How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Community members gathered at P.S. 41 last night to voice their opinions about NYU's 2031 expansion plan.
Images
To start the meeting, NYU's vice president for government affairs and community engagement Alicia Hurley gave a presentation on the proposal, which would expand NYU's property holdings in New York City by approximately six million square feet by the year 2031.
"What you're going to see tonight is... recognizing [that] not all of all growth can grow in Greenwich village," Hurley said. "You will see a serious look at remote sites [tonight]. What we don't want to have happen is that the university needs space and has academic ambitions, and can't find a way to grow."
But critics, including Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, did not sway from their opposition to the plan.
"NYU should stay a part of the neighborhood," Berman said. "It should not become the overwhelming presence in this neighborhood."
NYU began developing its expansion plan in 2006 and set the marker of 2031 to align with the university's bicentennial. In addition to expansion in the "core," the area surrounding Washington Square Park, NYU is looking to expand in the health corridor near the NYU Langone Medical Center, downtown Brooklyn near the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and on Governors Island.
Former New York City Councilman Alan Gerson said he was mostly concerned about the expansion planned in two superblocks south of Washington Square Park.
"Two million square feet on two blocks is too much," he said.
The expansion in the "superblocks" includes the construction of two more buildings near Washington Square Village, the block between West Third and Bleecker Streets and LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street. It also includes the construction of a 40-story tower near University Village, the block due south of Washington Square Village.
"This neighborhood is going to be destroyed," said Marianne Edwards, a resident of the Village. "This is the worst thing I could possibly imagine, especially when there are other options."
Some at the meeting said they didn't think NYU has put enough consideration into expanding more outside of the Village. Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board 1, which represents all areas south of Canal Street, suggested NYU build its proposed 40-story tower on the World Trade Center site.
"In this neighborhood, it's absolutely not contextual; in our neighborhood, it is contextual," she said. "There is no reason why NYU can't be a part of the new exciting intellectual community downtown."
