The famous Viele map shows us the formerly swampy nature of Loisaida - with tidal flows coming in and out of the area. In orange, we can also see where the landmass of Manhattan has been expanded using infill - usually earth excavated to lay the foundations for buildings, or to build subway tunnels.

Given what we see here, is it at all surprising that this area sees a lot of flooding?

In order to cope with its fiscal disasters of the 60s and 70s, NYC set our on a path of “planned shrinkage” of municipal services like fire, police, etc, choosing a “benign neglect” of neighborhoods like the South Bronx and Loisaida. Landlords burned their buildings to collect insurance, and squatters moved in.
Through the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, groups could buy buildings from the city for cheap, homesteading on the “frontier” of the city. Part of that maverick ethos was energy independence, as seen here in the wind turbine installed at 519 E 11th St, with the Con Edison East 14th St Steam Generating Plant in the background. This humble turbine laid the path for PURPA, which forced utilities to buy energy generating on behind the meter, leading to the current boom in distributed energy resources

Zoning and siting is key to understanding how and why neighborhoods develop their character, and on this tour we walk right up to the Manhattan Pump Station, which sends 400 million gallons of wastewater from here to the Newtown Creek WRRF every day. Right next door is the massive Con Edison East River Generating Station, the largest steam plant on the island, enabling heating and sanitizing to hundreds of buildings in the lower part of Manhattan.
Given its location, this plant also saw massive disruption during Superstorm Sandy, where flooding in its substation knocking out power to much of lower Manhattan. On the tour, we visit a plaque that shows the water line from Sandy - higher than you might think!