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OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
June 2007, Volume 4 Number 6
HDC Elects New President: Queens Urban Planner
Takes the Helm
At its Annual Meeting on May 24th, the Board of Directors of the
Historic Districts Council elected Paul Graziano to be the new President
of HDC. Paul,
an independent urban planner and Queens native, is HDC’s sixth
president and is replacing Staten Island attorney and activist David
Goldfarb who served as President from 2003-2007 and is remaining
on the Board. HDC is incredibly grateful to David for his
years of leadership and service, which has resulted in enormous
growth for the organization and our programs.
Paul began working with HDC in 1997 during his campaign
to try to save the historic Waldheim neighborhood in Flushing and
won a Grassroots Preservation Award in 2001 for all his efforts
to preserve the historic, low-scale character of his native borough.
He joined HDC’s Board of Advisers in 2002, and the Board of
Directors in 2004. Paul has worked on several surveys of historic
properties and rezoning initiatives throughout Queens; resulting
in wide-spread down-zonings utilizing the new R2A code which he
helped draft to prevent the sprawl of McMansions in low-density
suburban areas. He is also the co-author of the successful Broadway-Flushing
National Register Historic District nomination, which resulted in
over 1,300 properties from this suburban northeast Queens neighborhood
being placed on the National Register in 2006. To Paul, “preservation
means more than just landmarking,” and he has pledged “to
broaden our approach to come up with different strategies on how
to protect and preserve neighborhoods in all five boroughs of New
York City.” It’s going to be an exciting time, and we
hope everyone will join in our ongoing preservation campaigns.
HDC Summer Lecture Series
Make sure to join us for this informative series created to keep
up up-to-date on some of HDC’s current projects and recent
goings-on at LPC.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Learning about a Legacy: New York City’s Carnegie
Libraries
Join HDC board member Jeffrey Kroessler and HDC Preservation Associate
Nadezhda Williams as they detail HDC’s newest advocacy endeavor:
to promote the landmark designation of the Carnegie Libraries. Dr.
Kroessler will focus on the development of the Carnegie Library
system, while Ms. Williams will discuss the architectural merits
of the individual structures throughout the five boroughs.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Our Latest Landmarks: Recent New York City Historic Districts
HDC’s Executive Director Simeon Bankoff will present an overview
of recently designated and calendared historic districts throughout
New York City. His lecture will be augmented by a question and answer
session featuring some of the city’s most hard-working preservation
activists, including Fred Baer of the Fiske
Terrace Association, Denise Brown of the Crown
Heights North Association, Laura Heim of the Sunnyside
Gardens Preservation Alliance and Andrew Berman of the Greenwich
Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Lectures are free of charge, but reservations are required. Reception
to follow.
All events take place at 6:00pm at the Neighborhood Preservation
Center, 232 East 11th Street, Manhattan. RSVP at 212-614-9107 or
lbelfer@hdc.org
Honoring Grassroots Preservation
Thanks to everyone who attended this year’s Preservation Party
featuring the 8th Annual Grassroots Awards. We had a great turnout
and wonderful weather to celebrate our seven honorees. Click
here to see some of the highlights!
Dozens of Groups Turn Out to Support Funding
for Landmarks
On Wednesday, May 9, dozens
of organizations showed up at City Hall for the First Annual Preservation
Lobby Day to petition for increased funding for the Landmarks Preservation
Commission. Joined by Council Members Tony Avella, Jessica
Lappin, Daniel Garodnick, Gale Brewer, Rosie Mendes and John Liu,
advocates united in their call for “a bigger piece of the
pie.” Although the LPC is the largest municipal preservation
agency in America, it is grievously under-resourced with less than
60 staff to regulate and oversee development on over 23,000 properties
– to say nothing of their responsibility to continue to identify
and designate significant historic buildings and neighborhoods which
are still unprotected. Last year, thanks to a Council allocation
sponsored by CM Avella, Lappin and Diana Reyna, the agency received
an additional $250,000 which resulted in greater increased designation
activity (e.g. Sunnyside
Gardens, Manhattan
Avenue, Crown
Heights North). Unfortunately, this allocation was only
for one year, so the advocates banded together to request a renewal
of these funds and an increase to a total of $1 million –
which would return the LPC to their budget of 1991, when the agency
had a staff of 86. Thanks
to everyone who attended the rally and supported this cause –
our voices were definitely heard. At this point, it is up
to our elected representatives in the Council who are negotiating
the final budget with the Mayor to make certain that our historic
neighborhoods get a fair shake in the City’s plans for the
future (and from what we hear, there’s reason for optimism).
Regardless of the final budget outcome however, our efforts have
proved that preservationists don’t have to sit waiting on
the sidelines but can and should
become politically active to further our cause. See you at the next
rally!
HDC Web site updates
Be sure to visit www.hdc.org
regularly for updates on HDC's current projects and new developments
in the preservation world. Just a few of our recent Web site improvements
include the inclusion of the proposed South
Village Historic District on our Neighborhoods
at Risk page and the ability for site visitors to enlarge
the photos of our lovely Board
Members in our About
HDC section. Many more improvements to come!
And, as always, be sure to check out our
blog for the latest breaking news in the preservation community.
Become a Friend of HDC
To become a Friend of HDC and receive benefits such as free events,
access to technical and advocacy support and advance notice of preservation
issues, please visit our website here.
You can also find out the latest
preservation news or join our mailing
list to receive an informational packet in the mail. HDC’s
Friends and supporters make all our programs possible!
To unsubscribe from the email list please email hdc@hdc.org
and write "Unsubscribe" in the subject heading. We’ll
miss you!
The Advocate for New York City’s Historic Neighborhoods
232 East 11th Street New York NY 10003
tel: 212-614-9107 fax: 212-614-9127 email: hdc@hdc.org
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