Must be nice to live on the Upper West Side

From the NY Post:

A battle of historic dimensions is brewing on the Upper West Side.

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering a proposal that would extend protection to an additional 790 buildings between 70th and 106th streets west of Broadway.

The area already has 2,577 landmarked buildings in a series of seven existing historic districts.

"By making this aggressive landmarking effort, they will be hurting the economic future of the city," fumed Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

"Landmarking the entire city does not leave opportunity to grow."

Spinola lashed out at the commission, charging that members are using historic designation as a way to regulate land use -- a power held by the City Council -- rather than out of a desire to protect buildings of architectural significance.

"Using landmark designation to protect views from penthouse apartments, to freeze architectural-style preferences of a few current residents and to promote the self-interests of private parties is a misuse of the landmarks law," Spinola said.

A separate district, the Upper West Side-Central Park Historic District, covers a huge swath east of Broadway and is not proposed for landmarking expansion.

Richard Emery, one of the founders of the West End Preservation Society, accused the Real Estate Board of siding with developers who want to make a fast buck without regard for the surrounding neighborhood.

"They're trying to protect the right of developers to put up junk," said Emery.

"The landmark designation does not prevent development, it only prevents development which is discordant with the architecture of the community," he said.
_________________

I kind of lost interest after "The area already has 2,577 landmarked buildings"...