BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Gathered round the Fiorello LaGuardia statue in LaGuardia Park last Saturday afternoon, local politicians, plus “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, joined by a crowd of dozens of Villagers, once again urged N.Y.U. to scrap its embattled plan for its two South Village superblocks and “go back to the drawing board.”
Similarly, they told the de Blasio administration to drop any idea of appealing the recent extraordinary court ruling that has thrown a huge roadblock in front of New York University’s 2031 development scheme.
“We are here to celebrate a victory,” Assemblymember Deborah Glick told the crowd. “But we also want to send a signal to the city that they should cease and desist from any effort to appeal.”
Everyone cheered. “All right!” someone shouted.
“The city paved over is a death zone,” Glick declared. She promised to keep up the fight. To do otherwise, she said, “would be breaking faith” with previous generations of Village activists who fought off unwanted mega-projects.
Added Congressmember Jerry Nadler, taking the bullhorn from Glick, “We’re here to celebrate victory, but we haven’t won yet. It’s very important to this neighborhood to say to this mayor: ‘Let it be — don’t appeal.’ This administration has shown it can step away from a case, from a decision.”
Two months ago, N.Y.U. suffered a major setback to its vision of packing four new buildings into the two jumbo-sized blocks. On Jan. 7, State Supreme Court Judge Donna Mills ruled that three of the four open-space strips along the edges of Mercer St. and LaGuardia Place, between Houston and W. Third Sts., are “impliedly” parkland, even though they are under the Department of Transportation’s jurisdiction. Mills agreed with a community lawsuit’s argument that the strips have been used as de facto parks for decades.
The ruling has crippled N.Y.U.’s ability to build at least two, if not three, of its planned buildings. For their part, the plaintiffs and politicians say none of the buildings should be allowed to be constructed at this point.
“It’s a changed development with the court decision,” Nadler stated. “What remains is a difficult project and should be subject to a new review.”
“Yes!” the crowd roared its agreement.
“Negotiate a reasonable, contextual development that everyone can be happy with,” the congressmember urged the university.
Actress Nixon noted she is “relatively new” to the Village, having moved here a year and a half ago. But she has quickly grown to love, like many local parents, the “Key Park” playground, which is located on the Washington Square North superblock, and which would be destroyed if N.Y.U.’s full plan was carried out.
“I am here very much as a mother,” Nixon said. “We are here at the Key Park every week. If we were to lose this playground — there are very few in this neighborhood. We’re so gratified by Judge Mills’s decision. We urge the city government, Bill de Blasio to stand with us. Listen to Judge Mills. Go back to the drawing board.”
However, the university says it can still proceed with the construction of its planned, 1-million-square-foot Zipper Building — which would rise as tall as 300 feet at one point and sit on part of the strip along Mercer St. between Houston and Bleecker Sts., where Coles gym is currently located — since Mills ruled that lone strip is not a park.
Attorney Jim Walden, of Gibson Dunn, who represented plaintiffs in the community lawsuit, declared, “We shouldn’t have to go to court to protect parks in our neighborhoods,” as the crowd cheered and clapped in agreement.
The plaintiffs in the suit include Glick, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan. The plaintiffs have filed a notice of appeal, and plan to challenge Mills’s ruling on the Coles strip, among other things. N.Y.U. has also filed notice of appeal to overturn the judge’s ruling on the three strips, and — backing up N.Y.U. — so has the city. The deadline to file the actual appeals is not until about eight months from now.
The Mayor’s Office has not replied to requests for comment from The Villager on its apparent intention to appeal Mills’s decision. But a Law Department spokesperson said the city’s disagreement was over the open-space strips, and that this was a project that was approved under the Bloomberg administration.
Councilmember Margaret Chin, in whose district the superblocks are located, has issued general, carefully crafted comments about Mills’s decision, being cautious not to say anything about its impact on the full four-building N.Y.U. project.
Three years ago, an even larger crowd had rallied at the same spot, around the LaGuardia statue, warning the university to “Keep your hands off the superblock strips!”
One notable difference between the rally back then and the one this past Saturday was the absence of Chin this time around.
“These strips need to remain as public parkland,” Chin had declared at the December 2010 rally. “There are other places for N.Y.U. to grow.”
Walden, meanwhile, praised new City Councilmember Corey Johnson, whose West Village / Chelsea district is adjacent to Chin’s, for boldly proclaiming that N.Y.U. should go back to square one in its development plans.
Walden said Johnson has “taken the issue and tackled it to the ground,” even though councilmembers normally don’t oppose a fellow councilmember on an issue in the latter’s district.
“N.Y.U. continues to say it wants to be a community partner,” Johnson said. “But these words have not been backed up in action in any way. We have seen enough privatization. Go back to the drawing board.”
State Senator Brad Hoylman, who chaired Community Board 2 when it issued its unanimous, “absolute No” resolution on the N.Y.U. superblocks plan, said, “This is public land, bottom line, and we cannot let it go. We are standing up against powerful forces here, not just in the Village, but across the city.”
State Senator Daniel Squadron said the Public Trust Doctrine, which Judge Mills cited in her decision, “is something real.”
“What it means is, when you have public open space, you can’t short-circuit the people,” he said. Under the doctrine, the state Legislature must vote to “alienate” public parkland before it can be used for a nonpark use.
Mark Crispin Miller, a leader of N.Y.U. FASP, said, “This has been an unprecedented town-gown alliance against a real estate development — right? We will not stand by and let them turn this into an East Coast replica of Abu Dhabi, with steel towers that cut off light and air. We will not stand for that.”
N.Y.U. has a campus abroad in that Persian Gulf city which has become synonymous with gleaming, new skyscrapers.
Arriving at the end of the press conference, Public Advocate Letitia James declared it “a great day for open space and a great day for communities that want to remain intact.”
Asked by The Villager if she would talk with her ally Mayor de Blasio about not appealing Judge Mills’s ruling, she said, “I haven’t had a conversation with him about the status of the litigation yet, but I will.”
Then, addressing the crowd, she reiterated, “I know that the mayor has dropped appeals in other matters, and I’m going to ask him to drop this one. But if he says no — we’ll fight on.”
Asked by The Villager why she, like all the other councilmembers — except for Charles Barron — voted to approve the N.Y.U. 2031 plan two years ago, James responded, “The circumstances were different. We had a Council speaker back then who ruled with an iron fist. Your support was linked to projects that needed to go forward. I had a district with a lot of needs. I was conflicted. But projects had to move forward.”
Asked for comment on Saturday’s rally, Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. vice president for government affairs and community engagement, issued a statement.
“N.Y.U. is committed to improving and protecting the public open spaces on the superblocks before and after any construction takes place,” the statement said, in part. “In fact, N.Y.U.’s plan for the open spaces on the superblocks creates tremendous opportunities to revitalize and open to the public both N.Y.U. privately owned open space and existing public space. …
“All existing public uses on the superblocks, including the dog run and playgrounds, will be replaced in kind and enhanced to create opportunities for the entire community to enjoy the benefits of a well-maintained public space.
“Specifically, four new playgrounds will be built and opened to the public and offer such amenities as bicycle/tricycle riding, toddler play areas and older-children play areas. These playgrounds will also offer new public seating, gardens and walking areas on both blocks. …”
The statement added, “N.Y.U. is committed to taking extraordinary efforts to protect the LaGuardia Corner Gardens during construction of the Bleecker Building. The construction staging for the Bleecker Building will take place on Bleecker St., NOT on the community garden.”
