E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
April 2012, Volume 9, Number 1
Announcing the First of HDC’s
2012 Neighborhood Walking and Bicycle Tours
Van Cortlandt Village, Bronx
WALKING TOUR led by Anthony W. Robins, architectural historian
Once the site of Revolutionary War-era Fort Independence, Van Cortlandt Village developed into a residential enclave in the 20th century. Built on a winding street plan designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, responding to the hills and views of the area, the neighborhood consists of small Neo-Colonial and Tudor revival homes and apartment buildings, including the Shalom Alecheim Houses, an early cooperative housing project. The tour will be led by architectural historian Anthony W. Robins, author of the Van Cortlandt Village Cultural Resources Survey. A representative of the Fort Independence Park Neighborhood Association will also attend to talk about their ongoing preservation and awareness efforts.
You can RSVP today by going to our website or by calling 212-614-9107. Meeting locations and directions for tours will be provided upon registration. Tours generally last two and half hours. Space is limited.
Six to Celebrate is generously supported by The New York Community Trust.
Additional support for the Six to Celebrate Tours is provided by New York City Councilmembers Inez Dickens, Daniel Garodnick, Stephen Levin and Rosie Mendez.
——————————————————————————————————-
~Annual Preservation Party and Grassroots Awards!~
Join us for HDC’s Annual Preservation Party and Grassroots Awards. The event will take place on Tuesday, June 5 from 6 to 8pm at the recently reopened, reinvigorated and expanded South Street Seaport Museum at 12 Fulton Street, in Lower Manhattan.
This year we are celebrating The Green-Wood Cemetery, Parkway Village Historical Society, the Coalition to Save Manufacturers Hanover Trust and West End Preservation Society. Our colleagues in the media and government honor goes to, DNAinfo and New York City Council Member Al Vann of Brooklyn’s 36th District; and preservationist and cultural leader Susan Henshaw Jones will receive the Mickey Murphy Award for lifetime achievement.
Get your tickets as a Co-Sponsor today! Your donation will help fund HDC’s much-needed advocacy and outreach for neighborhood preservation initiatives. Sponsorship start at $100 for four tickets to the event and listing in the invitation, program book and on the HDC website. Additional opportunities are available on the HDC website.
In order to have your organization’s name listed on the invitation, please RSVP by Friday, April 13. If you have any questions in the interim, please feel to contact Frampton Tolbert at 212-614-9107 or [email protected] or visit http://hdc.org/program-events/grassroots for more information.
——————————————————————————————————-
~Help Save the Chelsea Market Building!~
Good news – the application by Jamestown Properties to rezone Chelsea Market to allow the construction of huge office and hotel towers atop the complex has been delayed again. Save Chelsea and the coalition to help save the building has received word that the certification of the application, planned for this week, has not taken place as originally planned. Facing broad community opposition, the rezoning application has been delayed month after month several times now.
Save Chelsea and its allies (which include HDC) have staunchly opposed rezoning the complex to allow these massive additions (current zoning does not allow any new development atop the historic complex), and have recently been joined with strong editorial support from the Chelsea Now/Villager newspapers. Opponents of the plan have sent HUNDREDS OF LETTERS to city officials urging them NOT to support the plan, and more than 1,000 people have signed our on-line petition against it (please write or sign if you haven’t already!).
Learn more about Chelsea Market and the efforts to preserve it at: Save Chelsea,
Click here for sample letters you can “copy and paste” and send to Speaker Christine Quinn,
Borough President Scott Stringer, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden and
Robert Benfatto Jr., (District Manager, Land Use, CB4)
—————————————————————————————————–
~ News about Newsracks ~
Our friends at CIVITAS have headed up a campaign to improve newsrack enforcement. The profusion of ill-maintained, unsuitably located newsracks clutter the sidewalks New Yorkers and visitors use every day. A Newsrack Law was created in 2002 to prevent the physical and aesthetic problems that these boxes can pose while still allowing for freedom of the press. Unfortunately this law was weakened in 2004, and what regulation is left is rarely enforced. You can sign the CIVITAS petition or write your own letter to Council Member (and Council Transportation Committee Chair) James Vacca and your council member to call for an oversight hearing on the matter. Let’s protect the sidewalks of New York!
——————————————————————————————————-
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
——————————————————————————————————-
The Advocate for New York City’s Historic Neighborhoods
232 East 11th Street New York NY 10003
tel: 212-614-9107 fax: 212-614-9127 email: [email protected]