Open Letter to the Community
For nearly ten years, the Historic Districts Council has been helping community residents in the Madison Square North neighborhood to gain landmark protections for their architecturally and culturally significant neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan.
These preservation efforts, which included numerous reports and submissions, have gained support from elected officials, preservation organizations, community leaders and thousands of individuals. However, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has repeatedly declined to even publically consider individual buildings within the proposed district for landmark designation. During these years of LPC inaction, building after building have fallen to the wrecking ball and have been replaced with over-scaled and ill-designed towers and hotels.
The most recent attack on the character of the area and, indeed, of New York City, came last week with a request for a demolition permit for the handsome 115-year-old Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 5th Avenue and 32nd street to make way for a 40-story condominium tower. DNAInfo covered this latest outrage in an excellent article by journalist Shaye Weaver. As a result of attention by the press and elected officials, notably Councilman Dan Garodnick and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, the LPC is currently reviewing the building for potential designation but the clock is ticking on the pending of the demolition permit.
Now is the time the City must take a stand to determine the future of this historic Midtown neighborhood – do New Yorkers deserve a district rich with history and personality, with small stores, human-scale buildings and a fascinating story which includes characters like Alfred Stieglitz, Irving Berlin and Zero Mostel in the heart of Manhattan, or should it become an area of large drug stores, cheerless pickup bars and gleaming towers of solitude? Please take a minute and make your voice heard.