Leaving room for the social in a neoliberal economic current: Three phases of urban planning for Roosevelt Island, NYC

Abstract

This article challenges neoliberal urbanism discourse by asking: How can neoliberal urban redevelopment leave room for the social? It joins the research community that explores the tensions between neoliberal urbanism and socially-oriented development. To this end, it observes Roosevelt Island (RI) as an example of a neighborhood within the neoliberal urban core of NYC that continued to make room for social considerations for much longer than nearby neighborhoods. The research identifies three phases in the island's development: 1) Welfare Island, 2) community development, and 3) Entrepreneurial Island. Although these phases mirror global trends, the study reveals a delay between the spread of neoliberal urbanism to most US cities and its penetration to RI. The research explains this delay using the theoretical literature on islands to argue that RI's defined borders, local identity, transitionality, and clear sovereignty structure made room for the social. These features triggered and facilitated the two socially-oriented development phases, and changes in these features led to the gradual displacement of the social. Through a combination of historical research and ethnography, the study analyzes this process of change that facilitated the community's resiliency in the first two phases and proposes them as an interpretative framework for other locales.