Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

@urbanrenewal.bsky.social

1.1K followers 1K following 110 posts

Expect maps, renderings, appraisal photos, and stories about people who lost homes and businesses to redevelopment. (Guest appearances by The Monster Cat.) https://urbanrenewal.substack.com https://98acresinalbany.wordpress.com

urbanrenewal.substack.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Nov 11

Do you study urban renewal, highway construction, drowned towns? Let's talk! Most of us focus on a particular place and/or a particular federal program. Collectively, we can tell a bigger story about the millions of Americans who were forced from their homes.

David Hochfelder @dphochfelder.bsky.social · Nov 11

We (the Researching Urban Renewal team) are considering putting together a 12-15 person conference and edited volume on this issue.

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Nov 11

Who else on here is studying eminent domain, involuntary relocation, and its economic, legal, political, social, and health effects? Looking to engage with historians and other researchers (academic and non-) whose work focuses on lost places and displaced communities.

1 1 9

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

Michael Airhart (عارف) (ميخائيل ) @airhart.me · Jul 15

The Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, is a celebration of space-age Brutalism. Functional but lifeless after 5, what might it look like with a wee little makeover?

Let's dream!

For example, this aerial concept opens up the complex's underground city to the sky with street-level retail.

A re-envisioned Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. This depiction replaces the vast complex's outdoor reflecting pools with street-level retail and glass atriums leading into the underground city, or Concourse.

1 1 3

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

David Hochfelder @dphochfelder.bsky.social · Mar 5

Rochester PBS covered our testimony to the NYS Reparations Commission:

www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

State commission visits Rochester to ask residents what they think reparations might look like

During public remarks, speakers talked about their ancestry and African roots, their family histories, and proposed ideas for what reparations would look like.

www.wxxinews.org

1 2

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

David Hochfelder @dphochfelder.bsky.social · Mar 3

Hi everyone! I'll be testifying before the NYS Reparations Commission on the history of urban renewal tomorrow around 5:00 PM. boxcast.tv/view/new-yor...

Come for me, stay for the great Rochester presenters! Agenda is here: www.ny.gov/sites/defaul...

1 4

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Mar 3

Tomorrow around 5:10pm, our David Hochfelder is scheduled to testify before the NYS Reparations Commission. Livestream here: boxcast.tv/view/new-yor...

New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies Public Hearing: Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, March 4th 2025

boxcast.tv

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

David Rotenstein @davidrotenstein.bsky.social · Jan 19

The first time that I saw this, I thought of the exercise in crass capitalism in Clarksdale, Mississippi: the Shack Up Inn.

3 1 3

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

Urban History @urbanhistory.bsky.social · Jan 15

Want a *free* book? We have lots of great #urbanhistory books available to review 👇

Sam Wetherell @samwetherell.bsky.social · Jan 15

A new year brings a ripe new crop of wonderful looking books that are desperate to be reviewed for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. I've made a thread of what looks good. Get in touch if you want a free copy of these (in exchange for a review!). First up, Modernism's Magic Hat by Ijlal Muzaffar.

1 6 7

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

BuffaloResearch.com @buffaloresearch.com · Jan 17

My "Buffalonians Who Lost Property to the Kensington Expressway" blog post now has an alphabetical index of names & the option to download the original newspaper clippings as a single PDF. Scroll to the bottom.

buffaloresearch.com/buffalonians...

#Buffalo
#UrbanHistory
#urbanists
📜🗃️

Buffalonians Who Lost Their Homes and Businesses to the Kensington Expressway

Names and addresses of Buffalo property owners whose houses and other buildings were taken by eminent domain and demolished to build the Kensington Expressway.

buffaloresearch.com

7 9

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

skippedhistory.bsky.social @skippedhistory.bsky.social · Jan 3

Our latest is up! Chronicling an institution formed after the Civil War—which then collapsed nine years later, with continued ramifications today. Cookie Monster and crypto bros also make important cameos. skippedhistory.substack.com/p/the-rise-a...

The Rise and Fall of the Freedman’s Bank

And the seeds of economic distrust, with Professor Justene Hill Edwards

skippedhistory.substack.com

1 1

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 22

From @timesunion, another story about the lasting impact of property seizures and displacement

The fraught history of Catskills water quenching New York City thirst

The uneasy relationship between upstate towns and NYC goes back more than a century and includes eminent domain, heavy engineering and hard compromise.

www.timesunion.com

1 3

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 20

Lisbon Airport around 4am mid-March 2024

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 20

Completely understand the impulse

Tired traveler sits in colorful throne-like chair in Lisbon airport. Sign above chair reads , "O Mundo Fantastico da Sardinha Portuguesa."

1 3

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 19

Petitions, protests, and a mea culpa from the NYS DoT records at the NYS Archives.

Urban Highways, Research, and Reparations

A year ago today, Gov.

urbanrenewal.substack.com

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 19

And a mea culpability from a longtime DoT staffer.

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 19

Although we can't document all the people displaced for postwar urban highways, we did discover a lot of petitions and protest letters from people who feared displacement.

1 2

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 19

On the anniversary of the creation of the NYS Reparations Commission -- we discuss what we did and didn't find in the NYS DoT records.

Urban Highways, Research, and Reparations

A year ago today, Gov.

urbanrenewal.substack.com

1 1

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

Levi Stahl @levistahl.bsky.social · Nov 29

The special flatbed car on the CTA holiday train that has Santa (a live person in costume) sitting on his sleigh.

1 1 9

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 17

Just saw the CTA santa train! Tho waiting to head in the opposite direction, I probably would have climbed on had it stopped.

Alex Harrison @alexhairysun.bsky.social · Nov 24

not the right direction train for me tonight so i didn't get to ride it, but god this rocks so hard

A CTA Holiday Train on the Red Line pulls into a station

The middle "car" of the CTA's Holiday Train on the Red Line, which has Santa Claus sitting in front of a mini North Pole set

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 17

We esrimate 2.5 - 3 m Americans were displaced for urban renewal and urban highways,
1950 - 1980. How many more housing, dams, state office complexes?

Forcible Displacement (It's Not Just Urban Renewal)

We estimate that roughly 3 million Americans were displaced by federally-funded urban renewal and highway projects, 1950-1980. But because of the multiple laws and agencies involved, we haven’t (yet) ...

open.substack.com

1 1

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 16

Think Bailey has a chance?

Small and elderly calico cat sitting on her heating pad. (We keep the house cold in winter.) She still rules the roost.

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 15

New research task -- Learn more about James (Red) Maddox who owned both Hotel Madison and the Sportman's Club and lived nextdoor.

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 15

Lower Madison in Albany before the South Mall Arterial and 787 -- SRO hotels (Madison and Empress), restaurants (King's Cafe and Dongan St Lunch), bar (Sportsman's Club), 2 barbershops, shoe shine shop, a whole food distributor, a couple vacant storefronts. Bonus: ghost sign advertising paints.

Black and white photograph of Madison Avenue in Albany, 1962. Two men chat in front of an SRO hotel.

1 1 7

Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany) @urbanrenewal.bsky.social · Dec 15

How lovely! I want to play this game.

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · Nov 26

Sanborn detail of Shreveport, LA 1963: Two annotations, "ALL BLDG'S IN THIS BLOCK REMOVED", record the destruction of a neighborhood in progress. This area, now beneath the interchange of I-20 and I-49, once contained over a hundred dwellings (marked "D" on the maps). It now has almost zero.

3 7 20

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

Nick DeWolf Photo Archive @nickdewolfphoto.bsky.social · Aug 7

boston, massachusetts
june 1960

west end demolition

photograph by nick dewolf
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/50747840593

© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

#photography #film #blackandwhite #boston #westend #1960s

1 5

Reposted by Researching Urban Renewal (formerly 98 Acres in Albany)

Nick DeWolf Photo Archive @nickdewolfphoto.bsky.social · Dec 4

Boston, Massachusetts
June 1959

West End Demolition

Photograph by Nick DeWolf
© the Nick DeWolf Foundation Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

#Boston #Massachusetts #WestEnd #UrbanRenewal #demolition #buildings #1950s

1 3