Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Report: Court gives NYU OK for $6 billion expansion



From the Daily News:

"The state's highest court on Tuesday gave its legal blessing to New York University's entire $6 billion expansion plan.

"In a unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeals rejected a last-ditch appeal by opponents of the expansion, led by Manhattan Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, who claimed the City Council wrongly allowed parkland to be used for the project."

NYU's expansion plan includes the construction of four new buildings and 1.9 million square feet of new space over the next two decades.

Read the Daily News piece here. The Times has more here. Curbed has a succinct recap here.

ANd finally, here is a link to the court's decision here (PDF!)

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

NYU is so repulsive.

Anonymous said...

Die monster, die.

Anonymous said...

There goes the neighborhood. Again.

Anonymous said...

NYU is not a nonprofit educational institute. Like Colombia, like Trinity, it is a real estate hedge fund. One that pays no real estate taxes. The John Sexton/Kenneth Langone combo are evil incarnate.

Gojira said...

So, another stake driven deep into the heart of New York. Shame on those judges; I wonder how much they got paid for this mockery of justice.

Giovanni said...

I guess since Washington Sq.. Park is not a park but just a hangout for their students, I guess NYU will try to take that over too someday? But seriously, NYU is the worst. They could have built many other places but they wanted to develop on this prime real estate to build up the value of their real estate portfolio. Many generations of NYU students will be paying for this out of their student loans.

To justify the massive size NYU used the excuse that they needed more classroom space -- but only a small fraction of this massive expansion will be for classrooms. Most of their existing classrooms are empty every Friday (not to mention during their 4 month long summer vacations) since they refuse to schedule many classes on Friday, all so their faculty can have 4 day work weeks and go vacation in the Berkshires or to their country houses, which NYU also subsidizes. Remember that the original expansion plan even included a hotel! Too bad they couldn't just close down Houston Street and put in an 18 hole golf course. Next time they probably will. It's not a University anymore, it's a country club.

Anonymous said...

When I moved here in '82 NYU was here and never noticed, now I feel I'm living on campus. Not only living quaters takeover, but their students get discounts as if they are the struggling ones. I got to go

Shawn said...

A rare defeat for the GVSHP who usually prevails. I feel so bad for Andrew and team. NYU is a great school, great faculty, great staff.

But their expansion plans are catastrophic and the court got this one wrong.

cmarrtyy said...

NYU destroyed the East Village. Now they are dead set on destroying the West. And the city allows them. What people forget is that NYU is a private for profit educational institution. This is not an institution with a conscience just a profit motive. Space = money = profit. It's simple arithmetic. I have only one question to ask: Where is our populist mayor in all of this? .

Anonymous said...

When did NYU become the University of Texas?

Anonymous said...

Each story like this makes me look forward to moving out a little bit more.

#evleave

blue glass said...

many years ago at a public meeting the NYU community affairs woman (i think that was her title) stated NYU's intention of turning washington square park into their campus.
i heard her.

just like cooper union had (probably still does have) plans for the cooper square area with tables with umbrellas, chairs, and no traffic - for students).

Anonymous said...

I hope NYU goes bankrupt on this expansion.

Anonymous said...

How much money was spent fighting this eventual reality for years and years? I wonder if GVSHP could not have put the funds to better use and had they supported the plan perhaps been able to get from NYU some concessions?

Anonymous said...

Cooper Union actually owns parts of Cooper Square - actually a private street, which they wanted to turn into a huge parking lot whose plan got shot down by locals.
And NYU did mess with Wash. Sq. when it forced the city to fence it for a few years while slow-renovating which helped clear out some "undesirables" from the area.

Anonymous said...

People who own buildings are happy about this. People who live with the worst by-products of the NYU educational behemoth are not.

No point yelling at the sun if you think it is too bright.

Anonymous said...

Anon at 9:42 bears repeating because they're so completely on the mark: NYU is a real estate investment group which pays no RE taxes due to their convenient university status. It's potentially enlightening to see all the properties these empires have been amassing.

Jon Keller said...

Living in East Village since before it was Alphabet City. A real estate industry rebranding. It's not just NYU students being a scourge and "higher education" being over priced. It's the profits to be made in real estate in general. I avoid TSP on nice summer days because of the crowds. And had to get rid of my car 8 yrs ago because of dearth of parking. Friends demonstrated about the 711 on A, but they being all white didn't appreciate the irony in that they displaced the previous population of mostly "3rd world" folks. I admit when I moved here I was a white face in a black/brown crowd.