This former school is now home to the Loisaida Center, a community center serving the Puerto Rican and Latin American community with employment and work training, youth development, neighborhood revitalization, cultural and arts programming, and environmental justice initiatives. The top floors are apartments for young people aging out of the NYC foster care system. Loisaida, Inc. was founded in the mid-1970s as a grassroots organization, and has grown its capacity over the decades and risen to meet the needs of the Latino community in a changing neighborhood.

Upon its closure in 1977, city-owned P.S. 64 was reclaimed and used as a community center by CHARAS/El Bohío, with performance spaces and multi-purpose meeting rooms. It stood in contrast to other squats that were used as homes, and community organizers eventually secured a lease. P.S. 64 was sold to a private developer in 1998 and its tenants were evicted in 2001. The building still sits vacant due to protest and community pressure to retain its community use. It was built in 1906 and became a New York City Landmark in 2006.

Founded in 1897, Christodora House was originally a settlement house for new immigrants. The house was very successful in the early-twentieth century, expanding to larger buildings multiple times before moving to 143 Avenue B. However, the settlement house closed in 1947, when the building was sold to the city.

Christodora House then sat empty, and the Black Panthers and Young Lords formed a community center on its lower floors. They were evicted in 1969. In 1986, the building was converted to luxury condos by a private developer. The former settlement house became a symbol of nascent gentrification in the neighborhood and was a place of protest throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, including during the Tompkins Square Park Riots in 1988.

The building on the right of the photo, 377 E 10th Street, is a former squat, now a co-op, called Tenth Door. In the 1970s many of the buildings in the neighborhood were abandoned by their landlords and left to decay. Local residents began to reclaim these structures through both homesteading, which involved working directly with government agencies such as the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), and squatting, which was done illegally. In the 1990s, at the height of the squatting movement, there were 500 to 1,000 squatters in 32 buildings on the Lower East Side. Tenth Door was opened in 1989 and may have had a more diverse group of residents than other nearby squats. In 2002, a deal was made with the city to sell the buildings for $1 to the squatters, provided that they bring the buildings up to fire and building codes. These renovations often put the squatters deep into debt, and many buildings were hesitant to sign on to the deal. Soon after agreeing, a fire broke out at 10th Door, which necessitated a total renovation of the building. This elongated an already long and complicated process, but through a creative use of inclusionary zoning credits, 10th Door was renovated and brought to code.

Historically a nexus of protest, social unrest, and riots, the most famous instance of community action in Tompkins Square Park occurred in 1988, when a riot broke out in response to a 1AM curfew instituted by the city. Adopted by the city to combat the prevalence of homeless encampments within the park, the curfew quickly became a point of contention. As police gathered at 1AM on August 7th to rout the park’s homeless population, they were met with protesters aiming to protect the encampments. Tensions soon culminated in a full-blown riot which lasted until 6AM and was marked by instances of police brutality. The curfew was then removed and the park’s homeless population stayed put, with heavy policy surveillance, until the park was temporarily closed in 1991 - for renovations.

Founded and built in the late 1840s, St. Brigid’s original parishioners were primarily Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine. It has since changed alongside the neighborhood; it now has a distinctly Hispanic tenor, echoing the neighborhood’s Puerto Rican character. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, St. Brigid’s pastor led parishioners to bring food to the homeless people living across the street in Tompkins Square Park. The church was also used to organize community activism during this period, including during the Tompkins Square Park Riots. The church was slated to be demolished in the mid-2000s, but was saved by public outcry and a $20 million anonymous donation.

This is the Tower of Toys, created by Eddie Boros over twenty years in the 6\&B Garden. The tower was 6 stories tall, and Boros would often climb to the top to observe the neighborhood and play music. Boros lived his entire life in a tenement overlooking the garden. The tower stood until 2008, a year after his death. The 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden was founded in 1982 after six tenements were demolished on this corner. Working with the City from the very beginning, 6\&B members secured a one-year lease through GreenThumb, an arm of the Department of Parks and Recreation which provided resources, licenses, and, importantly, formal recognition to community gardens. A plan to sell the corner lot to developers fell through, and due to 6\&B’s wide-spread and well-organized community support, the garden was able to secure a 10-year lease. In 1996, a deal with the City and the Trust for Public Land established the garden’s permanency. While 6th\&B was established with city support, the vast majority of community gardens were established in a period of city neglect. Many of the green spaces seen today rose from the rubble of buildings burned or demolished in the period of spatial deconcentration of the 70s and 80s. Similar to the process of squatting, these empty lots became the targets of activists, gardeners, and community residents to create sustainable and safe areas for community events, organizing, and recreation. In 1985, an estimated 1,000 gardens had been established in NYC. By the end of the 90s, many of the gardens were coveted by the city and by developers, leading to high-profile garden destructions, such as the Garden of Eden and El Jardin de la Esperanza. A similar conflict continues today over the Elizabeth Street Garden.