# Protesting public housing construction in NY, 1948 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-public-housing-construction-in-ny-1948/1032216 "2026-08-07T19:08:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Timz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Timz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timz)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-public-housing-construction-in-ny-1948/1032216/1 "2026-08-07T19:08:11Z")
Interesting [collection](http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/browse/protesting-public-housing) of picket signs. The signs don’t look home-made, and you wouldn’t think this many people would come out to carry them. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-public-housing-construction-in-ny-1948/1032216/2 "2026-08-07T19:16:19Z")
> [@Timz](#): > > The signs don’t look home-made, and you wouldn’t think this many people would come out to carry them. It appears that the “Woodside Houses” was a large public-housing apartment project, which means that the residents were likely lower-income people, and probably not of the ethnic/racial/social background which the white protesters in that picture wanted in their neighborhood. As mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on [Woodside](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodside,_Queens) (a Queens neighborhood): > [@](#): > > In 1949, construction was completed on the Woodside Houses, a public housing complex built and operated by the [New York City Housing Authority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Housing_Authority "New York City Housing Authority"). The complex consists of 20 six-story buildings with 1,358 apartments. Also, regarding the printed signs: the caption on that photo indicates that the protesters are members of the “United Civic Protest Committee,” so it was apparently an organized group, rather than just a bunch of unaffiliated people who showed up to protest that day. The nature of the printing on those signs reminds me of the sale banners which were common in the windows of grocery stores in that era, which were, AIUI, typically hand-painted by a skilled signmaker; it might suggest that the group had a connection to such a signmaker. [![](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/b1/64/1d/b1641d9f3b60e32002bee6531aa22639.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/b1/64/1d/b1641d9f3b60e32002bee6531aa22639.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-public-housing-construction-in-ny-1948/1032216/3 "2026-08-08T02:13:43Z")
Twenty, six-story buildings with a total of 1,358 apartments in a residential neighborhood where the tallest building looks to be a two-story house is going to attract opposition. It’s a good thing data centers hadn’t been invented yet. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-public-housing-construction-in-ny-1948/1032216/4 "2026-08-08T05:11:02Z")
I was intrigued that “socialism” was a bugaboo even eighty years ago. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-public-housing-construction-in-ny-1948/1032216/5 "2026-08-08T05:43:37Z")
It was probably an even dirtier word back then.