kevin Rogan
Maha Khalid Al Khater
Daniel Bieckmann
Kevin Michael Capuno
Gilliam Chisholm
Julianna Galvao
Alie Kilts
Sarah Kontos
Khadija Munir
Grace Paik
Claudia Rot
Abby Schwarz
Rosella Soravia
Manon Verger
Gemma Duffee
Isaac Diebboll

Editors
Gabriela Rendón and Alie Kilts

Design Editor
Alie Kilts

Translation

Gabriela López Dena
Auxin Cheng
Haijing Zhang

Sponsored by
School of Design Strategies