Tears were literally shed by community members at a recent hearing about the future of the NoHo Historic District’s 19th century Merchant’s House, as they spoke fondly of the home’s significance.

Several groups including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), the Historic Districts Council and members and volunteers with the Merchant’s House Museum gathered before a Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) hearing Tuesday, Sept. 11, in support of the Merchant’s House.

Developers are approaching the LPC asking to build a nine-story hotel right next to the historic home and museum. The construction involves tearing down a 1945 one-story garage between Lafayette and Bowery. The GVSHP, Parks Department and other groups worry construction will undermine the home’s foundation and have other negative impacts on its structure. Advocates for the home also believe the hotel would be aesthetically out of character with its low-rise surroundings.

According to Judy Nash and Tony Onorato, members of the Merchant’s House museum who have lived in Brooklyn their entire lives, the 1832 home is the oldest untouched house in New York City, with everything left “exactly as it was.” The house maintains all its original 19th century furnishings, explained the couple.

“We’re here because it’s so important for this house to survive,” said Nash. Much too much of the city is gone because of reckless decisions.”

“If even the smallest detail is compromised, it’s a loss to all of us,” added Onorato.

Rosalind Gnatt, a professional soprano singer, has donated 10 years of service to the museum as a part of the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society. The group regularly performs 19th century parlor music concerts in the home.

“The city deemed [the home] important enough to pour tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money into its preservation,” said Gnatt. “It’s not just a historic landmark, it’s a unique historic landmark.”

Diane Jackier, chief of staff of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, testified at the hearing that the home was landmarked in 1965 by the Landmark Commission, and was among the first designations.

Project designers, developers and structural engineers laid out their plan to monitor the Merchant’s House throughout construction to avoid any damage to the museum, but many expressed concern these measures were not adequate.

Community members in support of the Merchant’s House pointed out the house had already closed for over two years in the past due to structural damage resulting from nearby construction. They demanded certain protective measures be put in place prior to building, including a height limit on the hotel ranging from two to four stories and an agreement by developers to pay for any damage in addition to various proactive measures.

Sen. Tom Duane and Councilwoman Rosie Mendez also submitted testimony in support of the home, calling for certain preventive steps like vibration monitoring devices and geotechnical and catastrophe planning.

Pi Gardiner, executive director of the Merchant’s House museum, called the house a “miracle of survival” and asked the commission to deny the application outright. Gardiner said after thousands of hours spent in the home, she knew firsthand of its fragility.

In agreement with Gardiner’s assessment, the chair of the Board of Directors at the house, Nick Nicholson, reiterated a point he had made in the past: “It’s not a question of if [the house] will suffer damage, it’s how much.”

Doris Diether, well-known community activist and co-chair of Landmarks Committee with Community Board 2, teared up as she took to the podium to provide testimony.
“The Merchant’s House is a federal, state and city landmark inside and out,” said Diether. “How much more damage can this precious landmark endure?”

The LPC has left the record open, meaning community members are still able to submit testimony. The commission will convene again to discuss the construction plan at a future public meeting.

Council member Rosie Mendez hears business owners’ concerns over ‘arbitrary’ law

By Paul Bisceglio

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sales of large sugary beverages has kept city politicians and soft-drink industry officials buzzing all summer. Last week, however, City Council Member Rosie Mendez took a walk downtown to talk to people whose opinions on the issue have been heard much less: business owners.

On a tour that spokesperson Eliot Hoff claimed was totally unscripted, New Yorkers for Beverage Choices—a coalition formed by the American Beverage Association (ABA) to combat Bloomberg’s ban—brought Mendez to the Dunkin’ Donuts at Union Square and Beyond Sushi on 14th Street. The goal of the tour was to break through the political jargon and various statistics surrounding the controversial proposal to hear firsthand what effects, if any, the removal of non-diet sugary drinks over the size of 16 ounces would have on the city’s businesses.

“If you’ve got a rule, you need one that makes sense,” said the Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee, who would not give his name to the press. As he walked Mendez through the store, he argued that the nuances of the proposed ban unfairly targeted some businesses while exempting others.

Take Starbucks, for instance. Bloomberg’s proposal defines sugary drinks as those which contain more than 25 calories per 8 fluid ounces and less than 51 percent milk or milk substitute by volume. Starbucks sells Frappuccinos made with more than 51 percent milk and lets customers sweeten coffee themselves, so it would still be allowed to sell large sizes of these products, according to the franchisee. Dunkin’ Donuts, meanwhile, sells Coffee Coolattas with less than 51 percent milk and sweetens coffees for customers, so it would not be able to sell these items over the 16 ounce limit.

“The point is the arbitrariness of what’s being applied,” the franchisee argued. “People can always get away with getting more sugar. Why should only particular businesses suffer?”

Guy Vaknin, Beyond Sushi’s executive chef, told Mendez that he found the arbitrary size limit particularly troubling. “Why 16 ounces?” he wondered. “The limit should just be based just on sugar content, not on size.”

Hoff pointed out that the ban would prevent the vegan sushi restaurant—and all restaurants in NYC—from selling popular flavors of Honest Tea, a brand of organic tea bottled just over the proposed 16 ounce limit. Honest Tea, which markets itself as promoting “great-tasting, truly healthy” beverages, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last month challenging the mayor to consider how his ban would impede entrepreneurs from offering low-calorie drinks.

“I definitely promote people having their own choice,” Vaknin said.

Hoff added that in the battle against the city’s obesity epidemic, New Yorkers need more choices, not fewer. “We need more public advocacy campaigns and more green markets to educate consumers and allow them to make informed decisions,” he argued.

New Yorkers for Beverage Choices has 1,570 members to date, he noted, from Coca-Cola bottling companies to around-the-corner pizza places. While ABA has a clear vested interest in rallying against the ban, Hoff asserted that members of the coalition are not solicited for funds and that membership is completely voluntary. The coalition gives businesses “an outlet to have their voices heard,” he claimed, by providing them with signage, ways to interact with local elected officials (such as the tour) and updates on the ban.

Hoff could not disclose the amount of money ABA is putting into the coalition, but acknowledged that “this is a significant effort.”

After the tour, Mendez told Our Town Downtown that she had a “visceral reaction” against the proposal from the start. “The problem is this arbitrariness, how the ban affects one business and not the next,” she said.

The real solution to the city’s growing waistline? “We need to focus our energies on better exercise and education programs,” Mendez argued. “There’s not one right or wrong amount of soda to drink—you adjust it based on your lifestyle.”

Landmarking in downtown neighborhoods has surprising opposition from local churches

The city’s preservationists marched downtown last Tuesday to make their voices heard at a Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) hearing on the proposal to create an East Village and Lower East Side Historic District. Landowners, locals and political representatives flooded the ninth floor of City Hall almost to its limits to discuss and argue the LPC’s efforts to preserve the “rich cultural history” of these downtown Manhattan neighborhoods.

The initial plan includes 330 buildings, though 17 more might be added in a revised edition. If designated as an historic district, these buildings, mostly row houses and tenements, would become landmarked and would avoid destruction and alteration, purportedly preserving the area’s cultural significance. This designation, however, would also mean that renovation costs to these particular properties would increase as well.

Among the buildings are the historic Congregation Meseritz Synagogue on East 6th Street, the Max D. Raskin Center on East 6th Street, the Duo Multicultural Center on East 4th Street and the longest continuously running alehouse in New York City, McSorley’s, on East 7th Street.

The majority of those attending the hearing were in support of the plan.

The neighborhood “helps tell the story of immigrant life in 19th- and 20th-century Manhattan,” members of the LPC reported to slight applause from the large group of activists wearing bright “Preserve the East Village Landmark Now” stickers.

“These types of buildings, in the past, have sometimes been less appreciated than high-style architecture,” said one fervent supporter of the move. “However, they are equally as deserving of designation—especially in blocks like East 6th and East 7th Street, which remain meticulous and largely unaltered. We are also pleased to the see the wide variety of…cultural-related architecture.”

Among the supporters were the offices of State Sens. Tom Duane and Dan Squadron, Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and local committees like the Cooper Square Committee, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, the Historic Districts Council, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the East Village Community Coalition.

The plan is a “complement to the January designation of the East 10th Street historic district, the first East Village historic district established since the 1969 designation of the St. Mark’s historic district” said the first speaker, a representative for Rosie Mendez. “All three districts have fundamental preservation in common and will work in alliance to preserve the proud legacy of generations of immigrant families.”

Landmarking efforts began earlier this year when, on Jan. 12, the LPC approved a block-long designation on the south side of East 10th Street.

As expected, local clergy were the opposition’s loudest voices, saying their groups would be put under extreme financial strains if their buildings were landmarked.

“There are many examples of financial duress caused by landmark designation, including the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Brooklyn,” a parish council member of the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection on East 2nd Street claimed.

“This designated landmark suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial loss during a protracted appeal process to replace their copper roof as a result of time wasted and a sudden increase in commodity costs…Landmark designation against the congregation’s will may represent the death knell of a historic congregation that has served the vulnerable.”

The religiously affiliated speakers cited the LPC as being unreasonable for treating nonprofit parishes the same as profitable establishments, and claimed that the designation transfers authority of cathedrals to civil authority, meaning civil government would dictate religious freedom, violating the First Amendment.

One member of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral went as far as calling the designation “a sin which you’ll be held accountable for.”
Many religious organizations requested that if the proposal is indeed passed, their respective cathedral be excluded from the designation.
The LPC declined to comment on the hearing and the effects it may have had on their deliberations, saying that they don’t usually comment during the process.

According to the LPC’s press office, an additional public hearing will be held on the designation, although the date of the hearing hasn’t been finalized.

By Nick Gallinelli

Preservationists listen in on the hearing. Photo by James Kelleher.

Proposed preservation of the East Village meets a vocal audience

The city’s preservationists came together in City Hall Tuesday when they made their voices heard at a Landmark Preservation Commission public hearing regarding proposed preservation designation for parts of the East Village.

The proposal includes many historical, albeit dated, buildings like the Congregation Meseritz Synagogue and Max D. Raskin Center, both on East 6th, Duo Multicultural Center on East 4th, and the popular ale house on East 7th, McSorley’s.

In all, the proposal covers protects 330 buildings, the NY Times says.

Alongside many of the neighborhood’s foreign residents, who cite the area’s “contextual architecture” and storied past, representatives from the offices of State Senator Tom Duane, State Senator Daniel Squadron, and Councilman Rosie Mendez strongly supported the LPC’s effort.

As expected, local clergy were the opposition’s loudest voices, saying their groups would be put under extreme financial strains if their buildings were landmarked.

One member of the parish went as far as labeling the landmarking a sin.

The meeting was another stop in the LPC’s “extensive correspondence” with local voices, and there is no ETA for the committee’s decision.

To read more from City & State click here.

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Preservationists, residents, politicians save 128 E. 13th St. following six-year push

It took six years to accomplish, but hard work and perseverance paid off for city preservationists as the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously last week to landmark 128 E. 13th St., a building once used to auction off horses.

The campaign to landmark the 1903 building, whose varied uses included the city’s last surviving horse auction mart, studio space for famed painter and sculptor Frank Stella and a World War II-era defense industry training center for women, was spearheaded by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) and had support from Council Member Rosie Mendez and the Historic Districts Council, among others.

“This designation was especially gratifying, in part because it was so long in the making and in part because we came so close to losing the building,” said Andrew Berman, GVSHP executive director.

In 2006, Berman’s group uncovered a plan by a new owner to tear the building down and replace it with a seven-story condo.

Berman said that shortly after that discovery, his organization alerted the LPC and requested an emergency hearing to save the building. The hearing was made possible because the new owner had not yet filed demolition permits, creating a small window of opportunity to try to save the building.

“128 East 13th Street’s progression from a place where horses, then manufactured goods and then great works of art were produced perfectly captures the arc of downtown’s development,” Berman said during his 2006 testimony before the LPC.

While the building’s use from 1978 to 2005 as the studio of renowned artist Stella was well known, research supplied to the landmark’s commission from the GVSHP revealed it was originally built as the Van Tassel and Kearney Horse Auction mart, a place where affluent city families, including the Vanderbilts, Delanos and Belmonts, went to inspect and select horses for purchase.

Distinguishing physical traits of the building include high central halls, where horses were paraded around on rings for potential buyers to review. The GVSHP’s research also showed that although horse auction marts were at one time very common buildings in New York City, this was the last remaining intact structure of its type.

Despite the fact that the LPC’s emergency hearing in 2006 prevented demolition of the building, the commission refrained from voting on designation for six years.

In 2007, the building was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places and in 2008 the GVSHP sent a letter signed by Borough President Scott Stringer, State Sen. Tom Duane, Mendez and Assembly Member Deborah Glick in a renewed attempt to push for landmark designation.

“This is a good example of how a historic building can be adapted to new uses that benefit its community without sacrificing its historic character,” said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, referring to the building’s current tenant, the Peridance Capezio Dance Center.

“After six years of pushing for landmark status, the Village and the city can now be assured that this unique monument, which evolved from a place which produced horses to manufactured goods to great works of art, will be with us for generations to come,” Berman said in an emailed statement.

“And with it,” he continued, “a steel and masonry record of New York and the Village’s dramatic evolution over the 20th century will also be preserved.”

WALL STREET
CHIN HOLDS STAKEHOLDERS MEETING

At the end of last week, Council Member Margaret Chin called a meeting of community stakeholders to discuss the concerns of Community Board 1 residents with representatives of Occupy Wall Street and learn about OWS’ new “Good Neighbor Policy.” Elected officials, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and CB1 Chair Julie Menin, attended.

Local elected officials advocated for the dissemination of copies of the Good Neighbor Policy to the group assembled in Zuccotti Park as soon as possible, and Community Board 1 reiterated the need for a dedicated phone number and email for residents to log complaints with OWS directly. Local elected officials urged Occupy Wall Street representatives to identify individuals to monitor the drumming on-site and to adhere to the two hour a day limit as is called for in the policy.

“Now that the Good Neighbor Policy is in place, it is time for Occupy Wall Street to show they are serious about following through with the stipulations they have agreed upon as a body,” said Chin. “This is their opportunity to be responsive to the surrounding community. If they fail to institute serious changes, they will lose the support they now enjoy.”

“It is imperative to respect the protesters’ First Amendment rights and the needs of the local community,” said Menin. “The two are not mutually exclusive, and the Good Neighbor Policy is reflective of that.”

A copy of the approved “Good Neighbor Policy” is available at nycga.cc/category/news.

EAST VILLAGE
P.S. 94 GETS SENSORY ROOM

State Sen. Daniel Squadron joined P.S. 94 students, teachers and families to open the school’s new sensory room. Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, working with school leaders and Council Member Rosie Mendez, successfully secured Department of Education funding for the room, a critical resource for students with autism. The room will allow students to explore and develop senses and skills through touch, sound and light. P.S. 94 is located on East Houston Street.

CITYWIDE
INTERACTIVE MAP SHOWS CITY’S MOST DANGEROUS STREETS FOR PEDESTRIANS (see inset)

Last week, Transportation Alternatives (TA) released the first of a series of “crash map” reports derived from CrashStat.org, TA’s interactive online map of motorist crashes in New York City. The first crash map report, called “Walking in Traffic Violence,” charts motorist crashes with pedestrians, breaking down the data by community district to give a historic view of road safety.

“We’ve all experienced the epidemic of dangerous driving in New York City,” said Paul Steely White, executive director of TA. “Despite the tremendous efforts made by the DOT to redesign streets for safety, behavior behind the wheel puts people in harm’s way every day.”

According to the map, built using New York State Department of Motor Vehicles data from 1995 to 2009, the neighborhoods with the most motorist-pedestrians crashes in each borough are:

1. Midtown Manhattan (Manhattan Community District 5), 8,604 crashes

2. Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans (Queens Community District 12), 4,741 crashes

3.  Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Midwood (Brooklyn Community District 14), 3,920 crashes

4.  Concourse, Highbridge, Mt. Eden (Bronx Community District 4), 2,938 crashes

5.  North Shore (Staten Island Community District 1),1,944 crashes

To learn more about the number of pedestrian accidents in your neighborhood, visit CrashStat.org.

Photo: CrashStat.org provides an interactive map to look up the frequency of pedestrian accidents in any New York City neighborhood. (Screen still courtesy of CrashStat.org)