Hell's Kitchen Online 12/3/98

[Hellskitchen]

Hell's Kitchen Online                                    12/3/98
                 "All the News the Times Won't Print"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue...

* City Council Candidates Debate Dec. 7th
* Hearings on SRO Bill to stop tenant harassment
* River Center Hearings
* Two Columbus Circle (Huntington Hartford Museum) Threatened
* Coalition For A Livable West Side responds to Trump
* Theater Row Plan: Is It Art, or Real Estate? (Voice article)

=================================================================

KITCHEN DEBATES:
CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES SQUARE OFF IN CLINTON/HELL’S DECEMBER 7TH

Candidates to replace Tom Duane in New York City Council’s Third District will step up to debate
issues of concern to the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen neighborhood at a Clinton City Council Debate on
Monday, December 7th at 8 p.m., at Hartley House, 413 West 46th Street. The forum is sponsored by
the Clinton Special District Coalition.

  CSDC CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM
  Monday, December 7th at 8:00 P.M.
  Hartley House, 413 West 46th St.

Councilmember Tom Duane was recently elected to the State Senate and a special election will be
called for either February or March. The five invited candidates are Aubrey Lees, Christopher
Lynn, Carlos Manzano, Bill Maruwski and Christine Quinn. Find out where these candidates stand on
housing, overdevelopment, environment, education, public safety and other issues. Audience members
will be encouraged to question the candidates.

=================================================================

CITY COUNCIL HEARINGS ON ELDRIDGE SRO HARASSMENT BILL

City Council Committee on Housing & Buildings will hold a public hearing on Ronnie Eldride's Bill
(Intro. 108) next Friday, December 11 at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall, Council Chambers.

Int. 108 - would prohibits the Department of Buildings from issuing permits for the construction,
alteration or demolition of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) multiple dwelling units until the
Department of Housing Preservation and Development has issued a Certificate of No Tenant
Harassment.

This is an important bill for tenants as it could stem the tide of SRO conversions into tourist
hotels.

=================================================================

RIVER CENTER PROJECT SLATED FOR CITY PLANNING HEARING DEC. 9th

City Planning Public Hearing
Wednesday, December 9th 10:00 a.m.
City Hall, 2nd Floor Public Hearing Room

But what is the River Center? 

Two 40 story towers with up to 1,200 market-rate apartments, depending on
configuration and use. It could be as imposing as another Manhattan
Plaza in a part of Clinton that isn't fully developed, but needs the 
moderate & low income-mix to maintain the character of the neighborhood. 
It would be a tragedy to create more luxury housing for those of higher 
income. In addition, the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is
flawed and contains innaccuracies.

Where is Virginia Fields on this issue? No word yet as of this newsletter,
but speculation is that the Borough President will yet again approve
an enormous and inappropriate development over the Community Board's
objection. (like she did with the 8th Avenue Air Rights)

According to the NY Observer:

  "One of the latest development proposals is the River Center complex, an 
  800-apartment high-rise with 106,000 square feet of retail space and 655 
  parking spaces. It would replace a mostly abandoned building on a square 
  block at West 58th Street between 10th and 11th avenues. The River Center
  L.L.C. and Rafael Viñoly Architects will not be able to include 
  residential space in the project unless the city grants a commercial 
  zoning permit for the site, which is currently specified for manufacturing."

  "Board 4 sent a letter (http://hellskitchen.net/comm/cb4/cb4-1198.html#16)
  to City Planning Commission chairman Joseph B. Rose opposing the project 
  unless some serious modifications are made. Given the recent spate of 
  large-scale residential and commercial projects in or on the border of 
  Hell's Kitchen, including Donald Trump's Riverside South condominiums, the 
  Time Warner-led Columbus Center, the proposed expansion of the Jacob K. 
  Javits Convention Center and the Brodsky Organization's plans for Theater 
  Row, to name a few, the board is reluctant to encourage more."

=================================================================

TWO COLUMBUS CIRCLE (HUNTINGTON HARTFORD MUSEUM) THREATENED
From Committee for Environmentally Sound Development Inc.

The City intends to dispose of 2 Columbus Circle, the Huntington Hartford Museum, by the end of
the year. There are two proposals the City is now considering, either Donald Trump or the Dahesh
Museum. The Museum which has a world class collection of 19th century classical art, will preserve
the existing Edward Durell Stone structure.

There are many individuals, civic and preservation organizations who think landmarking is in
order, such as Hugh Hardy, noted architect, Robert A. M. Stern, Dean of the Yale School of
Architecture, and the Historic Districts Council. If the City chooses Dahesh, the building will be
preserved. Among the many supporters of the Dahesh in the Art world are such notables as Brooke
Astor, James Draper, curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Mary Ann Stevens, curator, Royal
Academy in London.

The City was given 2 Columbus Circle by Gulf and Western in the mid-seventies. It is a building of
imaginative and unique design (some call it a gem) that is ideally suited to the plot made by the
cross streets. The interior was designed as an art museum and a world class museum wishes to
acquire it. New Yorkers overwhelmingly want to retain the structure and use it for its intended
purpose. Financial gain should not be the only concern of the City Administration. Furthermore,
the City has already sold too much real estate. Too many zoning changes have been made to
accommodate overpowering skyscrapers.

Whether the site, 2 Columbus Circle, retains the existing structure or is used to build a 30-story
hotel will effect all the residents of the area. Congestion is now unbearable around Columbus
Circle. Traffic doesn't move. Fire engines and ambulances just stand with sirens blasting. Added
development only makes things worse. New York City has a problem with air quality and with sewage
plants that run over capacity. We need less density and thorough planning for the future
development and infrastructure of our City.

Our elected officials have written letters in support of the Museum. What we need now is for
individual citizens to write to the City administration and all the newspapers and talk shows
expressing their preference. Write a long letter or a one-liner. "Please select the Dahesh Museum
as the next occupant of 2 Columbus Circle." This is not only a matter of aesthetics, but also one
of development overkill and suffocating density.

Write to:

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, City Hall, New York, NY 10007
Randy Levine, Deputy Mayor, City Hall, New York, NY 10007
Joseph Rose, Director of City Planning, 22 Reade Street, New York,NY 10007
Charles Millard, Director, Economic Development Corp, 110 William Street, New York, NY 10038

Letter from Elected Officials:

November 18, 1998                                                       
Dear Mayor Giuliani:

We are writing to about the disposition of property at 2 Columbus Circle.

It has come to our attention that the site is now actively under consideration for sale by the
City to one of two bidders, and that the City intends to make a decision soon. We respectively ask
that the elected officials and Columbus Circle Tri-Board Task force be briefed on what is
currently being considered for the site and have an opportunity to respond before a decision is
made.

We would like to see the building at the site preserved. Many believe it should be landmarked. We
feel the building should house a worthy cultural institution, as it was originally intended to do.
We understand that the Dahesh Museum has submitted such a proposal.

We look forward to your response.

Very truly yours,

Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried
U, S. Representative Jerrold L. Nadler
Assembly Member Scott Stringer
U. S. Representative Carolyn Maloney
State Senator Franz Leichter
Council Member Ronnie Eldridge
State Senator Catherine Abate
(Thomas K. Duane has sent his own long and detailed letter to the Mayor.)

UPDATE IN BRIEF

Coliseum

We are still waiting for a decision from Judge Shirley Kram on our claim of Clean Air violations.
Another cause for complaint is the fact that the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the City
failed to go through the community review process (ULURP) mandated for Environmental Review
Statements (EIS). If there had been hearings before the proper City agencies, many of our
objections could have been attended to. Mayor Giuliani should not have the power to remove the
City Council from the review process. We have, therefore, filed a second lawsuit in State Court
demanding ULURP for the EIS.

63rd Street YMCA

The community lawsuit against Vornado Realty Investment Trust in opposition to the development of
a 41-story structure cantilevered over the 63rd YMCA wends its way through the courts. The case
has been assigned to New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapvich. Argument will be heard
Wednesday, February 3,1999 at 2:15 p.m. at 80 Centre Street in Part 12M, room 308. Vornado is
experiencing financial difficulties which may delay but not put an end to the project. Only the
lawsuit can do that.

Transfer of Air Rights in the Theater District

An EIS should have been written and the zoning as passed is faulty. The community is consulting
with attorneys. As predicted the alleged beneficiaries of the air rights plan, the Broadway
Initiative, is nearly defunct. Now it is plain that only developers will gain while the rest of
Clinton is subjected to even worse congestion and air pollution.

Riverside South Development

Legal proceedings will continue in State Court to insist that developers abide by their agreement
to build Riverside Drive South on a viaduct not on landfill. Further the promise to connect
Riverside Drive to Riverside Drive South is not being carried out, as the developer had promised,
in order to mitigate traffic on West End Avenue. The first step is to get permission from the
State to close the exit from the Highway to 72nd Street, then to accurately map the location of
Riverside Drive South.

River Center

Another megastructure with 1,200 units and then some, between 58th and 59th Streets, 10th and 11th
Avenues, is now going through ULURP. In this case the EIS is terribly flawed and we are submitting
testimony at the appropriate hearings.

East Side

Donald Trump has announced plans to construct a 90-story behemoth on 48th Street and 1st Avenue.
There is a community group in the Turtle Bay area that will oppose this outrage. Some how all
these neighborhood groups have to come together and made it clear to the City Administration that
we want an end to rampant overdevelopment.

Committee For Environmentally Sound Development Inc.
P.O. Box 20464
Columbus Circle Station
New York, NY 10023-1492 

=================================================================

FROM COALITION FOR A LIVABLE WEST SIDE 
responding to an interview in Manhattan Spirit with Donald Trump

Sent to the Manhattan Spirit Editor:

Regarding the question you posed, Donald Trump has neither won nor lost his battle to build
Riverside South as he envisioned it. However, his need to declare a premature victory is in
keeping with his personality and is indicative that the Coalition has indeed been a big thorn in
his side.

As the former chief borough engineer for Ruth Messinger, author of a recent novel based on
Riverside South's troubled gestation (The Interceptor, Ballantine, 1998), and environmental
consultant to the Coalition, I'm not sure how objective I can be. But I'll give it a shot.

The Coalition's lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleged that Riverside South's permit to hook up
to the North River sewage treatment plant was based on inaccurate and/or falsified information.
Put simply, 24 million gallons of sewage per day disappeared literally overnight, never to return,
making way for this questionable permit. Research to which I contributed heavily and which was
reviewed and supported by a variety of environmental experts demonstrated (we think) very clearly,
that the sewage in question was either shunted into the Hudson or passed through a metering system
that was recalibrated to read drastically incorrect numbers. Specifically, our report demonstrated
that DEP's own figures were internally inconsistent: One set of numbers taken from the plant
meters suddenly read much lower than normal, while another set upstream read the same old high
flow numbers.

We were sure we had either a smoking gun or at least a few shell casings. However, the federal
court ruled against us while giving no real indication that they either read or understood our
findings.

The Coalition is not so much interested in beating Donald Trump as it is in seeing to it that all
developers play by the same rules--the City's rules--and that those rules are strictly and
appropriately applied. I have never met a more knowledgeable, more determined, more fair-minded
group of citizen's advocates than Madeleine Polayes,  Batya Lewton, and Edgar Freud of the
Coalition for a Livable West Side. Their ability to get things done with severely limited
resources while tackling an issue of this magnitude has often astounded me.

As for Riverside South, its future is somewhat in question given the location of the West Side
Highway, reported construction problems, and various litigation. As Yogi Bera once said, "It ain't
over till it's over."

Richard Herschlag, P.E.

=================================================================

Village Voice, December 2 - 8, 1998 
Towers & Tenements
by j.a. lobbia
Full House 
Theater Row Plan: Is It Art, or Real Estate? 

When the curtain rose this spring on a plan to let Broadway theater owners reap windfall profits
by selling air rights, some of New York's richest showmen actually pleaded poverty. Theaters were
dark more than half the time, they argued, while the costs of productions soared. Problem was, the
dark time they cited conveniently stretched back 30 years, and belied the fact that in more recent
history, Broadway has drawn record-breaking crowds.

If there is further need of proof that the poor-mouthing by moguls— including the Shubert
Organization, Broadway's largest theater owner— was an act (though an ultimately convincing one,
since the City Council voted to let theater owners cash in on an air rights version of a land
grab), consider this: The Shuberts are now hatching plans to add another 499 theater seats in the
Times Square area. So much for not being able to fill the house.

The plan comes via the 42nd Street Development Corporation and Shubert, and aims to redevelop
Theater Row, a half-block span of buildings that the development corporation owns on 42nd Street
west of Ninth Avenue. Established 20 years ago in an early effort to sweep sex out of Times
Square, the Theater Row project transformed tenements that housed sex shops into small
Off-Broadway theaters, rehearsal spaces, and offices.

The current plan would demolish most of the buildings in the row and replace them with a Shubert
theater plus another three or four 99-seat houses— topped with a 250-unit apartment building
primarily for market-rate renters. It will be built by the Brodsky Organization, which reportedly
has agreed to pay the development corporation $10 million for the property and air rights above
the low-rise buildings.

To some, the combination of theater and apartment tower sounds like another round of development
plans masquerading as theater preservation. "My question is, is this about theater or about real
estate?" asks Hell's Kitchen activist John Fisher. "I've spent 15 years in theater and I love it
dearly and understand its needs. But I don't think what we need is the destruction of these
buildings and a new luxury tower that is going to further cut the neighborhood in half and bring
in people who demand upscale everything. We lose our small hardware stores, our restaurants, our
shoe repair shops, the whole neighborhood."

Like other West Siders, Fisher is still smarting from the battle that allowed owners of low-rise
Broadway theaters to sell their air rights to developers who want to build within a 50-block
midtown radius— a move that will make for bulkier, taller buildings along the border of Hell's
Kitchen and Clinton. A new 30-story high-rise wedged in between the 45-story towers of Manhattan
Plaza would only add to the walled-off feeling.

"We're not thrilled to have yet another luxury high-rise, and we'd like to see some discussion of
more mixed income," said Pam Frederick, chair of Community Board 4. The plan calls for 80 percent
of the units to be market-rate, with the rest for low- and middle-income— a scheme that gives
developers tax abatements. "That's not bad, but can we do better?"

Frederick notes that the proposed project is "as of right," meaning that the developers need
little in the way of zoning changes or approval from city agencies, including the community board.
Adds Frederick, "There's really nothing for us to weigh in on here."

Two weeks ago, development company president Fred Papert presented the plan to Community Board 4.
The smaller theaters, he said, are designed to attract straight plays (read: serious drama, not
titanic spectacle), whose demise has been much lamented. The reasoning goes that just because
shows like Cats and Phantom play to full Broadway houses does not mean that straight plays are
thriving; in fact, most nonmusical productions can't carry larger houses. So smaller theaters are
needed for Off-Broadway productions, and in newer buildings.

"What we have now is these hundred-year-old tenement buildings where the plumbing is getting weak
and the walls are getting weak, so if you fart on the top floor you got problems at the bottom of
the building," says Papert. "We are going to build new theaters that are better shaped, and
they'll be prettier, with better electrical, lighting, all that."

Papert says the proposal is a plus for the neighborhood. "This will only enliven what over the
years have been desolate and unpleasant and dangerous parts of town," says Papert. "Manhattan
Plaza got it started and we got artists in there because we thought that plus Theater Row would
anchor a renewal, and it worked," he says, noting that most of the apartments in Manhattan Plaza
are reserved for performing artists. "What gives us a certain cheerful symmetry is that our
original idea was to renew the neighborhood and make it attractive for private investment. Well
now, the private investment is coming right to where we started it, on top of Theater Row."

Indeed, the lure of Clinton and Hell's Kitchen is obvious as luxury towers spring up even west of
Eighth Avenue. In late September, bids were due to the city's Department of Housing Preservation
and Development (HPD) to build an apartment building on Tenth Avenue at 54th Street on a
city-owned parcel. Whoever wins the bid must limit market-rate rents to 80 percent of the units.

"I've heard the response was more than HPD expected and they were very happy with the quality,"
says one source. "The developers are so anxious to get in this neighborhood, they did not balk at
the income guidelines." Megadevelopers like the Brodsky Organization, Rockrose Development, Harry
Macklowe Real Estate Company, Helmsley-Spear, and Donald Zucker are thought to be among the
bidders.

Ironically, the developer favored by the local community board, the nonprofit Settlement Housing
Fund, offers the most generous income mix, with only 70 percent of the units going market-rate.
But the fund faces an uphill battle. "I think we have the best proposal, but I don't know if we
can compete with the big boys," says the fund's associate director Susan Cole. "The city will pick
whoever offers the highest bid for the land, and that's not our mission. We want to build housing
to fulfill the community needs."

Sources say HPD is expected to select a developer in two or three weeks. During that same
interval, Papert says he hopes to work out crucial details to make a June 1999 groundbreaking on
Theater Row possible.

"Talk to me again in about two weeks," says Papert. "What we have now is a nice idea, and everyone
seems to be enthusiastic. When we see a shovel in the ground, we'll all know for sure that this is
going to happen."