E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL

May 2008, Volume 5 Number 5

E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
May 2008, Volume 5 Number 5

Celebrating Preservation Efforts:
18th Annual Preservation Party, featuring the 9th Annual Grassroots Preservation Awards in Just Two Weeks!

It’s here! Each year the coming of spring season signifies just one special thing: HDC’s Annual Preservation Party is fast approaching! The party is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate grassroots preservation and is an excellent chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

Tickets will be available at the door and co-sponsorships for this event from individuals, community groups and businesses are still available, beginning at $100. For more information on supporting the event, please email ftolbert@hdc.org or call 212.614.9107 for more information. To place an advertisement in the event program, you must respond by Monday, May 5.

This year’s celebration on Thursday, May 15, will honor organizations, activists, elected officials and members of the press who fight to preserve, protect and improve their neighborhoods. The 2008 honorees represent a diverse range of groups in New York, including:

GRASSROOTS PRESERVATION AWARDS
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn
227 Duffield Street Coalition (here, here & here!)
DUMBO Neighborhood Association
Juniper Park Civic Association
FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES AWARD
Council Member Jessica Lappin
New York City Council, 5th District, Manhattan
FRIEND FROM THE MEDIA AWARD
Brownstoner

We hope you will join the Historic Districts Council in congratulating each of the above awardees and look forward to seeing you there.

Thursday, May 15, 2008, 6:00pm
St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
Garden and Parish Hall
East 10th Street & Second Avenue
$25/person $15/Friends of HDC
E-mail kmorith@hdc.org or call 212.614.9107 for more information.

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Monday Morning Coffee Talks Continue:
Spotlight on Media Campaigns and Press Relations

Join us this Monday, bright and early, for the third installment of HDC’s newly-established Monday Morning Coffee Talks, HDC’s free informational series that puts neighborhood and community activists in conversation with professional practitioners to discuss the tactics, techniques and strategies for preserving our historic buildings and neighborhoods.

This month’s Talk on Launching Media Campaigns will feature Kate Wood, executive director of Landmark West!, as she details the basic steps to mounting a full-scale media campaign, from contacting beat reporters and local publications to formatting press releases. Aware of the many digital opportunities available, Ms. Wood has developed techniques for courting media sources beyond the printed page. She has been particularly savvy at developing new media tactics, generating "buzz" among the general public by sending e-mail bulletins to interested parties and even launching a website documenting the minute by minute destruction of one of the Upper West Side's most beloved historic structures, Two Columbus Circle.

May’s Coffee Talk is being held this Monday, May 5 at 8:30am at the Neighborhood Preservation Center. Call (212) 614-9107 or email lbelfer@hdc.org to register, or for more information about the Neighborhood Partners Program.

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HDC Reconvenes the League of Preservation Voters in Council District 30, Queens

Last February HDC launched the League of Preservation Voters in Brooklyn’s 40th Council District. The initiative was established to educate elected officials and candidates for public office about the importance of preservation and development issues throughout the city. We’ve developed this program to help communities and elected officials partner together to better preserve the historic resources that make each neighborhood unique.

HDC has now expanded the program to the 30th Council District in Queens, which encompasses Ridgewood, Woodhaven, Middle Village, Glendale, and parts of Richmond Hill and Forest Hills. A special election will be held on June 3rd to fill the District’s open Council Seat. We have brought together a coalition of local community groups within the district to talk about the preservation issues that matter to them, including Queens Civic Congress, Glendale Civic Association, Glendale Property Owners Association, Juniper Park Civic Association, Liberty Park Civic Association, Newtown Historical Society, Richmond Hill Historical Society, Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association and the Ridgewood Reservoir Preservation Group.

Together we have come up with a list of questions related to preservation and land-use issues specific to the council district and we will compile a voter guide with candidate responses to many important questions. A candidate forum where the public can address the candidates directly on a range of community-related concerns is also in the works for later this month. Stay tuned for updates on this unexpected election and the race for the open seat. Click here to read a sample voter guide from our 2007 efforts in the 40th Council District, and here to read the sample questions from the District 30 Initiative.

For more information about the League of Preservation Voters, please contact the Historic Districts Council at 212-614-9107. Please note that the League of Preservation Voters is nonpartisan and does not endorse any candidate for political office.

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Updates at the Landmarks Preservation Commission

BREAKING NEWS: LPC Survey Team Cut! $300,000 Needed to Maintain Landmarking Activities

The Mayor has just released the FY 2009 Executive Budget; and to no one’s surprise, it’s pretty lean – which is only fiscally prudent in this uncertain economy. We are very disappointed, however, that once again, the Mayor has decided to not fund the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s capacity to do its charter-mandated job of surveying and identifying potential New York City landmarks. For the past two years, thanks to the generosity of the City Council, led by CM Tony Avella, Jessica Lappin and their colleagues, the LPC has been able to survey over 19,000 properties and designate over 1,600 properties, mostly outside of Manhattan. The decision of the Mayor to not include the $300,000 needed for the survey team is a profound blow to the progress that the LPC has made in addressing the paucity of landmark designation throughout the city.

HDC is working with coalition of preservation groups and colleagues to ask the City Council to restore these needed funds, and we plan to be visiting City Hall during May to state our case forcefully. We will contact all our friends about details shortly; and we hope you will all be able to join us. In the meantime, please take a minute to send the following message to Council Speaker Christine Quinn at http://council.nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home.shtml

Dear Speaker Quinn,

Over the past two years, the City Council has proven itself to be a strong partner to the LPC, twice increasing the agency’s budget. These increases have enabled the LPC to sustain itself during a record period of construction and development activity; over the past two fiscal years the agency will have designated over 1,600 buildings in all five boroughs and issued more than 19,000 permits for work on buildings under its oversight. When the current size of the agency is considered – les than 65 fulltime staff and an annual budget of less than $4 million – this productivity is even more remarkable.

Still, there are currently more than 50 areas, in every borough, where citizens and community groups are asking for new historic districts to be designated. These proposed districts encompass over 18,000 thousand buildings and thousands of New Yorkers. These are regular citizens who want the City’s help to maintain and enhance their communities.

Given both the demand on the agency and its recent success in meeting it, it is imperative that the Landmarks Preservation Commission is able to continue to operate at its current level. Historic districts help protect the character of communities, raising property values and providing popular places to live and visit.

Addressing the demand for additional districts while maintaining appropriate oversight of existing districts is a crucial part of ensuring that New York City will meet the challenges of the years ahead. Because Mayor Bloomberg has chosen not to include this funding for the agency in the Executive Budget, it now falls to the City Council to respond to the public need for this important city function.

Please help ensure New York’s vital historic neighborhoods continue to thrive by restoring the LPC’s funding. Our city needs it.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

April at LPC…
A hearing was held for the proposed St. Vincent’s Hospital expansion in Greenwich Village on April 1, April Fools’ Day as some folks pointed out. In addition to being the largest development proposal ever suggested in a designated New York City Historic District, St. Vincent’s Hospital (along with their development partner, the Rudin Company) is requesting that the LPC grant them permission to demolish nine buildings located within the boundaries of the historic district. (You can read the hospital’s official proposal here.) HDC and a host of other neighborhood organizations, including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, vehemently spoke in opposition to this proposal and the dangerous precedent it is likely to set if approved (read HDC’s official testimony to the LPC here.) Hundreds of people showed up to testify (the vast majority strongly against the plans) – so many, in fact, that not everyone got the chance to speak and the hearing was continue two weeks later. At that time, Commissioners also made some comments and asked questions about the proposal, grilling hospital officials about details of the bankruptcy plan and questioning the height of the hospital building. Chairman Robert Tierney and the others kept mentioning the phrase “rethink.” There will be more to come at a Public Meeting this Tuesday, May 6.

From big development to big recognition (but always involving big money) – the New York Public Library has renamed its research library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street for donor Stephen A. Schwarzman and proposed to inscribe that information five times into the building. HDC and Community Board 5 were the only folks to testify against the proposal. Our opposition focused on the number of inscriptions and their proposed language, design and location (you can read HDC’s full testimony here). Relying on the Library’s promise that they will never again return to ask for more inscriptions, the Commissioners approved the proposal.

Coming up at LPC…
The proposed West Chelsea Historic District is up for a Public Hearing on Tuesday, May 13. Unlike many neighborhoods, West Chelsea technically has few, if any, actual residents, so the area needs your support! Come down and testify – the hearing is scheduled to start at 9:10 – or send a letter of support to comments@lpc.nyc.gov.

Also on May 13, Commissioners will decide on the NoHo Historic District Extension. The neighborhood had a favorable hearing in March, but inappropriate alteration and construction work has continued, particularly on Bond Street. Time is ticking for this space between the NoHo and NoHo East Historic Districts.

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Meanwhile at Admiral’s Row in Brooklyn…

The first Consulting Parties meeting for the Admiral’s Row Section 106 Process, hosted by the National Guard was held on April 16th. Over 30 organizations were at the table and all the elected officials were represented. The meeting was reasonably productive - the federal government is treating this process with the proper seriousness but is getting a lot of pushback from the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. There was a strong sense that no one at the table was at all opposed to a supermarket; they just thought the proposal could be shaped to preserve the existing houses.
The National Guard gave indications that in advancing alternatives, which is part of their mandate, the notion of multi-story parking facilities will be considered, and since 7 out of 9 buildings are proposed to be demolished for the parking lot, that's a step in the right direction. Finally, the federal government stated that from this point forward, they would behave in accordance with their regulations regarding the disposal of historic properties - which means not letting them fall down (i.e. providing minimum maintenance to ensure the resources are not lost to neglect).

The National Guard has created a website with all the pertinent documents posted on it: http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/buslinks/admiral/index.htm

All of this would not have happened without HDC's pressure on the Federal Government to live up to its responsibilities. Since this project restarted 3 years ago, the City was completely willing to bulldoze both the process and the buildings with only a grudging minimum of public review. Instead, there is now an appropriate and proper public process to discuss the preservation issues in the right setting. These buildings are far from saved, but it's looking better than anyone would have expected six months ago. To be continued…

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HDC Continues Campaign to Preserve the Carnegie Libraries

To help spread the word on our efforts to preserve these important cultural institutions, HDC joined Council Member Vincent Gentile for his April 17th celebration of Library Day at City Hall Park. HDC staff handed out pamphlets detailing our initiative; to get a copy for yourself, email hdc@hdc.org.

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Have You Checked Out Our Blog Lately?

Comprehensive though our Web site may be, make sure to also visit the HDC Newstand Blog. The blog gets updated on a daily basis and boasts complete listings of preservation events around town, as well as the most recent news in the preservation community. Got a story or event you’d like HDC to help promote? Send an email to hdc@hdc.org and give us something to blog about!

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Become a Friend of HDC

Friends of HDC provide critical support for HDC’s advocacy, education and outreach initiatives. To join us as a Friend or to learn more please visit our website here. Thank you for your support.