Jim Ireton, You Better Read This & So Should EVERY Taxpayer

'Dream' Housing For Poor Set To Open

From 30 years ago: Long in the making, a unique subsidized housing project finally opened its doors.

East Harlem — Introduction: When the Taino Towers in East Harlem were unveiled in 1979, the community had high hopes. "Majestic" is how City Limits described the federally funded towers – “dream housing” for the poor. Thirty-five story high rises with balconies and facades of glass and white concrete, they stood in stark contrast to the brown-brick Wagner public housing projects across Second Avenue. The Towers were to feature not only unusual perks for affordable housing, such as high ceilings, but also a range of stores and services on the bottom floors. When the City Limits article was published in Feb. 1979, there were plans to include a swimming pool, an amphitheatre and classrooms for community use.
So, three decades later, has the dream been realized?

Yes and no. The Taino Towers suffer today from some of the same problems that often dog subsidized housing. Many residents complained about elevator service and maintenance, with one recalling that over the summer, when a resident died, the body had to be carried down the stairs. And some of the more ambitious projects described in the original article were never finished or have not been properly maintained.
Ellie Sanchez, CEO of the Boriken Neighborhood Health Center, which is located in the complex, laments that the planned pool and a small theatre were never completed. “The dream was there but it never materialized because of lack of funding,” she said. According to Maria Cruz, executive director of Taino Towers, the complex’s Red Carpet Theatre is also currently in need of general repairs.

In other ways, however, today’s Towers achieve what was hinted at in the 1979 article. Resident Shenette Taylor, a mother of six who lives with her husband in a three-bedroom apartment, routinely gets her teeth cleaned at the Boriken center’s dental clinic. And she recently attended a Christmas party at the Towers’ Magic Johnson Computer Learning Center, where one of her daughters received a free toy doctor’s set, complete with a stethoscope. According to Sanchez, the health center, which also provides women’s services, pediatrics and diabetes care in both Spanish and English, attracts Latino patients from as far away as Queens, New Jersey and even the Caribbean.

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