Tuesday, October 9, 2012

[Updated] City approves East Village Historic District

From the EV Grieve inbox... from Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation...


I want to share with you the wonderful news that the proposed East Village Historic District was just approved with slight modifications by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, taking immediate effect! Three hundred thirty 19th and early 20th century buildings between the Bowery and Avenue A, St. Mark's Place and 2nd Street, now enjoy landmark protections.

Previously.

Updated 5:31 p.m.
A few more media outlets have filed stories... The City Room blog at The New York Times noted the The new East Village/Lower East Side Historic District (official name!) passed by a 6-1 vote.

Margery Perlmutter, the lone dissenter, "said before the vote that most of the tenements in the district were not worth preserving."

And per Curbed:

[Perlmutter] also questioned the characterization of the historical significance of the neighborhood, saying "What brought it to prominence is that Jack Kerouac lived there as opposed to the immigrants."

Per a commenter at Gothamist: "Thank goodness ... Toy Tokyo at 91 Second Avenue can now look like that forever!"

You can find coverage at Crain's here. ... and NY1.

14 comments:

  1. So, get ready for the "Alphabet City" overbuild shitstorm to commence.

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  2. Yes! Yes! Thanks Andrew Berman and team. We'll take all the "little preservation victories" we can get!

    Take it away Bob!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8eVuGE95VE

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  3. meanwhile, alphabet city was conveniently excluded from the district
    uh guys, i think you missed a spot

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  4. So...does this now mean unprotected buildings on the avenues are now doomed?

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  5. This will do little other than to make the East Village as elitist and precious as the West!

    As long as the city keeps handing out humongous tax breaks to developers, then we will continue to see the neighborhoods destroyed. Really, it's more like a "purification". It is sickening.

    What will happen to us when Bloomie's handpicked sucessor, Lady Christine, comes in? More of the same?

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  6. So, according to Margery Perlmutter, the tenements aren't worth preserving because immigrants lived in them? Ever hear of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Margery? Is that a waste of time and space because immigrants lived in these buildings? Wow. What an elitist.

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  7. is there a list of the buildings? mine looks tight on the border and i can't tell if it's within the zone by this map.

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  8. gem spa is sightly more safe... for now..

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  9. This is great if you live in the historic district. If you live on the perimeter of the district, like me, your building is now a prime target for luxury developers. The busy bodies who passed this have done a disservice to the neighborhood.

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  10. "If you live on the perimeter... your building is now a prime target for luxury developers."

    Now? Please. Your building has been a prime target for a while.

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  11. As the owner (and not renter) of an apartment within this new district, can anyone tell me how this affects me? I'm assuming now that my apartment/building will be more difficult and expensive to maintain, and that the property value will now have a ceiling because of the limited potential now?

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  12. Any chance for a Phase II to cover even more of the neighborhood farther north and east? Maybe that would have saved Mary Help of Christians...

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  13. @ anon 1:35 am

    I asked the folks at GVSHP about a list...

    "The Landmarks Preservation Commission will publish a designation report and finalized map, which will have a narrative describing the district and should include most if not all of the buildings in the district. It should be available on their website soon. They don't do a list per se."

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