ALFRED E. SMITH (F)
Smith was both the governor of New York in the early 1920s
and a presidential candidate in the 1924 Election. Because he grew up
in the slums of Brooklyn, Smith was sympathetic to tenement-dwellers.
He appointed a housing committee during his term. His plan was to replace
inadequate tenements through slum clearance and direct renewal with the lowest-cost
housing that was then thought to be possible. (11)
Smith was deeply concerned about the lives of workers, and how
they lived was no exception. He sponsored laws on rent control, tenant
protection and low-cost housing. In 1919, during his first term as governor
of New York, Smith designated the Reconstruction Commission in the New
York state legislature. One of the Committee’s first tasks was synthesizing
an architectural competition to bring about the repair of a tenement block
on the Lower East Side. Interestingly, this was the first such contest
to be government-body-supported in New York City.