Plan for addressing NYU expansion gains key support
In an unexpected turnaround, last night Community Board #2 voted unanimously to approve a resolution strongly endorsing the proposal by GVSHP and seven other community groups urging NYU and the City work together to find locations for one or more secondary campuses for NYU outside of the Village, NoHo, and the East Village, so that these neighborhoods need not absorb all of the University’s future growth. Board Chair Maria Derr had originally insisted that no resolution on the matter would go to the full Board, in spite of strong support at the recent CB 2 Zoning Committee hearing on the issue, but reversed herself at last night’s full board meeting and joined the rest of the Board (minus three abstentions) in supporting the resolution put forth by the Zoning Committee.
This puts Community Board #2 squarely on record in support of this proposal. This followed a week in which the proposal gained considerable momentum. City Councilmember Rosie Mendez joined Borough President Scott Stringer in supporting the proposal, and both urged Board 2 to do the same. The Villager newspaper issued an editorial strongly endorsing the proposal as well as providing extensively front-page coverage of the effort to seek support for the plan. And Community Board #3’s Housing and Zoning Committee voted unanimously to support the proposal, which will come before their full Board on February 28th.
GVSHP believes that such a plan would be beneficial to our neighborhoods, to the City as a whole, and even to NYU, and that it is our only hope for preventing our neighborhoods from becoming a de-facto extension of the NYU campus in the coming years. Now the hard work of convincing the City and NYU to pursue this plan begins! Click here for more information on the proposal.
HOW TO HELP:
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Write to Mayor Bloomberg and City Planning Commission Chair Amanda Burden NOW urging the City to pursue this proposal. Click here for sample letters and contact information.
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Write a letter to the editor of the Villager thanking them for their strong editorial supporting this proposal, and saying why the issue is so critical to the future of our neighborhoods. Send letters to news@thevillager.com, and be sure to include your phone number (for confirmation purposes only).
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