N.Y.U. freshmen need a campus — on Governors Island

Deborah Glick, assemblymember for the 66th District, wrote in an article published in The Villager:

New York University has always yearned for a true campus experience for its students. This goal has eluded N.Y.U. as it has struggled to expand within the confines of the Village neighborhood. Now the university’s aggressive and extremely overreaching development plans, as currently designed, would wall off Washington Square Village with two new buildings, effectively closing off  

More Photos: NYU 2031 Threatens Open Space

Northern Cardinal in Redbud, Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village

Our neighborhood green, open spaces are at risk!  They will be destroyed if the NYU 2031 Expansion Plan is approved to build skyscrapers on the two blocks between West Third Street, Mercer Street, Houston Street, and LaGuardia Place.  A slideshow of photographs of these treasures and sanctuaries, taken on April 19th, can be viewed at http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/photo_shoot_120419&view=slideshow.  All photographs by Hubert J. Steed.

News on the April 25th CPC Hearing

N.Y.U. freshmen need a campus — on Governors Island [The Villager]

Critics Outweigh Support at NYU 2031 City Planning Hearing [NearSay]

Mixed reactions to NYU 2031 voiced at public hearing [Washington Square News]

Halt University Construction [The New Republic]

N.Y.U.’s Expansion Plan, as Seen by Its Leaders [New York Times Letter to the Editor]

Expand Minds, Not the N.Y.U. Campus [New York Times Op-Ed]

City Planning members grill N.Y.U. on superblocks plan [The Villager]

Columbia University President Speaks Out in Support for NYU Expansion Plan [DNAinfo.com]

NYU expansion detractors rally at public hearing [The Real Deal]

Summary of the hearing [GVSHP]

Bookmark this page for continued coverage of the CPC Hearing!

Updated NYU 2031 Core Project; April 20th Rally

NYU Core Project report dated April 23, 2012 is online at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/luproc/nyc_core_presentation.pdf. Significant changes to NYU 2031 Core begin on page 45 of the report.  Thanks to CAAN 2031 for bringing this document to our attention.

Save the Village, Stop NYU 2031 Rally, 4/20/2012, courtesy of caan2031.org (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)

TOMORROW: City Planning Commission Hearing on NYU 2031

NYU Expansion on North and South blocks (in gray) courtesy of GVSHP (source)

The New York City Planning Commission will hold ITS ONLY PUBLIC HEARING on the NYU Expansion Plan TOMORROW Wednesday, April 25th at 10 a.m. at the National Museum of the American Indian at 1 Bowling Green. More information is available at http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/nyu/nyu-04-09-12.htm.

NYU Expansion Plan Opponents Want Hearing Postponed

The following LAW360 article was copied from the NYUFASP Facebook page.

NYU Expansion Plan Opponents Want Hearing Postponed
By Kaitlin Ugolik

Law360, New York (April 19, 2012, 3:48 PM ET) -- Attorneys representing two community groups opposing New York University's revised 2-million-square-foot expansion plan on Thursday asked the city's planning commission to produce a new environmental impact statement for the project and postpone a public hearing until specific details are released.

Open Space: Actual vs. According to NYU 2031

In the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, NYU states that there are .58 acres of open space on both of the superblocks. To arrive at this number, NYU is counting only the Mercer Street Playground in the Washington Square Village superblock and the Coles Plaza and Playground at the Silver Towers block as open space. This completely ignores the variety of passive and active use open space throughout the blocks, which totals nearly 8 acres. (Source: "The TRUTH About Open Space and The NYU 2031 Plan", GVSHP).

TODAY at 4 pm: March & Rally Against NYU 2031

Join the March & Rally Against NYU 2031 TODAY!

Video: STOP NYU's 2031 Expansion Plan

8blocksandbeyond created a video call to action titled "STOP NYU's 2031 Expansion Plan" which can be viewed below or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgBKhRGkLU0&feature=channel&list=UL. (Hat tip: WSVTA.)

Photo: Green, Open Spaces at Risk under NYU 2031

Our neighborhood green, open spaces are at risk!  They will be lost if the NYU 2031 Expansion Plan is approved to build skyscrapers on the two blocks between West Third Street, Mercer Street, Houston Street, and LaGuardia Place.  All photographs in the collage courtesy of Hubert J. Steed.  See http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/photo_shoot_120406&page=all for a complete list of photographs and descriptions.

NYU Faculty Against The Sexton Plan (NYUFASP)

NYUFASP has launched a website at http://nyufasp.com/.  The website is full of great resources including media coverage of NYU 2031; for example, Martin C. Pedersen's "The Shell Game," a critical analysis of the "Sexton-Stringer compromise" for MetropolisMag.com.  Here is an excerpt:

On the face of it, the announcement was in response to local opposition. But this is really a

March & Rally Against NYU 2031 on April 20th

CAAN (Community Action Alliance on NYU) 2031 has announced a March & Rally Against NYU 2031 on April 20 beginning at 4 p.m. The details - from the CAAN2 2031 website - are below.

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.

Media Coverage of Mayor's Bloomberg's Support of NYU 2031

NY1 - http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/political_news/159096/mayor-stands-by-nyu-s-greenwich-village-expansion-plans

DNAinfo - http://www.dnainfo.com/20120410/greenwich-village-soho/mayor-bloomberg-backs-nyu-expansion-plans

Borough President Stringer Issues Conditional Approval for NYU 2031lan

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer released his conditional approval for NYU 2031 this morning.  According to a press release, "Stringer secured major commitments to and mitigations for the project, which include a significant overall density reduction; designation and preservation of public-strips as parkland; elimination of a temporary gymnasium on the site of two community playgrounds;

April 10: NYU Downsizes Expansion Plans

WNYC reported that NYU agreed to modify the size of its proposed expansion plan.  Read the coverage at http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/apr/10/nyu-downsizes-expansion-plans/.

The New York Times also reported that NYU has "agreed to reduce the scale of its plans for four tall buildings in Greenwich Village by almost a fifth."  Read the entire article at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/nyregion/nyu-to-scale-back-expansion-plans-in-village.html?ref=nyregion.  

Updated: April 25th City Planning Commission Hearing on NYU 2031

NYU Expansion on North and South blocks (in gray) courtesy of GVSHP (source)

The New York City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the NYU Expansion Plan on Wednesday, April 25th at 10 a.m. at the National Museum of the American Indian at 1 Bowling Green. More information is available at http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/nyu/nyu-04-09-12.htm.

Letters to the Editors of the New York Times

Four letters to the Editors of the New York Times expressing concern and disappointment that the paper supports the NYU expansion plan.  Read the letters at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/opinion/the-fight-over-nyus-expansion-plan.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y.

Photo: Crabapple Flowers

Crabapple blossoms, WSV Sasaki Garden, courtesy of Hubert J. Steed (source)

NYU Local on What's Wrong with the Times Endorsement of NYU 2031

If you have not read the New York Times editorial in favor of the NYU 2031 Expansion Plan, you can do so at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/let-nyu-expand-in-its-backyard.html?_r=2.  Zoë Schlanger of NYU Local - a student-run blog - carefully dissects key statements in the Times endorsement. Read her analysis at http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2012/04/02/new-york-times-endorses-nyu-2031-we-found-a-few-things-wrong-with-that/. (Hat tip: CAAN 2031)