From the NY Times:Last week the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 6 to 3 to give landmark protection to the 100-year-old B. F. Goodrich tire company building on Broadway just north of 57th Street, but not to a connected building around the corner designed by the same architect at the same time. Some commission members on both sides of that unusual divided vote cried foul, complaining that politics played an inappropriate role.
The vote came after four City Council members signaled that the council might overturn a commission decision to confer landmark designation on the second building because they did not want to jeopardize a hotel tower planned for the site at Broadway and 57th Street. The commission’s chairman, Robert B. Tierney, then recommended a vote against landmark status for both buildings “in light of opposition to this designation from the City Council and certain members of the City Council and the likelihood that that body will overturn any designation.”
Christopher Moore, a commission member who had voted with the majority, said the council should not have been a factor in the commission’s decision.
Mr. Moore said in an interview: “To me, it’s embarrassingly transparent: ‘We’re not going to do this because the City Council has already notified us they’re going to veto it.’ We let the world know. The friction between the commission and its role and the City Council and its role needs to be exposed. My request is we don’t do this again.”
3 comments:
This is how Quinn works. She sets up the votes. There is no democracy in the city council. They all make back door dealings at our expense
I can tell you that this has been SOP with the LPC going back for at least two decades that I have personally been aware of.
Quite a few of the commissioners are spoiled spineless lazy wimps...afraid of anyone's shadow...be it a borough president, the old Board of Estimate, any powerful developer, the mayor, as well as the city council.
Tierney needs to be replaced.
He's proven to be a disgrace!
But Bloomberg won't stand for turning out such an obedient gofer.
Bravo Mr. Moore for your honesty.
What's up with landmarking this crap? It sound like they are punishing 1 owner for landmarking it and the owner of the twin , not - so they can tear it down and build new to get really rich down the road. Landmarking is a joke and it sounds lik the committee that runs it get even richer personally. How do I get this position - other than being born with a silver spoon?
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