While the public is not invited to speak or participate at these sessions, CPC will be discussing the NYU 2031 Plan and anyone can attend to hear the deliberations.  The next review session is on Monday, May 21 at 1 p.m. in Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street. Another public review session is scheduled for June 4, 1 p.m. in Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street.

Supplemental information on NYU’s application was presented to City Planning.  Though the document is long (though some can be quickly scrolled through), we can fight best when we’re well-informed on what NYU is presenting:  http://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/govCommunAffairs/documents/2031/NYU-2031-Submission-for-City-Planning-Commission.pdf

Starting around p. 47 of this .pdf from the Department of City Planning

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/luproc/nyc_core_presentation.pdf

We have a LOT of work to do.  Come, and bring your friends/neighbors, to tomorrow’s City Planning hearing!

City Planning Commission is the first binding vote, so if at all possible, please come to the hearing which will be held at the National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green.  The hearing starts at 10am.  If you can stay and speak, that’s great!  If not, please come for however long and at whatever time you can – you’ll be supporting your friends and neighbors, showing City Planning how much we care about our area, and making the point that NYU can NOT take Greenwich Village away from the residents, small businesses and visitors that make our historic community thrive!

NYU cannot build their 2031 Plan without significant zoning changes and takeover of public land.  If we convince City Planning to preserve the existing zoning, keep public land from NYU acquisition or use (construction staging, access plazas, being covered over, etc), and keep existing deed restrictions in place, we can stop NYU 2031 in the Village.

Testimony at the hearing is limited to three minutes per speaker.

How to get there:

Subway
4 & 5 trains to Bowling Green
1 train to South Ferry
R train to Whitehall Street
J & Z trains to Broad Street
2 & 3 trains to Wall Street

Bus
M5, M15, and M20

Taxi or on Foot
Down Broadway to where Battery Place meets State Street.

The National Museum of the American Indian–New York is accessible to people with disabilities.

At the April 20, 2012 Rally to “Save the Village, Stop NYU 2031.” L-R: NYU FASP member Patrick Deer, CAAN co-chair Terri Cude, GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman, NYS Assemblymember Deborah Glick, NYS Senator Thomas Duane, CB2 Chair Brad Hoylman, Parent and Play Space Advocate Jeannine Kiely, and Assemblymember Glick Chief of Staff Matt Borden.

MOBILIZING AGAINST NYU 2031

Paws, Strollers, Sneakers, Walkers – whatever you use to mobilize, come out on April 20 at 4pm for a March and Rally against the NYU 2031 Plan!

Starting at the Mercer-Houston Dog Run at 4pm, then up Mercer to Bleecker (picking up some kids from Mercer Playground and the Key Park), then west on Bleecker to LaGuardia Place and on to Washington Square Park by the Garibaldi statue for a Rally and say that we want NYU 2031 STOPPED!

All neighbors and those opposed to NYU 2031 are Welcome!

Co-sponsors (list in formation): Assemblymember Deborah Glick, CAAN 2031, CB2, GVSHP and NYUFASP.

Article on Borough President Stringer’s recommendations on NYU 2031:  www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/nyregion/nyu-to-scale-back-expansion-plans-in-village.html

We still have much work to do.

The New York City Planning Commission has tentatively calendared their hearing on the NYU 2031 Plan for APRIL 25, 2012, 10am at the National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green.

Please save the date and make sure your neighbors know about this important event.  CAAN 2031 will post here as soon as we get confirmation on the date/time/location from the CPC.

While the Times editorial took a strikingly pro-development stance (with some inaccuracies), even NYU students realize that community and faculty resistance to the plan, which includes 2.4 million square feet of building, a blanket upzoning to higher-level residential and commercial zoning in two locations, and depriving the community of light and air, is a reasonable reaction.  Several links included to other media mentions:
http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2012/04/02/new-york-times-endorses-nyu-2031-we-found-a-few-things-wrong-with-that/

With a major article last week in the Times by Michael Kimmelman, editorials (unfavorable to the community) in the Daily News and the Post, many blog and online newspaper articles, and almost a constant stream of articles and snippets in The Villager, the press push is clearly on with salvos from both sides.

Today, a piece by Joseph Berger in the New York Times about Borough President Stringer and his role in this ULURP:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/nyregion/stringer-wants-to-reduce-nyus-proposed-expansion-plan.html

From today’s NY Times, an article by Michael Kimmelman called “It Riles A Village”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/arts/design/nyu2031-universitys-plans-for-greenwich-village.html

Joseph Berger of the New York Times did his third article on the NYU 2031 Plan and community opposition (the first two covered the city-owned open space strips on the superblocks, this one is more concerned with political aspects):  www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/nyregion/nyu-expansion-plan-upsets-some-greenwich-village-neighbors.html

While Mr. Berger’s article is relatively well-balanced, NYU makes some blatant misstatements in their quotes.  For example, of the four proposed buildings, one is on an existing footprint (the “Bleecker Building” that would take over the Morton Williams site), one is partly on an existing footprint but partly on public open space (the “Zipper” which moves east from the current Coles site to partly on the Coles footprint and obliterating the public open space that includes the Mercer-Houston Dog Run), another (the “LaGuardia Building”) is partly on the retail strip including Citibank and significantly on the award-winning Sasaki Garden, and one is completely on the land currently occupied by the hugely popular “Key Park” children’s playground. This certainly does not give the community more space that is not built upon; i.e. “open.”  In addition, planned entry plazas for the new buildings take green, open parkland and turn it into paved accessways for students and faculty.

Also, the 10,000 people that the new buildings would bring to the area is from NYU’s own Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which states that the project would result in 10-12,000 people per day in the area (“trips”).

One last point: more than “some” faculty oppose the NYU 2031 Plan – the NYU FASP (Faculty Against the Sexton Plan) group has surpassed 300 members, many of whom stay hidden to avoid risking NYU retaliation for speaking out against NYU’s plans, and more won’t even join the group due to the same fear of losing their jobs and homes.