Urging NYU to Go Back To Square One on Expansion Plans
 Last Friday several elected officials, Villager John Leguizamo, and Community Board #2 joined with GVSHP and our co-plaintiffs in the successful lawsuit against NYU’s expansion plan to urge the university to accept the judge’s ruling invalidating the alienation of public parkland for NYU and go back to square one with their expansion plans. GVSHP has always been willing to work with the university to help meet its legitimate goals, but their prior plan — now ruled in part illegal by a judge — was based upon a flawed process and premise. We are more than willing to work with the university, its faculty, neighbors and elected officials to come up with a plan that accommodates the school’s needs, but which respects the limitations of the Village’s environment and considers real alternatives in terms of scale and location for their new construction.
Thus far NYU has indicated that they will seek to appeal the judge’s ruling, although the City has not yet indicated its position. We are grateful that Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senators Daniel Squadron and Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Deborah Glick (a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit), City Councilmember Corey Johnson, and Congressman Jerrold Nadler all joined with us to urge the university to respect the judge’s ruling and re-start the process.
Read the press release here, the joint letter from elected officials here, coverage in The Villager, DNAinfo, and the Huffington Post, and see pictures from the press conference here. Also read the editorial urging NYU to go back to the drawing board in the Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper.
Click here for more info on our work responding to NYU’s expansion plans.
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