NEWS: War of Words in Sunnyside
From the New York Times, first:
Battle Lines in the Fight To Protect Sunnyside
Published: January 7, 2007
To the Editor:
Re ”Brick Houses, Winding Paths and Unexpected Sharp Elbows” (Dec. 31):
Sunnyside Gardens is already a Special Planned Community Preservation District. This ensures the kinds of protections most people think of when they think of ”development” and changes made to a residential community.
Sunnyside Gardens is currently protected against tear-downs, McMansions, high rises, aluminum siding and so on. In fact, the proposed landmark designation would rescind the special district designation, which currently protects the ”open spaces” and ”common gardens” that many of us consider the real historic distinction of the neighborhood.
Emphasizing bricks and mortar can come at the expense of economic and ethnic diversity, and neighborliness, which the original designers valued. Thus the disagreements in the community are not between those who wish to protect the community and those who do not, but over what kinds of protections are needed and over the general character of the community in which we live.
Warren Lehrer
Sunnyside, Queens
The writer is the co-author of a book about new immigrants in Queens.
then:
Preserving Landmarks for All New Yorkers
Published January 14, 2007
To the Editor:
As a professional preservationist, I take offense at the implicit charge of racial exclusion in a letter that states, “Emphasizing bricks and mortar can come at the expense of economic and ethnic diversity” (“Battle Lines in the Fight to Protect Sunnyside,” Jan. 7).
Landmark designation does not have a racial agenda. New York City’s administrative code states clearly that “the protection, enhancement, perpetuation and use” of buildings and “landscape features of special character or historical or aesthetic interest is a public necessity and is required in the interest of the health, prosperity, safety and welfare of the people.” The people, not “some” people.
Forty years of urban experience has shown that landmark designation works to forward this worthwhile municipal goal. Landmarking does not cause population exclusion or displacement, and to place it along with redlining, urban renewal and other racially charged planning practices is both incorrect and inappropriate.
Simeon Bankoff
Executive Director
Historic Districts Council
East Village