A crowd of fired-up Villagers converged on the corner of Clarkson and Varick Streets to demand that their beloved and landmarked Tony Dapolito Recreation Center—closed since COVID, for five years—be repaired as promised, and not demolished, as the city now threatens to do. The June 1st rally, organized by Village Preservation and the grassroots Coalition […]
City is sabotaging the Dapolito Rec Center Read More »
“A scam.” That’s how Manhattan District 1 Council Member Christopher Marte characterized the SoHo-NoHo-Chinatown rezoning plan, which he’d vehemently opposed, and which was enacted in December 2021, immediately prior to his taking office. Contrary to the promises of politicos and city planners, the downtown upzoning plan has thus far delivered less-than-nothing on the affordable housing
Promised affordable housing yet to be delivered Read More »
Wonder City: How to Reclaim Human-Scale Urban Life By Lynn Ellsworth Fordham University Press, 384 pages, $34.95 If it were not such a spur to anguish, fear and fury, the second Trump administration would be a fascinating social experiment: What does it take to get people and institutions to bend to your will? When do
Brave new book tackles NYC real estate lobby Read More »
On a sunny 81 degree Saturday, inside a windowless room in a new 31 story glass and steel tower, historic preservationists wrestled with a key question: how can they use preservation to advance affordable housing? Given our “build, baby, build” moment that question might seem out-of-touch or cringey, but the March 29th conference at New
Can we have an affordable city that preserves our heritage? Read More »
If nations were born with original sin, America’s would be slavery. When Thomas Jefferson penned our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, declaring it “self-evident” that “all men are created equal,” he was, like George Washington and other founders, a slave owner. Indeed, during the Revolutionary War, while American revolutionaries waxed eloquent about freedom from
Dealing with the First Presbyterian Church’s slaveholding legacy Read More »
“Get a warrant.” That’s still official policy if agents from Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) show up at the school house door, District 2 Schools Superintendent Kelly McGuire assured the Community Board 2 (CB 2) Schools and Education Committee at its February 24th meeting. Alarmed by Mayor Adams’ January 13, 2025 memo to city workers—which
CB 2 advises on ICE enforcement at schools Read More »
Ignoring vehement community objections and the more muted misgivings of local City Council Member Erik Bottcher, the city is proceeding with plans for a 60-story, 600-foot-tall luxury residential spire at the current site of the Gansevoort Meat Market, on Little West 12th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Meatpacking District. The city is
West Village threatened by massive tower Read More »
When the City of Yes—a voluminous 1,386 page set of zoning text amendments—was approved by the City Council 31-20 in December, all but one of the 20 dissenting votes against the proposal came from council members from the outer boroughs. They voiced fears the Mayoral initiative, which was marketed as an affordable housing proposal, would
Saying NO to the city of Yes: Council Member Chris Marte on truly affordable housing Read More »
Slavery in New York? For many New Yorkers, accustomed to associating slavery with Southern plantations, the fact that slavery existed in our city is a shocking surprise. Yet for much of the 17th and 18th centuries, New York boasted the largest urban slave population in mainland North America. Enslaved people made up one-fifth the population.
New map to detail history of slavery in our neighborhoods Read More »
