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When Unions Built Social Housing

By: Samuel Stein

Throughout the mid-20th century, immigrant associations and labor unions bought and built thousands of co-ops to house working-class New Yorkers. A left-led co-op revival might provide a way out of our present-day urban housing crisis.

In many corners of the Left, “developer” is a dirty word. It calls to mind rapacious bullies like Donald Trump, with their armory of bulldozers and wrecking balls. But what if the developer was us? For much of the modern US left’s history, this was far from unthinkable — it was reality. State-owned development authorities and neighborhood-based […]

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In many corners of the Left, “developer” is a dirty word. It calls to mind rapacious bullies like Donald Trump, with their armory of bulldozers and wrecking balls. But what if the developer was us? For much of the modern US left’s history, this was far from unthinkable — it was reality. State-owned development authorities and neighborhood-based […]

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In many corners of the Left, “developer” is a dirty word. It calls to mind rapacious bullies like Donald Trump, with their armory of bulldozers and wrecking balls. But what if the developer was us? For much of the modern US left’s history, this was far from unthinkable — it was reality. State-owned development authorities and neighborhood-based […]

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In many corners of the Left, “developer” is a dirty word. It calls to mind rapacious bullies like Donald Trump, with their armory of bulldozers and wrecking balls. But what if the developer was us? For much of the modern US left’s history, this was far from unthinkable — it was reality. State-owned development authorities and neighborhood-based […]