Thread by @gauravsabnis

A weekly ritual is going to my local @nypl branch (either Tompkins or Epiphany) and pick up a book from the NYC History aisles. Just based on the cover and the jacket.

I picked this cos it looked so much like where I live!

And whoa! Really WHOA!

A personal plus history 🧵

The reason the pic on the cover of Parkchester looks so much like my home #StuyTown is because Parkchester was the OG Stuy Town.

And not only is it a fascinating history tied into a lot of modern Americana, but also tied to the ongoing though fast deflating real estate bubble.

Take a trip with me to late 1930s USA.

MetLife as we know it now, or Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, was the biggest financial institution in the country.

This was before social security or disability or unemployment insurance or any safety net.

MetLife filled the gap.

MetLife insurance was often the only safety net people had in a world where breadwinners could die any moment, especially in a war zone. So it was huge and it was popular and it was run in a generally thoughtful efficient way by Frederick Ecker. He had an idea.

The money that MetLife got from its policyholders had to be invested such that whenever someone needs to make a claim, there is enough money to pay them.

Ecker's vision, which amazingly is what drove the post-covid real estate boom was simple.

Renting to young families=$$$!

Ecker thought I can use the money to build a housing complex that I will only rent out to middle class or upper middle class people who want something between cramped city living and empty boring suburbs. It'll give at least a 6% ROI if managed well. And that's all we need.

That logic of his from a century ago is literally exactly why we had this huge real estate bubble after the pandemic. He came up with the idea after the 1918 pandemic. Banks using it today to buy up properties in big numbers.

The textbook perfect white collar nuclear family!

So Ecker built what was arguably the first ever white collar targeting residential complex in the world, with a lot of innovations that we consider standard now in apartment complexes.

Parkchester pioneered so many service innovations and also melting pot living.

A melting pot that did not include people of color though.

MetLife's or rather Ecker's vision for Parkchester (and later Stuyvesant Town) did not include black people. Not because he personally hated black people, but for actuarial reasons. A problem we still struggle with.

His logic was, it's not me or MetLife, but the society that doesn't let black and white folks mix. So if I let in black people, real estate values will go down, and I won't be performing my fiduciary duties. Cos it actively reduces ROI of my company.

That obviously wore thin.

MetLife has never officially admitted that its much vaunted and historic residential projects in NYC adhered very much to deep south Jim Crow. Everyone was allowed as long as they were white. Black folks weren't allowed to rent until the late 60s in MetLife properties!

Other than the POC restriction, Parkchester was, for its times, a remarkably modern development. Still had many issues. But the basic logic was that everyone is welcome as long as they are white or at least quasi white, like Jewish or rich Puerto Rican.