Overwhelming Public Support for South Village District
Huge show of support at South Village public meeting: More than 200 people turned out to the Community Board #2 public meeting Tuesday night to show support for the proposed South Village Historic District. After a presentation by GVSHP on the proposal, the meeting was opened up to comments and questions from the public. More than two dozen merchants, property owners, community leaders, residents, and elected officials’ representatives spoke, nearly all in support of the proposed historic district. A show of hands indicated that more than 95% of attendees supported the proposed South Village Historic District.
The one exception was NYU. An NYU representative spoke to express NYU’s support for “a” historic district in the South Village. However, when pressed, the representative admitted that NYU did not support the proposed district, and would not specify any buildings or boundaries which NYU did support landmarking. In fact, she admitted, NYU only supported a “study” of the area, even though a study had been conducted by GVSHP for the past four years, and NYU had pledged to support its findings. In fact, several speakers recounted how NYU specifically pledged to support the proposed South Village Historic District boundaries in meeting held with community leaders four years ago and how they have now broken that pledge. Click here to see NYU’s own letters to the Landmarks Preservation Commission undercutting the very South Village proposal they pledged to support, and stating how they support only a “study” of the area but no specific designations; See also stories in The Villager and NYU’s own student newspaper The Washington Square News about NYU withdrawing support for the proposed South Village Historic District.
While the turnout was huge and overwhelmingly in support of the proposed South Village Historic District, the Community Board deferred on voting on the proposal, saying instead that a vote will follow an as-yet-unscheduled second hearing. GVSHP is asking for the next hearing to be scheduled as soon as possible, and we will let the public know as soon as it has been set. For more information on the South Village preservation effort, click here .
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