Demands a GLWD do-over
To The Editor:
RE “Neighbors Say God’s Love Plan Doesn’t Deliver” (news, Nov. 28, 2012):
People who claim to have God on their side have a long history of pulling off wicked exploits. So it should come as no surprise that the dubious alliance of God’s Love We Deliver and Quinlan-Tavros Development managed to get Community Board 2 to pull a shameful switcheroo at its Dec. 20 board meeting.
Although the community board’s Land Use and Business Development Committee had voted nearly unanimously on Dec. 12 to reject the questionable air-rights transfer that GLWD and QT development need for QT to pull off its expanded, 14-story, luxury condo development scheme, sometime in the following week, in a closed-door meeting, a deal was cut.
CB2’s Land Use Committee asks us to believe that they reversed their decision in exchange for concessions to the community that amount to a couple of trees planted on a landing, a handful of air conditioners and double-paned windows for the residents of 188 Sixth Ave. Such fables strain credulity. While images of smoke-filled rooms and envelopes stuffed with cash seem a bit banal, how else are we to explain such shenanigans?
Those of us who live in the South Village want answers: How do these deals that sell out our neighborhoods get cut? Where is the public process mandated by the Open Meetings Law? And where are our elected officials in this disgraceful parody of city planning and democratic governance?
More than 50 South Village neighbors and friends have called on CB2 to re-hear this matter at the community board’s first meeting of the new year. We await their reply.
In the meantime, we wish our neighbors a holiday season filled with peace and light. Thanks to the actions of our community board, it may be the last one they enjoy with these amenities.
Micki McGee
