Hundreds Rally to Save Our Neighborhood – Demand City Officials Do More
This past Saturday, hundreds turned out for a rally to save our neighborhood, specifically the area south of Union Square between 3rd and 5th Avenues, which is being overrun with inappropriate, out-of-scale development. We rallied in front of the former St. Denis Hotel at Broadway and 11th Street, which is being demolished to make way for a large glass office building. The development pressure comes from a lack of adequate zoning and landmark protections for the area, increased interest by developers and tech companies in an area they see as an extension of ‘Midtown South’ and ‘Silicon Alley,’ and the failure of Councilmember Carlina Rivera and the City Council to secure adequate neighborhood protections as part of their recent approval of the Tech Hub upzoningon 14th Street.
GVSHP and those gathered called upon the City to do more than the very meager promise to consider seven buildings (out of two hundred) in the area for landmark designation – watch the video here and see pictures here. They also called upon Councilmember Rivera to recognize that the deal she cut with the City not only does not provide adequate protections for the area but increases development pressure, and to work with groups like GVSHP to secure more protections – read the press release here.
GVSHP continues to press the Landmarks Preservation Commission to expand landmark protections in this area and will be meeting with the new LPC Chair shortly to press this point.
