The Preservation Diaries – Landmarking in Gotham: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish?

Written by hdc on Sep 23, 2010

Landmarking in Gotham: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish?

Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Preservation Diaries 

By Susan Kathryn Hefti
Special to The Clyde Fitch Report
[email protected]  

As summer slowly exits stage right, Gotham’s green leaves rapidly russet. Severe desiccation — resulting from a Sahara-like summer scorched with record-high temperatures — has accelerated the natural pace of this perennial but not-so-subtle color cue, reminding us that the chill of winter will be upon us before too long.  

Yet despite the sauna-like conditions successive heat waves visited upon our city in the summer of 2010, the annual leafy reminder of winter’s inevitability seems rudely redundant this year as New York has yet to shake from its bones the big chill that crept in many moons earlier. A quick stroll up Madison Avenue, still freckled with empty storefronts, would prompt even the most devout optimist among us to peer over the rim of his rosy-tinted glasses while a shiver races up his spine.  

Given the bald stubbornness of the frigid economy and the intractable tundra into which it has plunged many a municipal budget throughout the country, it comes as no surprise this week that New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has called upon city agencies to slash an additional 5.4 percent (with the exception of certain vital services which are expected to cut 2.7 percent), to reduce a total of $800 million from the 2011 fiscal budget.  

Posted Under: The Politics of Preservation, Uncategorized