It was with amazement last week that I read a letter by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, the New York Building Congress and other organizations to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), calling for the LPC to delay its long-awaited first vote on the proposed extensions to the Riverside-West End Historic District.

Despite a transparent, public process that spanned months, REBNY and its cohorts argued that the LPC’s process lacked sufficient notice and information for property owners. This bold statement came even though REBNY’s testimony at the first public hearing mentions LPC’s community meeting with property owners six months before its first hearing—a step taken to ensure that owners were made fully aware of the proposal and the nature of landmark designation as early in the process as possible.

Despite the public meeting, the hearings, the countless community meetings by preservation advocates and community organizations, numerous articles on the proposed district and even articles in REBNY’s own newsletter, owners allegedly still do not know what landmarking means or are unaware that they are included in the proposed district?

While these assertions are incredible, REBNY’s position at this juncture is anything but surprising. This is simply a last-ditch attempt to derail a critical designation that has been years in the making.

I certainly did not take the enormous amount of public testimony on both sides of the issue that I heard during each of the three hearings held by LPC last year on the proposed extensions as an indication that the owners did not have enough information or that insufficient notice about the hearings was given to allow everyone to weigh in with their opinions.

Notice about the proposed historic district and all of the meetings and hearings on the proposal has been given to every block in the proposed district more than enough times by LPC, local residents, news media, community groups and offices like mine. Demanding that the draft designation report, draft guidelines or other information be released before a vote is unnecessary; I find it extremely doubtful that any property owner concerned by his or her building’s inclusion in the proposed district has missed the deluge of information or could not find the maps of the proposed districts or regulations governing historic districts on LPC’s website.

Owners have had ample time to process the detailed information provided by LPC and more than ample opportunity to give their views. Numerous buildings opposed to being landmarked have asked to be carved out of the district, and owners throughout the district have testified both for and against the proposal.

The landmark designation process is the furthest thing from broken, and I hope to see the LPC approve the first historic district extension on June 26.

Linda Rosenthal is a state Assembly member who represents the Upper West Side.

Nancy Ploeger, a St. Louis native, has headed the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

By Dan Rosenblum

Nancy Ploeger is working on one of her biggest challenges yet. Over the past few years, the building of the Second Avenue Subway, one of the largest construction projects in the country, has put retail businesses behind barricades and meant ever-changing work along the corridor.
As the director of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Ploeger is helping those 400 affected businesses build a community and find a voice.
“It’s very hard for an individual business to do their marketing and media,” she said.
For Ploeger, 62, helping businesses stick out began early in her teens. She dropped ping-pong balls out of a helicopter and handed out cherry pies dressed at Martha Washington to help her father, who worked for Sears.
As an Upper East Sider, Ploeger walks through the construction every day and sees the walkways that obscure stores and make it hard for elderly people or stroller-wielding parents to navigate. Besides its social media efforts, the Chamber has organized a restaurant week, art projects and other ways for affected stores and restaurants to attract shoppers and diners.
Dealing with the subway is only part of the Chamber’s work. In fact, in the country’s largest business center, the Chamber is one of only a few helping small businesses grow and working with governmental and international partners. At the Chamber, Ploeger also reaches out to other women, the LGBT community and young entrepreneurs.
“We run around trying to keep the plate spinning with all of these initiatives,” she said.
The Chamber also sponsors a community benefit fund that raises money for organizations on the Upper East Side.
Ploeger came to New York after graduating from Monmouth University without a clear-cut plan. She worked at Federated Department Stores (now Macy’s) and for more than a decade at TSI, which owns New York Sports Clubs. In 1994, she became executive director of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, growing its membership from 250 to more than 2,000.
That St. Louis upbringing helped her understand the faces behind small businesses. Ploeger said her favorite part of the job is getting emails from local business owners thanking her for the chance to network or for business discounts.
“I’m from St. Louis,” she said. “We’re all about people.”
For someone so connected to the growth of the nation’s largest business center, Ploeger said she finds joy in going upstate on weekends to feed deer, walk in the woods and ride horses.
“I really am a country girl,” she said.
A fan of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s efforts at economic development, she doesn’t know what to expect from a new mayor in 2014.
“I just hope that our economy is on the roll again,” she said.
Ploeger said the High Line, Hudson Yards and the East River Ferry Service are only a few of the exciting projects in which the Chamber is trying to help local small business owners. “Every day is exciting, different and new,” she said. n