Monday, October 8, 2007

Are Tierney & company tops?

Recent criticism must really be getting to the LPC if their chair feels compelled to trick a reporter into write a vanity piece about it:

"In addition to preserving history," [LPC Chair Robert Tierney] says, "landmark status on a building or a neighborhood can increase the appreciation on home ownership and immediately improve the reputation of a neighborhood."

City Champions: Preserving the best of New York

In Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, the price of a brownstone in the designated historic district can sell for $100,000 to $150,000 more than a non-designated area with the same architecture three blocks away.

So they are admitting that preservation of neighborhoods boosts property values. How did they let that slip out? Now you understand why Queens is at the bottom of the barrel. It's called redlining.

City champions? I think not.

Photo from the City Review

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where is bumbling Bob Tierney....
Hiding from all us folks in the Broadway/Flushing neighborhood?

What's going on with the proposed historic district
for our area Bobby ?

It's already a listed National Register Historic District....and is certainly deserving.

What's your latest excuse for dawdling ?

It's been over a year and a half
since LPC's Mary Beth Betts took the tour
with Councilman Avella and promised us
quick attention to this matter.

What happened to LPC's Tony Robbins....
briefly seen here....
but suddenly vanished like a rare bird
(was it to Brooklyn) ?

The LPC has already been provided
with all the necessary individual research photos
of each and every structure in the area !

H-m-m-m.....
looks like the
Landmarks Procrastination Commission
is up to its old tricks !

Why don't you wait until the rash
of new tear downs is complete....
then the LPC can state the familiar.....
"It doesn't meet our criteria" !

Well....it did before the LPC
conspired (I wonder at who's behest)
to put our district on the back burner.

Anonymous said...

I remember going to HDC some years back (at that time the landmarks law had been on the books for decades) on questions from the community on the impact that landmark designation has on property values.

They said no study had been done, but that they 'guessed' it was beneficial.

A real group of professionals.

Went out to a neighborhood that was landmarked and compared the designated buildings to identical structures across the street.

The contrast was obvious to the untrained eye.

It then occured to me why we did not get a straight answer.

I was from the wrong neigbhorhood. I was from Queens. I was getting a snow job.

But, that was not important. Their inept (non)answer had its intended effect.

The effort in our community without clear information and support from the broader preservation community stalled.

As was their intention.

When I see historic buildings torn down in my community and think that with a little support what could have been achieved.

I hope they enjoyed our share of their grants for efforts in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Anonymous said...

The landmarks law is unfair to immigrants, people of color, and working class and poor communities.

It should be overturned.

verdi said...

The lethargic so called preservation community
needs light a cherry bomb under Tierney's ass !

Is that man narcoleptic......
or just directly wired to the mayors office
awaiting instructions ?

Come to think of it.....
the "preservationists" could use a lit firecracker
under their behinds also!
so if you get insulted by what I've said.....
then the shoe must be a perfect fit !

Anonymous said...

It is tiresome to blame to top dog when the real problem is the kennel is full of fleas.

A strong preservation community would have mowed down anything in their path.

I am tired of talking about one person. Chair after chair is the fault. Not.

The entire preservation culture is pathological and Tierny is just a symtom of this pathology, not its cause.

verdi said...

The firecracker would also dislodge the fleas
off the "top dog"!

verdi said...

Look at Tierney's mug in that photo.

He looks like he can't wait for a bathroom break.....
to go out and grab a quick beer.... or something.

He's wondering if there's a back door out of the place!

Anonymous said...

Ever notice that when a preservationist actually grows a pair and says something controversial about how a neighborhood is getting the shaft that the rest of the pack back away from them instead of backing them up?

Anonymous said...

Oh you know rabble rousers are a threat to grant money...

Anonymous said...

Yeah.....we're all supposed to be polite
and not jump to conclusions before the facts are in.....
even if those facts are already right in front of us.

By then, of course, it'll already be too late !

Don't make a pest of yourself....
otherwise mamma won't give you ice cream money !