Post 9: The new CB chair, the EVCC, and the Task Force

As always, with the exception of public figures, I use altered names to protect the individuals in this history.

The new CB chair, David (the multiple bar owner) took a different, practical approach to rezoning. He gathered together major operatives in the neighborhood including affordable housing developers and managers (GOLES, LES People’s Mutual housing, Cooper Square Mutual Housing, EVCC and others) and with the assistance of Andrew, the Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation (GVSHP today known as Village Preservation) looked towards a collaboration with DCP itself, rather than presenting a fully articulated plan to DCP. The idea was to formulate basic principles or desiderata and then see what DCP might offer. This happened at a propitious moment, as Bloomberg had initiated what became one of the most extensive series of rezonings throughout the city.

Towards the beginning of the discussions, EVCC presented a plan of its own for rezoning the East Village. They had hired a consultant who produced several possible rezoning proposals that would limit excessive development and prevent the redevelopment of P.S.64. Their plan came under criticism by a highly regarded life-long resident Maria, who lived on St. Mark’s Place, the commercial nightlife hub of the neighborhood. She’d been resisting the expansion of nightlife on her street. The EVCC plan rezoned St. Mark’s Place for commerce, which would have made it virtually impossible for Maria to challenge any new restaurants regardless how noisy or attractive to crowds. One of the EVCC plans seemed to me appealing, limiting heights to around 60’. None of the plans were discussed much by the CB 197 Task Force and it was my impression that the members didn’t read it very carefully since no one seemed to have anything at all to say about the plans and the distinctions among them. In any case, David asked the members to formulate and agree upon their desiderata for the neighborhood.

While the group debated over several months, construction began alarmingly fast in CD3. But not in the EV. To everyone’s surprise, all the developments appeared south of Houston, an area closely associated with the old ghetto and that had been largely ignored by the political operatives in the CD3 and by the real estate industry as well. Yet suddenly tall buildings were rising block after block. In the EV, by contrast, there were no new developments at all after the 1999 raising of the Theater for the New City building and the 3rd street scam. What was going on? Why nothing in the EV, where all the attention had been, and so much activity in the old, ignored LES?