Dear Friend,

This year, GVSHP’s 30th anniversary, has been a momentous one. Thanks to your support we’ve scored some incredible victories, but there’s much more to do in the coming year.

That’s why I am asking you to consider a year-end contribution to GVSHP to help ensure we can continue our success and do even more in 2011.

Here is just some of what GVSHP accomplished this year:

• South Village: Secured landmark designation of the first third of our proposed South Village Historic District, the largest expansion of landmark protections downtown since 1969, making the Greenwich Village Historic District far and away the largest in New York City. Also helped prevent a developer-requested rezoning of Sullivan Street.

• NYU: Led the response to NYU’s massive proposed 20-year expansion plan, holding town halls and rallies and helping to form a coalition of more than thirty community groups. Following this, NYU dropped its proposal for the tallest tower ever in the Village, and elected officials have come out against NYU's request to take over public land for development.

• Far West Village: After strong initial resistance, got the city to rezone an outdated district in the Far West Village which encouraged oversized, out-of-character commercial development. Rezoning was enacted quickly enough to prevent two planned projects from moving ahead.
  
  
• East Village: Got the city to rezone the 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors, for the first time setting height caps and elminating the incentives for dorm and hotel development, prohibiting more of NYU’s 26-story mega-dorms on East 12th Street.
  
  
• Westbeth: Got the city to finally keep its commitment to consider the complex for landmark designation; held first-of-its-kind artists loft tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of complex’s adaptive reuse as artists’ housing.
  
  
• Landmarks Application Webpage: Launched a first-of-its-kind webpage allowing the public to review and track all major applications for changes to landmarked properties in Greenwich Village, NoHo, and the East Village, and provide feedback to community boards and the Landmarks Preservation Commission before decisions on applications are made.
  
  
• GVSHP also got the East Village’s last operating tenement synagogue and the Village’s last remaining fire partrol house ruled eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places, hosted more than five hundred neighbors at our Annual Awards and Meeting to celebrate our neighborhood's great businesses, institutions, and people, and secured the removal of illegal billboards in the East and West Villages.

But there is MUCH MORE to do in the coming year:

• Continue the fight against NYU's massive expansion plan, and push for the university to seek alternative locations for new development such as the Financial District.
• Push for landmark designation of the remainder of the South Village, especially in light of the recent announcement by the Children’s Aid Society to pursue sale of its buildings.
• Push the city and City Council to follow through on commitments to rezone the Hudson Square area, where 40+ story buildings are currently allowed, and to prevent abuses of zoning protections such as the Trump SoHo ‘Condo-Hotel’
• Pursue landmark and historic district designations for the East Village, which is woefully lacking in such protections.
• Continue to demand promised expanded landmark protections in the Far West Village.

• Secure final landmark designation for Westbeth.

• Monitor plans for the St. Vincent’s Hospital site, to ensure it is not simply sold off to the highest bidder for development.
• Get the city to agree to rezone the Bowery, to preserve the thoroughfare’s character and prevent out-of-scale development
• Push for measures to help promote and preserve small businesses and small theaters in our neighborhoods, which have been increasingly threatened
• Meet the growing public demand for the resources GVSHP provides by making more historic data, images, and interviews available through our website, increasing the number of public programs we provide, and increasing the number of student served by our Children’s Education program

It will take a lot of work to respond to these challenges, and to build on our successes of the last year.

That’s why I would like to ask you to consider making a year-end contribution to GVSHP, to help ensure we can undertake and succeed in these and other important initiatives. Just go to vparchive.gvshp.org/membership to make a contribution.

Best wishes for the holiday season and for a joyous New Year.

Sincerely,

Andrew Berman
Executive Director