Roman Mars

Building 35 skyscrapers on top of a swamp had not been easy or cheap.

A bigger mortgage for Co-op City meant that each resident would have to pay higher carrying charges, those monthly fees that went towards the mortgage and utilities.

At least that's what the state wanted.

The residents disagreed.

They'd been promised a certain monthly cost by the United Housing Foundation before construction even began.

But the cost of construction was not the only thing that had changed during the years while Co-op City was being built.

As the 1960s became the 1970s, New York City was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

New York State was not much better off.

Essential services were being cut.

Government workers laid off.

State officials could hardly justify giving more money to a middle-class housing development.

In response, the residents of Co-op City decided to strike.

In 1975, after years of cost increases and no progress negotiating with the state, residents began withholding their monthly carrying charges.

Of course, New York needed those checks, rather desperately.

The strike lasted 13 months.

In the end, the state agreed to help with some large repairs that were needed on the buildings.

But the residents didn't get any significant relief on their mortgage.

They did, however, get control of Co-op City.

The United Housing Foundation was out.

Mitchell-Lama was not the only thing to lose funding in the 1970s.