The New York Times on the LPC
The New York Times has a whole section devoted to articles on the Landmarks Preservation Commission, see http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/landmarks_preservation_commission/index.html
and here’s a precis of the latest news:
“The New York City Landmarks Commission arose after Pennsylvania Station was demolished in 1964. Since its founding the commission has granted protection to everything from rowhouses to skyscrapers to entire neighborhoods. In fiscal year 2007 alone, with one of the smallest budgets of any city agency, the commission designated 22 individual structures, 3 historic districts and 3 interiors as landmarks for a total of 1,158 buildings — the most since 1990.
In an interview, Robert B. Tierney, who has been the commission’s chairman for five years, said he was proud of its accomplishments during his tenure. “It’s been a superb record and a lot has been done,” he said. He cited the creation of historic districts like the Gansevoort meatpacking area, despite enormous opposition from developers, and designations outside Manhattan, like Sunnyside Gardens in Queens.
Despite its many successes, the commission has been criticized for its inaction and opaque decision-making process.
For years, preservation advocates have pleaded with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider enlarging its protective mantle in Park Slope, one of Brooklyn’s most scenic brownstone neighborhoods. In 2000 they proposed that the commission extend the 44-block Park Slope Historic District eastward and southward, preserving the handsome 19th-century residential architecture. Seven years later, the commission had not decided.
In November 2008, ruling on a lawsuit filed in March against the landmarks commission’s top officials by a preservationist coalition, the judge called the agency’s inaction “arbitrary and capricious’’ and ordered it to start making timely decisions on every designation request it receives. To allow such requests “to languish is to defeat the very purpose of the L.P.C. and invite the loss of irreplaceable landmarks,” the judge, Marilyn Shafer, wrote.
Although the city says it will appeal, the ruling was a significant victory for preservationists and politicians who have long accused the commission of lacking the responsiveness and accountability that citizens expect from a watchdog of the city’s architectural history. “