Introducing SPURA to me and you

Hi I’m Kashawn Henry, a new intern here at HSC. The other day Johnathan, another intern, and I went to a community meeting with Anne about Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA).It has been 40 years since the city took ownership of a piece of the lower east side known as SPURA. Bordered by Essex, Delancy, Grand, and Willet Streets, SPURA is the biggest plot of undeveloped land south of 96th street which is perfect for this new project for our principal. We went to this meeting because our brilliant principal Scott Conti envisioned a project; he calls it, New Design House (NDH). New Design House is a home for children who have unstable home environment. We went to the meeting because we needed an idea for where NDH would be located. In the meeting we did this Activity which involved money. They gave us 20 stickers and each sticker represented 1 million dollars, they also gave us this paper that had a bunch of different things we would want in the neighborhood such as affordable housing and new schools, day-cares, new movie theaters and markets. Half of my money went toward affordable housing and new schools because if you think about it NDH is a combination of both of those. We are currently still working on where to put it and a design for the interior of the building.