The selfishness and extremism of the NIMBYs are so gross. They would deny kids a school, deny 300 families affordable housing, so they don’t have to stare at another skyscraper (in Manhattan of all places!) every once in a while. The fact that these people are taken seriously, that they feel no shame at all uttering this nonsense in public, is unbelievable.
students from both Park East and Heritage high schools pleaded with
the community board to approve the project because their respective
schools lack enough space for the number of students and their
programs. One Heritage student said his gym doubles as the school’s
cafeteria and that “we eat where we sweat.”
“Last year, when they told us we would have a new building, everyone
had inspiration to do something,” said Heritage sophomore Shane
Lauderdale. “Our school is in the middle of a war zone… if we get out
and have a bigger school, we’re going to want to stay in there, where
we see nothing but positivity.”
local resident Andrea Davis called the high-rise “a behemoth,” a
“huge monstrosity,” and said that it “doesn’t belong anywhere near
here.”
“Nobody wants a 68-story building except Avalon,” said 96th Street
resident Rebecca Conner, referring to the developer. “There has to be
another way to support [the students] and give [them] what [they] need
without the community suffering.”
Lo van der Valk, president of the group Carnegie Hill Neighbors, said the tower would be the tallest building in the area.
“It’s taller than Mt. Sinai Hospital and its tower built nearby… it
would be taller than anything on the Upper East Side,” he said, adding
that there should be attempts to reduce the size of the tower.
“Architects are hired to solve those problems,” he said. “Set it back
50 feet so it creates less of an impact… without reducing the benefit
to the community.”
“The NIMBYS tend to have the same recurrent themes going on. Too tall, monstrosity…”
Yup, and they’ll say the same thing whether it’s a 70-story building, or a 40-story building, or a 20-story building. What matters is that it’s new, it’s change, and that upsets them, and it doesn’t matter who has to suffer as long as they get their way. And they’ll bring up BS about “needing more community input” in order to block any change. Their MO is exactly the same whether it’s new buildings, or safety improvements to roads, or improvements to prevent stormwater runoff. These people need to be treated as the selfish cranks they are. Instead they’re given outsized influence in the process.
I live right around the corner and am always happy to see a new high rise. The whole neighborhood is high rises so I don’t understand what the NIMBYs are complaining about here. That is one of the reasons I love the area. I am now just crossing my fingers they put a Trader Joe’s in this building. That’s the one thing this area still could use and which I keep hoping for.
Those where some good reads. Reading the one about Trump and bike lanes, I just had to facepalm. Like Bill Cosby use to say: NIMBYS say the darndest things
The project will rise 673 feet on a full block site bounded by East 96th and East 97th streets between First and Second avenues once it is approved by the full council. In addition to roughly 1,000 apartments—a third of which will be enrolled in an affordable-housing program—the project will create space for three high schools and replace an existing playground.
Cuomo is trying to kill this now. Probably because he hates de Blasio and wants to spite him or try to extort him to contribute more city funds to the (state-run) MTA:
And this is why people hate politicians. Because they play politics over things like housing that can help those who need it. We have a demand problem, and our elected leaders are playing high school games. For shame!
