Highlighting this weekend’s annual New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March, Hoylman noted, “The Pride March has always been a special event for me. This year it’ll be even more meaningful as I seek election to the Senate seat occupied by State Senator Tom Duane, one of our community’s greatest leaders and champions . . . I’m especially pleased to announce that this morning, to kick off Pride weekend, Tom endorsed me to succeed him.”

In an official statement, Senator Duane said, “He shares my progressive values and commitment to reform, and he has devoted the last two decades to serving our community. I know he will continue to champion so many of the causes that I have fought for throughout my career.”

Hoylman has also received Assembly Member Deborah Glick’s endorsement, and will be walking with both pols in the Pride March on Sunday. Spot them lining up at 12:30 pm on East 39th Street between Madison and Park Avenues.

For more political coverage visit City & State by clicking here.

Brad Hoylman

Brad Hoylman, who is planning to run for the seat held by retiring state Sen. Tom Duane, said he was “humbled” by Duane’s encouragement of his candidacy.

In an interview on Capital Tonight with Liz Benjamin, Duane said he hopes Brad Hoylman runs for the seat and that he would make “a terrific state senator.”

“One of my closest friends is Brad Hoylman, and I’ve made no secret at all of my fondness for him,” Duane said. “I haven’t officially made an endorsement. I don’t know who else would be in the field. But I would be very proud to have Brad Hoylman represent me in the district I have been representing.”

Hoylman said he welcomed the incumbent’s remarks, which fell just short of an endorsement.

“I’m extremely humbled by Tom Duane’s comments about me and nothing would make me prouder than to continue his sterling legacy of being a champion for our community and those who normally don’t have a voice in the halls of government,” said Hoylman, who until recently was the senior vice president and general counsel for the Partnership for New York. “His 14-year legislative record is really without parallel and will be a hard act to follow, but I hope I can continue Tom’s progressive, activist work. I’d be honored to have his support for my State Senate bid in the 27th District.”

This article originally appeared on the City & State website. To read more from City & State click here.

The Parks Department representative, in his presentation on the planned modifications, expressed the Department’s desire to keep community members apprised of these recent development, which have been deemed necessary to preserve the health and structural integrity of the tree. The spokesperson assured community members that a full survey of the tree had been conducted, and this course of action guarantees the best possible outcome for the tree, particularly in preventing further damage and susceptibility to Dutch elm disease.

The discussion grew briefly heated as various community members, including a woman who regularly feeds squirrels residing in the tree, urged department members to look for an alternative method, claiming “the tree looks as green as ever.” Proposals involving tree limb support methods were also advanced. The department will go ahead with the pruning, employing climbers to reach affected tree limbs. Community members also pushed for greater communication and transparency on the issue between the Parks Department and the general, tree-enjoying public.

—Alissa Fleck

Hoylman, who narrowly lost a Lower Manhattan Council race in 2001, is the well-known chairman of Community Board 2. Others expected to run for the seat include Corey Johnson, the chairman of Community Board 4, and Yetta Kurland, a civil rights lawyer and radio host. All the candidates are LGBT identified.

Hoylman’s Council campaign committee popped up the very day that Quinn stormed out of a rally heralding the passage of the living wage bill, after an attendee criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg –  a close Quinn ally who opposes the bill.

And in his Council race, Hoylman faces a similar balancing act as Quinn, as he runs in a liberal West Side district. The personal politics he espouses are liberal. Yet he has long served as the executive vice-president and general counsel of the Partnership for New York City, a pro-business group with close ties to Quinn and Bloomberg.

The situation has grown even more complex for Hoylman after Quinn decided to drop a contentious provision from the living wage bill three weeks ago. That led the the pro-business group, which had initially supported a compromise version of the bill, to drop its support.

To read the full piece at City and State click here.

On April 11, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer gave NYU a show of measured support by detailing his recommendations for modifications to the university’s proposed Greenwich Village expansion, a 20-year plan currently slated for completion in 2031.

“N.Y.U. must coexist with Greenwich Village and not overwhelm the neighborhood,” Stringer said in an interview disclosing the deal. “This strikes an important balance.”

According to the New York Times, who originally reported Stringer’s plans on Apr. 10, NYU has agreed to President Stringer’s provisions, which include a scale back of the Mercer Building expansion (the location currently housing NYU’s athletic center) to 162 vertical feet, a number that is equal to other Washington Square Village buildings. Additionally, NYU will erect four new buildings in the area.

“The density of this project has come down almost 20 percent,” Stringer said. “We’ve saved playgrounds, we’ve preserved public strips as parkland, we’ve eliminated the temporary gym.”

Stringer’s recommendations come at the heels of a unanimous Feb. 23 rejection of the expansion by Community Board 2. Approval for the expansion must now pass on to the City Planning Commission and the full city council. Though a final verdict will not be rendered until Summer 2012, the New York Times has reported that Stringer will urge for “conditional approval” at a press conference.

With 370,000 square feet cut from the project, NYU feels it has made fair concessions to accommodate and quell residential concerns regarding the project. Indeed, as NYU Spokesperson John Beckerman noted, NYU’s plans for expansion “have gone through multiple changes over the years.” Stringer also preserved a beloved playground, with NYU agreeing not to destroy it until another has been built to replace it.

“From the beginning, our focus has been to achieve an outcome that will meet the University’s academic space needs in a way that will keep NYU strong — and we’re comfortable we’re still well on that path — while addressing the concerns of our neighbors.” said Beckman in a statement.

However, the New York Times is reporting that Stringer’s endorsement is “considered important because he is planning to run for mayor and has close ties to the liberal activist groups in and nearGreenwich Village.” In addition, they say, Stringer’s stance with NYU’s expansion is consistent with his existing track record (including expansions atColumbiaUniversity and Fordham University).

From an economic standpoint, Stringer estimates that the NYU construction will “create at least 9,500 jobs in the area.” And as for construction, the WNYC reports that NYU has promised to “limit construction to between8 a.m.and4:30 p.m.and that weekend construction would be “limited,” but did not elaborate further.”

UPDATE: By Wednesday Afternoon (4/11/12), The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and members of the NYU Faculty had made public their retention of international lawfirm Gibson Dunn to aid in their pursuit against the city’s land-use process.

Mark Crispin Miller, a member of NYUFASP, said “Although we have raised many good-faith and analytically based concerns about the Sexton Plan, it is clear that NYU will not engage us on the merits. It is also quite clear that – as a negotiating tactic in the land-use process – they have certified a plan that involves much more extensive, and far more concentrated, development than is necessary or rational. It is a shame that some elected officials have voiced support for the plan, or some modified version of it, without seriously considering the community’s concerns. We need to make sure our voices are heard and fairly represented, which is why we have now turned to Gibson Dunn. We did not authorize any elected official to ‘compromise’ on our behalf, which convinced us we need a powerful voice speaking for us.”

According to a statement, Gibson Dunn partners Randy Mastro and Jim Walden will be leading the matter, as they represented elected officials, historic-preservation organizations, and community groups in several other high-profile, land-use matters. They will be working with Alison Greenberg, a noted litigator and former member of  Community Board 2 Manhattan.

UPDATE (4/19/12): Opponents of the NYU 2031 Expansion Plan re-doubled their efforts against the University when, on Apr. 19, they called for renewed awareness concerning NYU’s plans. Members of organizations, as well as residents of Greenwich Village are planning a march and rally for Apr. 20, where they aim to gain further support in their efforts against the NYU expansion. Over 15 organizations and leaders have pledged their support, including Community Board 2, SoHo Alliance, Assembly Member Deborah J. Glick, NYS Senator Tom Duane and NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan.

A public hearing, to be held by the City Planning Commission (CPC) is scheduled for Apr. 25 at the National Museum of the American Indian

The City Council’s Land Use Committee voted 10 to one in favor of a proposal whose major provisions include shrinking Rudin’s residential development from 450 condo units to 350; the purchase of a state-owned building at 75 Morton St. to be used for a new middle school; and the permanent transfer of Triangle Park to the city, which will include an AIDS memorial and undergo a public review process.

Moreover, the Council reported that $1 million would be directed to arts programs at P.S. 41, P.S. 3 and the proposed school at the Foundling Hospital site, along with $1 million for a legal services fund to help retain affordable housing in the Village. The Council also said that the Reiss Building on 12th Street would be preserved.

Brad Hoylman, chairperson of Community Board 2, praised Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose district includes the Village, for her efforts on behalf of the community. “The St. Vincent’s redevelopment package addresses significant needs in our area. This includes support for public schools, a legal fund for rent-stabilized tenants, open space that will become permanent public parkland with an AIDS memorial and sensible changes to the new development, including preserving the Reiss building in addition to the five buildings that were already saved as part of the project, which is in the Greenwich
Village Historic District,” Hoylman said in an emailed statement.

However, he reiterated his frustration regarding the fight for a hospital in the Village. “Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t include a much-needed full-service hospital,” he added. “That battle must continue.” Plans for a new health care center to be operated by North Shore LIJ out of the modern building on West 12th Street, referred to by some residents as a “freestanding emergency room,” were unaffected by Wednesday’s announced deal.

Some politicians, including Assembly Member Deborah Glick, had mixed support for the revised Rudin West Village Development Plan. “The battle to get a school at 75 Morton Street was a four-year effort and we’re happy about that,” Glick said. She added that she was not pleased about the upzoning privileges afforded Rudin.

“That zoning should have been reserved for the ‘public benefit,’ as St. Vincent’s was,” Glick explained. “A private developer shouldn’t have been able to take that zoning and use it for a private, commercial use.”

In an emailed statement, Andrew Berman, executive director of The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, concurred with Glick regarding the upzoning issue. “The GVSHP objects to upzoning the St. Vincent’s site to give a luxury condo development special zoning considerations originally intended for a hospital,” he wrote. He continued, “While many of the changes may improve the [development] plan, they don’t necessarily address this fundamental problem.”

The special zoning privileges Berman referred to date back to 1979, when the St. Vincent’s site was rezoned to allow a large bulk of development for hospital buildings and a much smaller one for residential buildings. Berman added that Rudin is now asking for the site to be upzoned to be allowed much greater bulk than the allowable residential.

The revised plan must still be reviewed by the City Planning Commission and will be voted on by the full Council March 28.

By Mark Peikert

As IKEA and CB2 stores proliferate, design has turned into something both affordable and achievable. Gone are the days of hiring an expensive interior decorator and crossing your fingers; now, you can outfit your entire home in style without breaking the bank.

Of course, a plentitude of choices has its own drawback: making decisions. That’s where Pret-a-Habiter comes in. The onestop shop for all your decorating needs, the company has been handling busy, overwhelmed style-seekers since 2005, first in New York City then gradually expanding across the country to Boston, L.A., Chicago, West Palm Beach, St. Louis and Portland, Ore.

Charging just a flat fee ($2,500–$3,000 per room), Pret takes clients from boring to chic in four easy steps. First, the client chooses a style—classic, modern, country, etc.— then the designer creates a design plan, chooses the furnishings and décor and then whips it all into one beautiful design.

“It’s the greatest time to be a consumer because the range of products, styles and prices—whether it’s IKEA or Target or West Elm or Design Within Reach, it’s all there,” said Pret founder and Executive Director Carl Bradford Stibolt. “You can basically have a fantastic home and it’s not going to cost you a lot of money.”

Focusing on simplicity in decorating rather than markups and hidden fees has allowed Pret-a-Habiter to weather the recession better than most design firms. “The first thing to get cut is luxury, and people still think of interior design as luxury,” Stibolt said. “But you’ve got money invested in your home, and maybe you don’t have the time or the know-how or the eye to put it together. That’s what we do. We know tricks, we know great sources, and you really can have a place that looks good.”

As homeowners and renters slowly become more design savvy, Pret-a-Habiter has reflected the growing trend toward affordable décor that’s not reliant on hourly billing. “Traditionally, you always hired someone based on their style,” Stibolt said. “But we’ll go in and do eclectic or modern. We’ve had bankers who wanted more classic, masculine things, people who want more color in their lives. We see everything; people who are downsizing, people who are here for a few years and want to have a nice place. It’s really been all over the place. Our demographic is people who want to have a designed home but aren’t ready to make that leap to working with a high-end designer, either for budgetary reasons or they don’t think it’s worth it.”

Pret-a-Habiter is also willing to go the extra mile with their services, from accessorizing the finished product to offering a slew of digital services that cut down on the time crunch. “I think where we’re going is very much a digitalized thing,” Stibolt said. “We do an online project management system, and people do go online at midnight, and do it at their own pace. We even have a blog where people can go on and ask a design question, AskPret.com.”

When a company is willing to do all of the legwork for you—from ordering furniture to making sure it’s delivered—there’s not a single reason to avoid making your house into the kind of place that looks as if an adult resides there.

For more information about Pret-a- Habiter, visit www.pretusa.com.

A Pret-a-Habiter designed room. PHOTO BY Barbara Saskia Klap for Pret-a-Habiter