Hell's Kitchen Online 7/13/99
kitchen
kitchen@hellskitchen.net
Tue, 13 Jul 1999 17:36:19 -0500
Hell's Kitchen Online 7/13/99
http://hellskitchen.net "All the News the Times Won't Print"
------------------------------------------------------------
Because New York is worth saving: http://www.RetireRudy.com
------------------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE...
1. Don't Destroy Clinton/HK Oasis Gardens
CB4 Land Use Committee 7/14 at St. Clare's
2. More Tour Bus feedback
3. Pier 84 Update
4. The 15-Year Story Of 2 40-Story Towers (Times)
5. Theater Rezoning Returns to Stage; Court Calls for
Environmental Study (Chelsea Clinton News)
6. Chelsea-Clinton News Editorial: Curtain Raised on Clinton
------------------------------------------------------------
DON'T UPROOT CLINTON/HELL'S KITCHEN GARDENS
Under a proposed plan for the Clinton Urban Renewal Site, two twenty-year-old Community Gardens
will be destroyed. Oasis I, located on Tenth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets, and Oasis II,
on 52nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, provide tranquil havens for the people of Hell's
Kitchen. Oasis I rose again from the rubble six years ago following the demolition of an adjacent
building. Say "NO" to the destruction of priceless Community Gardens in a neighborhood which
ranks almost last in the amount of open space in the City. Thank you for your support.
Please come support Community Gardens on the Clinton Urban Renewal Site.
July 14 (Wed) Clinton Land Use and Zoning Committee
7:00 PM St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center,
Auditorium, Lower Level
426 West 52nd Street (9/10th Avenues)
------------------------------------------------------------
TOUR BUSSES ON 46TH STREET AND 10TH AVE.
S.O. writes
I'm extremely concerned about the parking situation at this intersection. Every morning as I
approach this intersection from the SW corner, I am unable to see motorist moving east on 46th
street due to the tall Grayline buses parking dangerously close to the corner on the south side of
W46. The walk signal is not a guarantee that it is safe to cross in the event the an unseeable
motorist runs a red light. I am forced to step into the street to peer around the buses to see if
there is traffic coming. I feel this is a dangerous situation for myself and others. I would
think their is a city ordinance forbidding vehicles over certain heights being parked within a
certain distance from an intersection. Is there something we can do to get the buses parked
further away from the intersection?
------------------------------------------------------------
PIER 84 UPDATE
Friends of Pier 84 Summer Meeting
29 July 1999 - 7 PM to 9 PM
Location: Floating the Apple boathouse on Pier 84
Special Guests: Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association (HKNA)
Pier 84 Phase I Design Review and
A Combined Vision for our Shared Waterfront from 34th to 44th Streets
As always, refreshments will be served.
Rain location: 455 West 43rd Street - Ground Floor.
Hudson River Park Trust and The New Pier 84
After several months of limbo, the new Hudson River Park Trust, successor to the Hudson River Park
Conservancy, has finally started to function on its own toward the goal of building the 5-mile
long Hudson River Park, including our own Pier 84. Recently an executive director has been named,
Rob Balachandran, and a deputy executive director, Connie Fishman, a special guest at our October
meeting. Our plan for Pier 84 has been distributed to Rob and Connie as well as all Trust board
members. Construction of the park in the Village area is scheduled to begin soon, and the park
from 34th Street to 59th Street should go into the final design stage very shortly as the
rebuilding of the West Side Highway in our neighborhood moves into its final year.
Since money is always the issue, and since we know that rebuilding Pier 84 will cost in excess of
12 million dollars, it will be important for us as an organization and as individuals to keep up
the pressure on the Mayor and Governor to expedite this process as much as possible. Everything
helps: your membership and financial support, your attendance and participation at meetings and
events, and your letters to elected officials (the Mayor and Governor in particular).
It's hard to stay motivated when our pier is not available to us... closed by pile damage and
walled off by highway construction. But the pier will be rebuilt! And the highway construction
will be done, leaving behind a beautiful tree-lined grade level waterfront boulevard with an
associated bike/walkway. And we will have a park on Pier 84!
To find out more, be sure to attend the special meeting in the new Floating the Apple boathouse on
Pier 84 on 29 July at 7 PM. We will be talking about Phase I as well as the long range future of
our waterfront with special guests from the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association. All block
associations in the West 40s and 50s are welcome as well as anyone interested in the development
of Hudson River Park from 34th Street to 59th Street.
Pier 84 Phase I Park
Plans for converting the open space between Pier 84 and 83 into a Phase I park are now being
refined with the generous help of Meta Brunzema, architect and urban planner for the Hell's
Kitchen Neighborhood Organization. The proposed new park will contain a dog run, community garden,
the temporary Floating the Apple boathouse and an open area that can be used for movies, events
and just plain relaxation. There will be a waterfront esplanade, shade structures, benches and
more... but only if we continue to pressure HRPT to provide this amenity. Come to the 29 July
meeting on Pier 84 to participate and help make this happen.
Floating the Apple Keeps Rowing
Man the decks, raise the sails, drop the oars because Floating the Apple will once again tackle
the waters off of Pier 84.
Out of commission for over a year, FTA's Pier 84 rowing operations came to an abrupt halt when the
city unexpectedly condemned the 44th street site .
Recently FTA received a permit from the city to setup an interim community boathouse. The
makeshift facility, similar to what they have had on the condemned portion of 84, will contain
five cargo containers and about eight Whitehall rowing boats. The new site is slated for the
land-portion of 84 presently used for parking and storage by Circle Line. FTA plans to restore its
Wednesday rowing sessions. These events are free and opened to everyone.
Future plans call for building a permanent structure. It will have a library and workshop. It will
emphasize the maritime experience and encourage after school activities and expand FTA's
well-known volunteer shipbuilding program. Four of FTA 25-foot boats were built as student
projects.
According to Mike Davis, the founder of FTA, "the institution of the community boat house affords
boating to all. This gives us a unique opportunity and enables us to take advantage of and enjoy
our greatest resource, the river." Although FTA's status on Pier 84 was in limbo since last
spring, Mike Davis has worked hard pushing the concept of community boathouses throughout the
city. His efforts are paying off. Whitehall gigs are moving through the Hudson, Harlem, North,
Bronx and East Rivers and Upper New York Bay. A community boat house was opened in Red Hook,
Brooklyn and two new boats were launched in June.
"Build and they will come," was applied to a ball field in the movie "Field of Dreams." This is
especially true of community boathouses. As our city streets grow more congested the importance of
public access to our waterways is essential.
Friends of Hudson River Park Formed
Billed as NYC's next great public works project - the "Central Park" of the 21st century - the
proposed Hudson River Park will offer West Siders much needed open space and public access to the
waterfront. To ensure this plan becomes a reality several local community groups, citizens and
park tenants have formed Friends of Hudson River Park.
The group intends to publicize and promote activities at the park and to draw attention to the
waterfront as the city's great natural resource. FoHRP will push to maximize as much of the park -
its land, piers and waterways - for public use as possible.
FoHRP will operate as a nonprofit corporation with a board of directors. It plans to work with the
Hudson River Park Trust, the organization responsible for building and operating the park; and
with Community Boards #1, 2 and 4 whose boundaries encompass it.
Among those responsible for creating Friends of Hudson River Park are Meta Brunzema, Hell's
Kitchen Neighborhood Association; Bob Trentlyon, Chelsea Waterside Park Association; Arthur
Schwartz, FoHRP in Greenwich Village; Albert Butzel, Hudson River Park Alliance, Arthur Imperatore
of New York Waterways, and many many others.
John Doswell, President of Friends of Pier 84, and organizing chair of FoHPR said, "Many of us
have been working individually or within our specific groups to promote construction of the Park.
The formation of Friends of Hudson River Park recognizes that we need and want to work together to
make the park happen for all of us and for all New Yorkers. Hudson River Park represents an unique
opportunity for our neighborhoods and for the city to have a magnificent public waterfront park
with maximum open space and opportunities for recreation, including access to the water. But to
make the vision real, we need a strong citizen's voice and support. We will work to make FoHRP an
organization that can provide this voice."
John Doswell said that FoHRP's role will include advocacy for the park; publication of a park
newsletter, sponsoring/fund raising for events and activities and community outreach. An immediate
goal is to raise $100,000 to fund the organization's initial operations. The Hudson River Park
Alliance has already pledged $10,000 and others an additional $7,000.
Executive Committee Meetings
Just a general reminder: Friends of Pier 84 Executive Committee Meetings are always the third
Monday of the month at 6:00 PM at 455 West 43rd Street, ground floor. All are welcome and don't be
put off by the term "Executive Committee". If you come and want to be more involved, simply come
and get involved. We generally don't mail notices of these meetings - but if you are coming for
the first time, just call ahead (757 1600) to confirm that we haven't switched the date or
location. Hope to see you soon...
------------------------------------------------------------
THE 15-YEAR STORY OF 2 40-STORY TOWERS
They Are to Rise, at Last, on 42d St. Between 11th and 12th
New York Times, June 29, 1999
How does a developer measure time, when time just seems to stretch on and on and on?
"Well, I have six grandchildren I did not have when I bought the property," said Larry
Silverstein, whose River Place — a monumental rental and retail project on a full block of
West 42d Street at the Hudson River — is just now beginning to rise, after 15 years of
waiting.
Mr. Silverstein, now 68, has secured a $140 million construction loan and has already finished the
foundation for the first of his two 900,000-square-foot, glassed-in 40-story towers, which —
running counter to the emphasis on family-sized apartments in other locations — will contain
921 smaller apartments: studios, one- and two-bedroom units. The first building, he said, is to be
ready by the fall of 2000, and the second by 2004.
The chronology of River Place is a scenario of the pitfalls and frustrations of Manhattan
development.
Mr. Silverstein bought the site, bounded by 41st and 42d Streets and 11th and 12th Avenues, in
1984. When he bought it, the site was zoned for single-story industrial use. Mr. Silverstein
needed 10 times that. By the time he got the zoning, it was 1989. Although the stock market had
suffered its sharp skid two years before, the real estate market was still soaring. Mr.
Silverstein figured he'd be digging in a few weeks.
But the day he got the zoning, the city was sued over the change, Mr. Silverstein said, grimacing
at the memory. Mr. Silverstein said he tried to negotiate, but it was fruitless. By the time the
dust cleared — the developer won — it was 1992. The real-estate recession had arrived in
all its fury, and there was no money to borrow.
"The market was down the tubes and I thought I would die," said Mr. Silverstein, who built 7 World
Trade Center, with its 2 million square feet of offices, and who owns 140 Broadway, with 1.2
million square feet of offices.
People suggested he sell his block. "Who would buy it?" he replied.
And so, he continued, he "sat there and crunched numbers and gnashed teeth and kept saying the
nightmare will end, the sun will rise again."
But even when the real estate market began its recovery, the nightmare continued. By 1995, things
were looking good: Mr. Silverstein had hired Costas Kondylis, the well-known designer of
residential towers, to plan his towers, his health club and his tennis courts overlooking the
river.
In 1997, he said, he was ready to "put the shovel in the ground," when word came down from Gov.
George E. Pataki's office: Stop.
The Governor announced he was studying the site for possible expansion of the Javits Center.
Finally, after a year, the word came down: Build the towers. It took six months to arrange another
loan; the last 18-month delay cost him $10 million, Mr. Silverstein said. "But here I am, at last,
building my towers," the developer said, shaking his head. "I guess you'd call it a saga."
TRACIE ROZHON
------------------------------------------------------------
THEATER REZONING RETURNS TO STAGE
COURT CALLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY
by Keith Meatto
Chelsea Clinton News, July 8, 1999
The state Supreme Court nullified a 1998 zoning rule that would permit real estate developers to
buy the air rights above Midtown theater buildings and transfer them to nearby sites.
Judge William P. McCooe ruled that the city did not properly weigh the potential consequences for
the existing neighborhood and must now prepare an environmental impact statement.
The court's decision halts as much as 2.4 million square feet of potential new construction in the
area bounded by 42nd and 57th streets, Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue.
Such a building boom, the plaintiffs argued, would increase traffic, restrict light and air, and
jump-start gentrification, forcing residents and business owners to pay higher rents or move out.
"This is an affirmation that neighborhoods are important," said John Fisher, president of the
Clinton Special District Coalition, which waged the lawsuit against the city, along with local
residents and state Assemblyman Richard Gottfried. "This is not Midtown West - this is Clinton,
this is Hell's Kitchen."
The city claimed that an environmental impact study was unnecessary, arguing that the rezoning
would not induce any development that wouldn't have otherwise occurred. But this position relied
on economic development statistics from 1983 to 1993, information which the court deemed to be
out-dated.
The judge chastised the city for painting a misleading picture of the thriving real estate market
and discounting the impact of the Times Square renaissance on surrounding neighborhoods.
"The nearby Times Square neighborhood has recently undergone a significant transformation,
increasing the value and desirability of living and working in the Theater Subdistrict and
augmenting the likelihood of significant development," wrote McCooe.
"The decision is an indicator to city government that they can't be perfunctory about planning,"
said Eliot Sclar, an urban studies expert at Columbia University who supplied written testimony
for the plaintiffs.
The city will likely appeal the court's decision and maintain that its 75-page environmental
assessment statement obviates the need for a more thorough study.
"We are confident that the environmental reviews were performed properly," said David Zagor,
spokesperson for the Department of City Planning. "We believe we will ultimately be upheld and the
Broadway Theater District rezoning will remain in place."
In the meantime, at least one builder's hopes are now on hold. Representatives of developers Craig
and Lowell Harwood met with City Councilwoman Christine Quinn in February to discuss their
preliminary plans to construct a residential complex where a 10-story parking garage now stands on
West 44th Street west of Eighth Avenue.
Property owners who covet their neighbors' air rights aspire to construct buildings that exceed
legal height regulations. Any owner whose building falls short of the maximum allowable height can
sell the air above his roof to the owner of an adjacent building. Such a transaction entitles the
purchaser to construct a taller building without having to secure special permission from the city
or endure the arduous public approval process that can accompany such a variance.
The city's rezoning expanded the scope of this practice for theater owners, allowing them to sell
air rights to any property owner in a 45-block chunk of Midtown. The plan promised to provide an
infusion of cash to Broadway, as much as $100 million, and stimulate real estate development. No
theaters have sold air rights since the City Council passed the rezoning last August.
Executives from the Shubert Organization and the Nederlander Producing Company, which collectively
own most of the 23 theaters affected by the court's decision, declined comment.
"Victory is sweet," said Antonia Bryson, attorney for the Clinton Special District Coalition. "The
community's determination to preserve the character of the neighborhood will now be taken
seriously, as it should be."
------------------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL, July 8, 1999
Chelsea Clinton News
Curtain Raised on Clinton
The scales of justice have tipped for Hell"s Kitchen residents.
One state Supreme Court justice last week informed Mayor Giuliani and the city's other elected
officials who claim real estate developers as their most prized constituency that they are not
above the law.
Judge William P. McCooe has called on the city to conduct a study of the potential impacts the
theater district rezoning proposal that passed the City Council last summer could have on the
environment.
Operating amid flurries of protests from city residents from Hell's Kitchen to Brooklyn to Queens,
the Department of City Planning last year failed to study these effects. Agency officials claimed
that according to their own data - collected between 1983 and 1993 - the little development that
might result from a change in laws would not significantly increase the number of cars and buses
passing through the area or the number of people walking on the sidewalks, therefore keeping the
pollution levels in the area status quo.
Have these same officials not passed through Times Square lately and sampled the effects of the
Mickey Mouse boom? Oh, right, Disney moved in after 1993.
Residents of Hell's Kitchen and certainly all city officials involved have not forgotten the
political theatrics that surrounded the public review of the rezoning proposal last spring and
summer.
Well, the curtain's up again. And, assuming the city does not win an appeal it is thinking of
pursuing, there is another long process of policy drafting, public hearings and lobbying ahead.
Let's hope the heat outside subsides by then, because it's going to be another scorcher.