UPDATED Thurs 6/25: Parents, tenants, electeds will protest planned construction

UPDATED: PRESS ADVISORY

Date: June 24, 2015

Contact: Emmaia Gelman (917) 517-3627, emmaia.gelman@gmail.com

UWS WILL RALLY TO OPPOSE LUXURY CONSTRUCTION THAT WOULD HOBBLE TWO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SHRINK AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Parents demand answers on suspect DOB permit approval just the day before the Landmarks Preservation Commission vote that would have slowed development.

WHO:	Parents of P.S.75 & West Side Collaborative Middle School Tenants of 711 West End Ave. and surrounding buildings NYC Councilmember Helen Rosenthal NYS Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell
WHAT:	RALLY to protest DOB’s suspect approval of permits construction at 711 West End Ave., and call for Mayor de Blasio to protect schools and communities against catastrophic effects of NYC’s luxury construction boom.
WHEN:	Thursday, June 25th, 8:10am
WHERE:	Rally: NW corner of West 95th Street and West End Ave.

BACKGROUND:

In the wake of DOB’s last-minute gimme to luxury developers, UWS community members call for the Mayor to engage DOB with city agencies responsible for the right to education, safety, environmental quality, and affordable housing.

Proposed experimental high-rise construction at 711 West End Ave. would overwhelm PS 75 and West Side Collaborative middle school, and exacerbate dangers at the deadly intersection where Mayor deBlasio launched Vision Zero. The construction as proposed will make it impossible for students to learn and create an exodus from the schools. Affordable housing is also threatened. Rent-stabilized apartments have been vacated and warehoused, and the disruption to surrounding buildings is expected to be shattering.

The Department of Buildings does not require developers to account for their impact on the community.

The community is calling on the Mayor to direct DEP, DOE, DOH, DOT, and HPD to engage with DOB to ensure safety, student rights, and tenant rights are addressed in permit applications. Such coordination is not unprecedented: Vision Zero requires most of the same agencies to collaborate on street safety. The city should implement Community Protection Plans for all such construction, parallel to the mandatory Tenant Protection Plan.

To date, the community’s requests for the Mayor’s help have gone unanswered.

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http://dontdestroyUWS.blogspot.com

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Sign the petition: Mayor de Blasio, we need your intervention!

PETITION THE MAYOR:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-developers-from-destroying-uws-public-schools-affordable-housing

Although the proposed construction at 711 West End Ave. would be devastating, there's currently no law or policy that makes it illegal. Developers can apply to do projects that tear apart the community and make our schools, homes, and streets unusable -- and D.O.B. doesn't have too much latitude to reject them.

This particular developer has been tricky, submitting permits to DOB piecemeal to prevent DOB from considering the magnitude of its project. The developer has also outright lied, claiming that the construction project deals with an empty building.

In order to hold this developer accountable, we need the intervention of the Mayor and other city agencies -- DEP, DOE, DOH, DOT, HPD, and others -- to demand real scrutiny of the applications. We need the Mayor's intervention immediately to plug the giant hole in city policy that leaves tenants, public school kids, and residents vulnerable to developers' greed.

The Mayor has not responded to the community yet, so we need to raise our voices louder.

PETITION THE MAYOR:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-developers-from-destroying-uws-public-schools-affordable-housing

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Email the LPC: Include PS75 in W.E.A. Historic District!

On June 23rd, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission will decide whether to extend the West Side Historic District all the way up West End Avenue. The blocks around 95th and 96th Streets are slated for intensive development over the next few years, and unprotected blocks are at the mercy of a hot market.

PS75's block was initially included in the Historic District as a matter of course -- but was suddenly withdrawn just as the hearing is about to go forward. The PS75 community is asking the LPC to put it back into the historic district.

To add your voice, email the LPC here.
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Honorable Meenakshi Srinivasan, Chair
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Municipal Building
1 Centre Street, 9th Floor, North
New York, NY 10007

June 9, 2015

Dear Chair Srinivasan,

As parents of the PTA at PS 75, the Emily Dickinson School, on the block from 95th - 96th from West End Avenue to Riverside Drive, we are very concerned about the recent exclusion of the school's block from Riverside-West End Historic District Ext ll. This decision goes against the careful recommendations of the former Landmarks Commission four years ago, and opens the block to speculators and developers who will be able to make arbitrary and drastic changes to the block with less oversight.  This will directly affect our school, the wonderful streetscape of the neighborhood, and interrupt the flow of the designation of West End Avenue.

It appears that this block is being designated for development in the future by your organization, a complete turn-around from the previous Commission's decision to maintain the integrity of the area. By adding the block back into the proposal, the LPC will help safeguard against developers whose concerns may be contrary to the well being of the school, residents, and the overall beauty and aesthetic feel of the neighborhood.

Please consider these issues when making your decision.  PS 75 and the PTA are not against development.  But opening up the floodgates to uncertain real estate ventures that permit less regulation or input by the community will result in a degradation of the neighborhood.

In light of all the above, we hope that Landmark and Preservation Commission will consider us, our children, the well being of the neighborhood and choose to include the 95th - 96th from West End Avenue to Riverside Drive  back into the Westside Historic District Ext ll.

Sincerely yours,
The PTA and Parents of PS 75

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