Friday, January 17, 2014

LPC rejects Aluminaire House


"Surprise! The Aluminaire is defeated.

I think nobody knew that the LPC was going to hand down a decision, but they did, and it sounds as if it was a unanimous against the Aluminaire House.

But please read on--

This victory was won by the hardest working activists (most of YOU), by the 40+ who took the day off to testify in person, by the 600+ in total who raised objection to the development proposal to the LPC, by the assistance of really smart allies at the Historic Districts Council and other preservation groups, by our elected officials and Community Board 2 who added major clout by testifying on our behalf.

Most especially we are grateful to Councilman Van Bramer for his uncompromising opposition from minute one to this wrong-headed plan, and for his assigning us the excellent help of Nick Gulotta on his staff.

[1] First way to celebrate-- call and say thanks to Councilman Van Bramer and Nick Gulotta at 718-383-9566, ext.5. You may not catch anyone in the office, but leave a quick "Thank you for saving us from the Aluminaire," or put that into an e-mail to JVanBramer@council.nyc.gov

[2] Then we need to re-group for Round 2, because the defeat of this development proposal is not the defeat of the next development proposal. If we are going to save this historic planned playground and its rare buildings so the public can enjoy it forever, we will need to persuade the City to negotiate right away to purchase the land and make it a park.

Thanks again to you, who will hear more soon from the envisioned Friends of Cautley Gardens Park -- and please spread the word, especially to neighbors you know who don't have e-mail.

Hurrah,

Herb Reynolds & the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done, guys! Congratulations on Round 1 and best of luck on acquiring the playground!

Paul Graziano

Erik Baard said...

Happy to write more letters. Great job my Jimmy and Nick.

Anonymous said...

Luck? Writing letters?

Battles were never won with proclamations or edicts. If so, we would all be still swearing allegiance to Rome.

The people in Sunnyside deserve this 'victory' but it does nothing to change the overall rottenness of the process or changes anyone else's prospects for protecting their community one whit.

Van Bramer lives here. This little elf who goes about this rest of his district with a meat cleaver, but now applies a double standard by protecting his back yard.

Why does he think it okay to destroy Hunters Point and Dutch Kills and 5 Pointz - but no one can apply this same medicine to his personal turf?

Vallone did the same for his district when he divided it by permitting 5 story buildings south of Grand Central, and 2 story for his block.

We need a comprehensive community preservation effort that divorces these efforts from someone's whim.

Believe me, the moment Van Bramer moves out of his district and retires to some tropical isle (as his ilk usually does) SSG is doomed.

Anonymous said...

"Great job my Jimmy"


WTF?!

Anonymous said...

"Great job my Jimmy"


its called grant writing, Queens style...

Anonymous said...

Thank god for Jimmy Van Bramer...hehehehe