Friday, June 26, 2009

The plan to save what's left of the Bowery


The Villager has coverage this week of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN) meeting from June 16.

From The Villager:
The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN) last week presented a plan to limit the size of new buildings and preserve traditional commercial uses on the east side of the Bowery between Canal and E. Ninth Sts.

The alliance, which includes artists, loft dwellers and local merchants, has been calling for preservation of the east side of the thoroughfare for the past three years as new high-rise residential and hotel towers have been threatening to overwhelm the low-rise character of Bowery.

“This is the first step in gathering support for the plan,” said Anna Sawaryn, president of BAN, who led the group’s June 16 forum. “We intend to present it eventually to Community Board 3 and ultimately to City Planning.”

“We felt it was important to preserve the wholesale lighting, restaurant-supply and jewelry businesses that remain on the Bowery,” said Mitchell Grubler, a member of BAN. “Rezoning was the only way to do that before those businesses are forced out by expensive high-rise development.”


There's more coverage at Save the Lower East Side! and BoweryBoogie.

1 comment:

kmc said...

The Bowery was the original Park Ave in the 1800s. It was also the first diamond district in NYC. So everything is going in cycles.