During a recent community meeting, several community groups presented compelling alternatives to Extell's plans for the last undeveloped portion of Riverside South, which they call Riverside Center.
The meeting was organized by the 10WEA Riverside Center committee and run by that committee's chair, Anne Weisberg. It was well-attended. Here is a picture of Mel Wymore (on the left) and Ms. Weisberg during Ms. Wymore's summary of the project and CB7's involvement. Mel presented the "core principals" of CB7's position on the project and other information.
Ethel Sheffer of CB7 presented information about the project, in particular the ULURP approval process. CB7 itself has done extensive analysis of the proposal and presented alternatives in the past.
The Coalition for a Livable West Side's consultant, Craig Whitaker, made a well-presented and well-reasoned analysis of the Extell plans and an alternative. His plans are similar in principle to ones he has presented in the past, but with a lot more detail and compelling facts and arguments. He reminded everyone of the power of getting the streets "mapped," and how the project can be controlled by more fine-grained zoning. Here is Craig answering a question from the audience.
Paul Elston, head of the RSPC, showed everyone a very detailed alternative that incorporates the highway and Con Ed's IRT Powerhouse. It sounds expensive to put the highway underground, for example, but once you realize the work is already partly done and how the potential profits from the project make the expense look small, it's not so daunting.
Finally, two distinguished architects (Paul Willen and Dan Gutman) presented a fine-tuning of the Extell plan that definitely makes it better. (Paul Willen is shown presenting below.)
NYC Councilwoman Gale Brewer attended part of the meeting and addressed a couple of issues; thanks, Ms. Brewer.
The Olive Freud, the head of the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development also spoke after the main presentations.
One of the fascinating things about the meeting is that every single group and person who spoke endorsed CB7's "core principles" about the project. The community is truly united about what needs to change.
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