The four Democratic candidates for mayor discussed issues of historic preservation at a series of forums hosted by coalition of groups, including Landmark West, the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The following is an edited transcript of the candidate's opening remarks and a sample of some of the questions from the audience.
Other Candidates Speeches |
Over the course of public life, I have been engaged, certainly in the Bronx, in saving and preserving a lot the things that are completely irreplaceable. I could list a record of them, but I don't view them as a record. I view them as my opportunity to demonstrate some responsible custodianship of the irreplaceable treasures that I was trusted with as borough president for nearly 15 years.
For example, I don't know how many of you have been to the Stanford White Hall of Fame complex at the old New York University campus at University Heights, now Bronx Community College. That complex has been restored and one of the joys I had as borough president was allocating the funds to restore the auditorium firebombed during the Vietnam War protest below the library. That auditorium was priceless. A real gem. And after the firebombing and the fire damage in the 1970s it was ' NYU had done some really horrible fix up on it that lasted until the 90's ' well, it was restored not to its original appearance, because I really wanted it restored to the way it was when I was a freshman going in for orientation, but they did even better. This is a real living part of Bronx legacy.
What's even more amazing is the report on the Daniel Moynihan train station, if it gets built in our lifetimes. The old post office ' they are reserving a back portion of it for high-rise residential development. They are looking to take a piece of that, to cut into the soaring public space inside a newly redesigned station to accommodate this building. Now that's the thing the landmarks commission was created for and that's the thing that landmarks preservation movements were created for. To have that restored to a Penn Station, the kind of Penn Station that this city and region deserve, and then have that basically chopped into, just to make someone a few million dollars on the west side of Manhattan is absolutely horrible and must be stopped.
We share a mutual belief about preserving the physical heritage of this city. I believe in those things deeply. I've acted them out in my time in public office. And the evidence of that is not a press release, or a ribbon cutting, or a photo opportunity. It is the buildings that we have saved, and the fights that we have won, and some of the fights that we were not completely successful in. I consider it unfinished business to fix PS 31; to get the old Bronx borough courthouse out of private hands and put it back in public hands; to restore that extraordinarily beautiful beaux-arts courthouse structure and return it to community and civic use. Those are the things that governments do with that kind of heritage and that kind of opportunity.
In 2001, Mike Bloomberg spent $74 million of his own personal fortune to get elected. And he rationalized that by saying, I need this to let people know who I am. Well fair enough. I would like to think that the public record I have put together as a public servant over the course of 20 years is worth $74 million, but if he wants to put that kind of price tag on it, God bless.
In 2005, he says, I want to spend $100 million or more. Now I believe that's to try to make you all forget who he has been in the last three and a half years. I think just that statement, that sentiment under-rates New Yorkers. I think you have seen that the mayor has turned his back nearly completely on the promises he has made about preserving historic New York and doing the things he needs to do as a custodian of this city. For example, convening a hearing. What is so difficult about this? It's moving the machinery of government to protect something.
Let me talk for a second about 2 Columbus Circle. That's a controversial building, a controversial design. Some people like it some people don't. After more than 40 years, some people still like it, some people don't. And then you are reminded on the streetscape of Fifth Avenue ' what would our collective judgment have been, not seeing the building but just the design of the Guggenheim? Some people would have hollered, that just doesn't fit on Fifth Avenue! And this is somebody's egocentric expression of art deco fringe stuff? Others would have seen the building and said, how could this iconic example of someone's creativity, a statement about that moment in our design history, not be on Fifth Avenue? I'm glad the latter attitude won out, because that's what makes this city so very special. 2 Columbus Circle might not be everybody's cup-of-tea, but that building is one of the things that makes this city special, and it should be preserved.
Q: What would you do about Governors Island?
Ferrer: As mayor, I'd want to see what the restrictions for use are for it. If they restrict opportunities, we need to really develop that, and use it, for example, for residential and institutional use ' by institutional, I mean higher education, if that is possible, but certainly residential. That would be a lovely place. There's housing there already. It's an extraordinary opportunity. When the governor and the mayor announced that they were moving forward on some planning for Governors Island, I was talking with some friends of mine and said, 'Well, not unless they can plan an Olympic venue there.' And it turned out to be more true than not. If it didn't have any interest for the Olympics, it fell to the back burner. By the way, if you look at every development decision in this city, if it had nothing to do with the Olympics, it didn't get planned. The decision didn't get made. It's extraordinary what the threshold for making choices is in this city. In any case, I'd look at it for residential use. People don't have enough places to live in this city already.
Q: The city has never done a survey of schools to find out which ones are historic, which ones are eligible for the national register. Will you press for that survey, order the survey, maintain our schools ' the historic schools that we do have ' and would you welcome a landmarks commissioner that presses the city to care for its own landmark property?
Ferrer: Well, as mayor, I'd just allocate the money and get the school rebuilt. Now, by the way, I'm astounded that the landmarks community has not beat this mayor up about this issue. He complains ' he speaks sometimes movingly ' about school overcrowding. PS 31 and PS 109 lay empty. How does he rationalize not fixing those two schools up, especially PS 31? It's of extraordinary landmark importance. It is a designated landmark. You can ask anybody about that and they'll say, 'You know I'll do it,' but this is a challenge, also, for the landmarks community, too ' for the preservation community. It's a challenge for the preservation community to hold this mayor's feet to the fire. I mean, that the building has been empty for five or more years on Grand Concourse is a disgrace. An absolute disgrace.
Q: Will you promise to guarantee us a commission that will work in a partnership with the preservation community, here and everywhere?
Ferrer: That's the way I've conducted my public life and my public service. I think you need to understand that this is part of a larger issue that I have with this mayor. We're all employees of the wholly owned subsidiary of Bloomberg Inc. Decisions will be made top-down. It is amazing. You want to get things done, and I want to get things done, too. And I believe things aren't necessarily top-down. Sometimes they bubble up from communities. That's the way it ought to be working. He's changed that way of looking at life in this city in the most subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Here we're talking about a prime example of it, but we're hitting the wrong target: the commission members and who he appoints. But it's the mayor, it's his attitude. How many of you, by the way, believe that's a problem, that the landmarks commission will not hear these things because it's all top-down? And how many of you are prepared to run this mayor back to his private business at the end of this year? If I don't see the exact same set of hands here, there's a problem here. There's a disconnect.
Q: The chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission has said that, if you look at Manhattan, it has more protected landmarks than the Bronx, Staten Island, and Queens combined. Do you believe that this unequal protection under the law is a crime? And what would you do to change and address the fact that some people who live in some neighborhoods get landmarking and other people don't?
Ferrer: People who've worked with me to try to designate the Grand Concourse as a historic district, to protect the nature and quality of those art deco buildings ' in fact, the largest collection of art deco facades anywhere, right there on the Grand Concourse ' they'll remember our efforts to try to do it and Rudy Giuliani's successful efforts to prevent that. And there were others as well. Yankee Stadium would be a great place, well, for obvious reasons ' although I'm angry at them for the last nine or ten games ' to landmark. I've never believed they should leave that stadium. It's a perfectly fine place to watch a baseball game. That should be part of our outlook on landmarking as well.
That Manhattan has many more designated landmarks than all the other boroughs is troubling, because ' I presume you know ' I know that communities outside of Manhattan have some extraordinary historic buildings that need to be preserved, that require the protection of our Landmarks Preservation Commission. The landmarks commission has done studies of all the boroughs. These studies are quite old. When I was borough president, I appointed a landmarks task force to review that study and begin to advance to the designation process. A lot of those structures required our help and it seemed that the landmarks commission was absolutely uninterested in doing that. I believe that's got to change. The job of the landmarks commission is to designate and protect.
Q: Over the coming years, the Catholic Church, obviously, is going to be closing many parishes and Protestant congregations are dwindling, but the historic church buildings are significant features of many of these neighborhoods. There is reluctance on the part of the commission to get involved in this. It is a very touchy issue. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Ferrer: Well, it's a touchy issue. I understand it, because with designation and protection never came any grant money. That's not right. You have not-for-profit institutions that have a building that has to be protected. They'd agree that it would, but they'd also agree that they haven't got the ability to pay for it. Well, it is in the public interest to designate. It is in the public interest to protect. It is in the public interest to preserve ' especially those beautiful buildings that cannot support their own preservation. I think what the preservation community did with St. Thomas Church in Harlem, for example, was extraordinary. And that church was going to be flattened.
Q: How can the Landmarks Preservation Commission that only has a $3 million budget really be potent in the face of these $100 million plans that developers are coming forward with?
Ferrer: There are two parts to this answer. The answer is they can't. Not at that level of resources, certainly not at that level of commitment. I want to re-resource that agency and re-empower that agency, and I'm going to give you a challenge right now. Anybody who comes to this microphone in the future and anyone who has had anything to do with this city, ask them why they didn't.
Q: What would you do as mayor to strengthen community-based planning and the ability of community boards to fulfill their planning capacity?
Ferrer: I'd start abiding by the city charter. Section 197A of the city charter is pretty clear to me. And my philosophy of governing is really very simple. I don't think that things get done at their best top-down. I think the strength of this city is neighborhoods ' and they've been doing this for quite some time ' being active and equal participants in planning for their own destiny. That's the way I approach planning in my own borough. When we developed the Melrose Commons plan collaboratively with the community, they made tough decisions with us around the same table ' and it worked. It got national awards, and it was the right thing to do. Similarly it's the right thing to do to abide by 197A plans. They are, and they represent, probably the best example of communities getting involved and planning for their own future.
Q: What would you do, if elected, that would create something of a comprehensive plan for the city so that there aren't these spot zonings, major neighborhood-wide rezonings that are surprises to communities that they have to respond to in the form of protest.
Ferrer: It's happening all over the city, obviously. First of all, let's take the Olympics as a case. I think it's been pretty clear that it was right ' the observation that any development decision that has nothing to do with the Olympics is not going to get made.
For example, the extension of the number seven subway line. Now, I think extending subway service to the far west side is a fabulous thing to do. It's a great investment in the economic future of the city. And you intentionally bypass Penn Station? Even a novice transportation planner will laugh you out of their office. It makes no sense. One of the most important transportation hubs in this or any other region, and you bypass it? You bypass New Jersey transit, Amtrak, and Long Island Rail Road? It makes absolutely no sense. But when you look at it in terms of what they're trying to plan for the Olympics ' it will create the Olympic express.
And, of course, this is the mother of all real estate deals. Ah, then it makes perfect sense. It has nothing to do with transportation. It has nothing to do with the efficient, effective, and affordable moving of people around this city and around this region to enhance our economy. Now that's a shame.
We should have some standards for planning. One of them: does it have a use for this city? I'm sure most of you would agree with me that, well, what city would not be proud to host the Olympics? It would be great. Can we manage to plan for facilities that have some opportunity for re-use after the two weeks of the Olympics are over? That won't be costing us money simply to maintain and never use?
Can we use this as an opportunity to build great halls, great schools, and great recreation centers, rebuild our aging and falling apart armories that are historic buildings all over this city? I just think there's a different and better way to approach this. Were I putting forward an Olympic plan for, well, maybe not 2012, but 2016, I'd want communities and public officials to be collaborating in this.
The worst thing that you could do is put forward a plan in secret. The mayor says, over a year ago, it's a completely private deal, we have nothing to do with this. He said that. It's a matter of the public record. Anybody remember that?
There's something else that's part of it that didn't quite make the cut of letting the public know. They put the Bronx house of detention, a public building, in that development package. Wait a minute, this isn't a completely private deal anymore. This is a public deal. Do you remember a council hearing on this issue? Any land use hearings? Any borough president hearings? Any community board hearings? Zero. This isn't Dan Doctoroff's personal real estate. It belongs to the city of New York.
People of this city have at least a right to participate in the planning of their own destiny, in being involved in public processes, in putting forward their own ideas for the future of their neighborhoods, and boroughs, and their city. I just see it coming from a different direction. And I think, from my direction these are sustainable plans. These are sustainable because people own them.
It isn't owned by an unseen, unelected committee of high rollers. It's owned by people right in the neighborhood. It's owned by people who you trust, who you've elected to represent you in your own neighborhood. There's accountability. There's open process. There's an opportunity to react to these plans. There's an opportunity to change them, an opportunity to discuss and debate them. That's as it should be. When we talk about this or any other problem of this city today, you've really got to ask yourself, who are these people?
Q: Could you say something about your strategy and your reflections on the future of lower Manhattan given the impasse over the last three and a half years? How would you envision moving ahead constructively in the best interest of the city in the redevelopment of lower Manhattan?
Ferrer: I remember vividly, after 9/11, everybody was rushing forward with their own plan, their own vision for the old World Trade Center site. I'd come from a planning background, so I'd come up with a different sort of planning framework which was, we've got to build there, we've got to restore this, and that's a lot of office space, a lot of commercial space, and the centerpiece of a marketplace down there in lower Manhattan that is still yet to recover.
At the very same time, the people, the private businesses, the employees who occupied those 11 million feet of office space were about ready to walk out the door. We didn't have enough swing space to accommodate them. I wanted to try to accommodate them in places like the far west side of Manhattan. I'd build class-A office space, keep them there while we proceeded rebuilding lower Manhattan, because we would require people not to make just a momentary commitment, but a generational commitment to lower Manhattan.
Places like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, we needed to get them around the table to stay for not five years or ten years, but for a generation and more to make this work. I think there was certainly the willingness to make that happen. Well, that's what I purposed, and I got barbequed for it. I got barbequed for it, because I acknowledged that most financial services companies will not put every employee they have in one location. They've been dispersing for very interesting sets of reasons. Well, we've got to accommodate that as well. We want buildings that will make an important architectural statement, and a statement about us as people on that site, and we want to do that as promptly as we can, and as effectively and efficiently as we can. But we also want to create a healthy and realistic marketplace for everybody in which to survive and thrive. That's the over-arching idea.
That not one brick has been laid on another in three and a half years has to amount to the worst failure of leadership I have ever seen. The worst. Everybody roles out a new plan, has a new press conference. God almighty. How many news articles have we read about trips to visit other Olympic venues? Come to Athens. The international Olympic committee is coming here. And we haven't laid one brick on another at the old World Trade Center site? You talk about priorities. This is one of the most glaring examples I've seen as a citizen of this city of the kind of inertia on a public work so important, where there was such unanimity about what we needed to do. Extraordinary. Nobody agrees on anything in this city, and yet we agreed on that. We agreed on that, and nothing has been done. It's extraordinary. We wasted three and a half years on a football stadium on the west side of Manhattan and on the rest of this stuff, and we ended up wasting everybody else's time. Extraordinary.
Q: What are your plans for lower Manhattan?
Ferrer: I think we should rebuild the 11 million feet of office space. I think that's important. The developers need to get very busy about pricing. Given that they are getting incentives that are extraordinary, they need to get busy about pricing and tenant it up. That 7 World Trade Center has no anchored tenants is bewildering to me. I think we've got to replace that office space.
Having agreed on the master plan developed by Libeskind, we should proceed. We really should. New Yorkers need to make that statement, at that place. And we need to do it promptly. If you are troubled by my not being more specific with you, let me tell you, it's not my job to be more specific with you ' whether it's 11 million or 12 million feet of office space, who I want to tenant those buildings. Not our job. We've got to work very closely with the development community and with the Port Authority and with our state partners on that.
But that we haven't even paid attention to it as a government in this city, that we haven't been rolling it along, that everything seems to be an obsessive quest for a stadium and for where we're going to host the Olympic javelin throw ' that's a monumental waste of our time and this city's emotional commitment to rebuilding lower Manhattan.
I think what the mayor should do there is work with governors to make sure it gets done, to make sure everyday we're doing the things that need to be done. Let me give you one other example, because it is a complex matter. When the Goldman Sachs project ' now in a little bit of jeopardy ' was first reported, it was reported that they objected to the tunnel that was placed under their building.
They're going to pull out a $2 billion development for 6,000 to 8,000 employees; that was their generational commitment to lower Manhattan. Was no one paying attention to the issues that had developed with respect to the underpass under them? Well, let's talk about the Freedom Tower for a second. It was reported again, that Police Commissioner Kelly had interposed these security concerns nearly 18 months ago.
Q: What would you do as mayor to change the plan for the West Side of Manhattan?
Ferrer: First of all, I wouldn't waste my time on a West Side stadium, building a publicly funded private stadium that absolutely nobody will be able to get into. I would use those governmental and personal resources to get the World Trade Center rebuilt, and to do development on the west side as it should be done. There are some really strong opportunities there. The first few days of February, I called for all the evangelists of free and open market ' I figured all the editorial boards on the right would love this one. Those thirteen or sixteen acres above the Hudson Yards? Have an open, competitive, national and international bid for them. Get everybody in here. Give the MTA maximum value for the last valuable publicly owned asset on this island: the yards. That helps our transit system so that we can fix tracks and switches, relays and stations. But also, it gives us the opportunity to create another city on the far west side of Manhattan, and to do it right. To build a community with housing, and people, and schools, and healthcare. And to do it with people, not in secret. You can't build in secret. This isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of Bloomberg, Incorporated. You can't just swoop down with plans and say this is going to happen because I said it's going to happen. This is a city where people have something to say about their neighborhoods and the contours of their lives.
Q: Preservation is not just a landmark commission issue, but an issue of the people that use the landmarks. Will you focus on some kind of educational program for the people, perhaps with some kind of agreement with the schools?
Ferrer: I'm not sure that I can get my arms around your entire question, but if you are talking about an aspect of our education in this city that should to relate to what is loosely called 'civics' and that being part of it, yes.
But I've believed that for a long time. There was, some of you might recall, a sample curriculum developed some years ago for use in our public schools about landmarks in this city, about the city's cultural heritage. I think that's an important thing. Kids should grow up in our public school system knowing about this extraordinary city in which we live.
Just a quick story. As an undergraduate, I went to NYU at University Heights, when NYU used to be in a good neighborhood, in the Bronx. The reason I became fascinated with that school was ' and it's a very odd reason. Anybody remember at around 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock in the morning ' this was a long time ago ' on PBS they had something called sunrise semester? You're now telling me how old you are, cause they don't show that anymore. And do you remember the graphic that they had? It was the hall of fame. I was always fascinated by that place. I never knew where it was. When I found out it was in the Bronx, I made it my business to go.
Q: To turn the subject back to 2 Columbus Circle, I'm wondering ' after you've saved the building from being renovated ' what you plan on doing with it then.
Ferrer: I wouldn't move the Convention and Visitor's Bureau back in. There is opportunity to do some important things there. We'd take a look at it. The impulse is to give you an instant, off-the-cuff idea. I just don't think that works. And I think we've got to do that in consultation with an awful lot of people, but it's an extraordinary landmark. It's an extraordinary opportunity for use of a building in that strategic part of Manhattan.
Q: Major institutions with important boards can get any special permits, variances, and certificate of appropriateness they want from the various agencies because of their power. I'd like your suggestions on balancing that.
Ferrer: Let me give you an example in the Bronx again. Anybody remember the Fordham radio tower that was right across the street from the Botanical Gardens? If you were standing behind the conservatory, you could see the thing stick right out of the dome.
The respected boards of Fordham and the garden were fighting, and that's too bad, because there are good people on both boards. I think this was a bad decision, but they were good people ' people who had an interest in not only staying in the Bronx, but making the Bronx better. I understood that.
The radio tower was bad. We had to take a stand on it, and I didn't concern myself with people given contributions to me when I was borough president on one board or another.
You try to do what's right. The essence of your question seems to assume that anybody will do anything for a campaign contribution. I want to help you with that. Hold your public officials accountable and tell them to take a stand. Nobody had to tell me to take a stand on that radio tower. I tried to do what was right, and, eventually ' after a long, protracted, and expensive battle ' they finally did what was right.
Other Candidates Speeches
' C. Virginia Fields:Looking Beyond the Big Ticket Items
' Gifford Miller: Updating the Landmarks Law
' Anthony Weiner: Old New York as a Gateway to the new New York
The four Democratic candidates for mayor discussed issues of historic preservation at a series of forums sponsored by coalition of groups, including Landmark West, the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The following is an edited transcript of the candidate's opening remarks and a sample of some of the questions from the audience.
Other Candidates Speeches |
The issues surrounding preservation and the landmarks, to me, provide the perfect metaphor for what I argue is the problem with the Bloomberg administration. It really comes down to three fundamental things that I talk about everywhere on the campaign trail. First of all, I believe that we have somehow internalized this notion that the only way to run New York City is to put blinders on when you're at City Hall, put your head down, and barrel into problems, consulting as few people as possible. I think Rudy Giuliani instilled that in us with his notion that in order to make an omelet, you've gotta break a lot of eggs. And Mike Bloomberg has continued the tradition of eschewing democratic - with a small 'd' - institutions as a way of making decisions.
In New York, we have the most creative land use planners, the most creative architects, and the most creative urban planners. If we took the 50 most brilliant New Yorkers in those fields, put them in a room and said 'We have a couple dozen acres on the west side of Manhattan, with unobstructed four-directional views. Come up with the most creative, most beneficial use of that land.' Do any of us think that they would have emerged with a stadium as an idea for that land? It never would have happened.
It's not just a matter of process. If you think about it, it's a matter of real dollars and cents. Mayor Bloomberg, when he constructed this effort to by-pass public input, he suggested that we get $100 million for the land over the Hudson rail yards. Some people literally believe it is worth about $1 billion. How does Mayor Bloomberg explain why he was prepared to sell something for $100 million that is actually worth closer to $1 billion?
His apparent sense that these democratic institutions are not helpful also can be seen in education policy. He didn't consult teachers, didn't consult principals, and didn't consult other elected officials when reorganizing the school system. And almost to a person, teachers say the system is worse off, and some of the best, most senior teachers are being driven from the system.
You see the exact same thing when it comes to landmarks decisions, when it comes to preservation decisions. There are decisions that are being made without even public hearings. Public hearings are messy, they're contentious, and they may slow things down. But they make them more New York. We are a city that should not eschew those democratic processes. We should embrace them.
A second thing that his approach to landmarks shows is that Mike Bloomberg believes that passive is better than active and aggressive when you're the mayor of the city of New York. The most important example of this is how we get rolled by Albany, rolled by Washington because the mayor has adopted this philosophy that I'm going to raise money for my Republican friends, I'm going to throw a large convention for my Republican friends, and just hope for good things to happen.
And is there better evidence of that philosophy than lower Manhattan? You know, Mike Bloomberg essentially, and he doesn't even deny it all that much anymore, made this deal. He said to Governor Pataki, let me develop the far west side of Manhattan, let me pursue my Olympic dream, and you, Governor Pataki, you take care of lower Manhattan. Any New Yorker, any resident of New York City that doesn't realize it's a mistake to entrust Governor Pataki with anything to do with New York City honestly doesn't deserve to be a public official in New York City.
I mean, when was the last time Governor Pataki got up in the morning, dressed and looked in the mirror, and said 'I'm going do something good for New York City this morning?' It never happens.
'I drive by the far West Side and I see that giant glass thing they are building there and I'm sure someone thinks it's very attractive, and Sean Penn will be very happy living there I'm sure, but you know the real Greenwich Village is not that.' |
So, this notion that you just sit back and hope that good things happen might be the ethos that works in the business community that Mayor Bloomberg thrived in, but it doesn't work when it comes for advocating for New York City.
And if you think that it's just a matter of style over substance, think about this: imagine, for a moment, if Mike Bloomberg stood up at the Republican National Convention and said 'Come to our hotels, our fine restaurants, visit out cultural institutions, and oh, by the way, it's an outrage that we've been short-changed $1.7 billion in the No Child Left Behind Act. It's a crime the way you're playing immigrants against one another in order to get votes. And the way you've short-changed us on anti-terrorism money is a sin.' What would it have done? Visualize that for a moment. It would have elevated those issues, not just to the front page of New York City newspapers. It would have been all of the talk of the country for the next three or four days. President Bush would have had to insert a line in his speech about how we're going try to make it up to New York in the future. You would have had delegates scrambling around, how do we respond to this?
Active is better than passive, and the same is true when you're trying to preserve the fundamental beauty of New York City. You cannot simply sit back and say make these decisions based on the next bid for the next building. We're going to wait to see what type of community uprising leads to the next preservation movement. Preservation and planning has to be an active endeavor. You cannot simply sit back. By it's very nature, preservation fails if you are reacting rather than being proactive.
The third argument I'm going to make throughout this campaign - and I'm going to make it in the context of land use decisions and everything else - is that we need, we, as Democrats in particular, but I think all of us in this city, are entitled to have a campaign based on the notion that ideas matter.
What you're going to do for the next four years matters. I've put out a book of 50 new ideas. We put it out about four months ago. I've given nine policy speeches. The New York Times called me the 'wonk' of the campaign, although that was probably something that would get me beaten up growing up in Brooklyn, being called the 'wonk,' but it's something I take great pride in. On that issue after issue, I have said what the next four years are going to be about. And I don't know how many of you speak Spanish, I don't speak it very well, but the ads he's been running in Spanish has a tag line which is something like 'The best is yet to come.'
I have yet to hear Mike Bloomberg articulate his vision for the next four years in this city. Does it include changes to the education system? What are his development initiatives that he's going to put forth beyond the Olympic games? What is his vision?
In my first speech about economic development in all five boroughs, I said that I believe it is time for a comprehensive rezoning of the city of New York. It's required every 40 years or so, history tells us. The last time was 1961 when we did a comprehensive rezoning. It is a gut-wrenching, painful, agonizing, controversial thing, but it's necessary. We are, right now, allowing the most fundamental decisions about the character of our communities to be made in the most ad hoc of basis. I don't think that's the way to do things.
I think we have to make some fundamental decisions, not just about how we preserve the fundamental nature of communities. I represent neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens where the landscape is changing day-by-day, by default.
We have homes in Manhattan Beach, for example, completely according to the contextual zoning, and people are building on their front lawns. It's not prohibited, but who ever would have imagined you'd want to? Whoever imagined that this bungalow community of 30 years ago would now have homes selling for $1 million? Who would imagine that the land is so valuable in Douglaston, or in Sheepshead Bay, or in Staten Island that people would raze these beautiful homes and build on every square inch these most ugly, boxy McMansions?
In order for us to deal with these things, we can't just say 'Ocean Parkway needs a rezoning, let's go do it' or 'Douglaston needs a preservation movement, let's go do it' or 'the west side has beautiful buildings that are now being consumed by the sky-rocketing property values.' I believe part of leadership in this city is saying we have specific ideas going forward and, even if they're difficult, we have to pursue them.
One of the things that I will be doing after I'm elected is appoint a commission to start the task of rezoning the city, and looking at where we want light manufacturing to exist or where maybe housing should be permitted to go, where the heavy manufacturing zones are. Do a comprehensive analysis of where the brownfields are, and how we, as the city, state, and federal government can help make those lands useful again. We have to start taking a look at the west side of Manhattan. We have to take a look at things like the community here and 2 Columbus Circle, and say at the very least, let's have a hearing, let's see what people have to say, and let's have a discussion about the outcomes.
One of the things that I would hope all New Yorkers would demand in this election, not only from those of us who are challenging Michael Bloomberg, but from the mayor himself, is to ask: What is your vision going forward? Does it include closed-loop insider decision-making? Does it include back-on-your-heels, sit-back-and-see-what-happens types of decisions, rather than being active and aggressive? What are your specific plans?
I think we need to change the way we've done things on all three levels.
Q: When any major development is undertaken in New York, as you know, there needs to be an Environmental Impact Statement produced to assess among other thing the historic resources in the area of development. But these statements seem to be coming up with fewer and fewer historic resources. In the case of Williamsburg/Greenpoint, the impact statement came up with 18 historic resources, 11 of which were already designated as historic landmarks. The Municipal Art Society went out with the help of Columbia University students and identified 55 resources and 2 historic districts. So my question to you is, what do you think the root of this problem is? And where do you think the responsibility lies for doing better ones and how would you go about making that happen?
Weiner: That's a great question. I think over the course of time, Environmental Impact Statements have become more and more tools of development rather than what they were intended to be, which is kind of a stopgap to make sure that questions were raised and addressed. How I would address this problem is fundamentally providing much more transparency throughout these processes and using technology and public input to be able to do a lot more of these things.
I'll give you an example. If an Environmental Impact Statement was constructed for the West Side of Manhattan or for Williamsburg that invited people to submit historic locations, landmark locations, perhaps 'undiscovered jewel' locations in our communities and that public document became completely transparent, it would put pressure on those who produce the statement to either justify or reject them for some good reason.
I think that kind of public input would help. But I'll tell you, this is the tip of a larger problem. Overall, I would argue that government in recent years has gotten less and less and less transparent, despite the idea that technology makes it easier to be more and more and more transparent. And one of my greatest disappointments with Mike Bloomberg is, putting party affiliation aside, he seemed to be a reform guy. He was self-funded. He wasn't a Democrat or a Republican and he wasn't really from the institutional machines. He seems like he would be the perfect type of agent to truly reform and open up government, give us more input and give institutions like this greater say, not necessarily have your way all the time, but greater say.
I would argue that this administration has become more closed with information than ever before, and doesn't make the use of technology that would be the most valuable. You know he brags, Mike Bloomberg does, about the 311 system. You know if I had a business and I opened up a complaint box that got 5 million complaints every year, I'm not sure I'd be bragging about it. But at the very least, perhaps what he should do is take the 311 line and make some of the reports more public, maybe that would be a good indicator to the rest of us about whether things are going as well as he suggested. But one of the things that I would do on Environmental Impact Statement is to make the process more open to community input. If you are a resident in the community or a historian in the community and you know of locations, you report them to us, give us the historical significance and then as part of the statement we should have to respond to that.
Q: What reforms of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, their rules, or even reform of the law itself do you propose?
Weiner: At a very fundamental level, these decisions are subjective decisions, based on people's creative inputs, based on viewpoint, and two people can look at a building or an area and they come to two completely different decisions about how it should be treated. Which is why government at the very least should provide hearings for these things. I see no harm that comes to having that packed room of people saying different things and having different conclusions and presenting different evidence. I fully believe that the Bloomberg administration has certain contempt for just that discussion; they think that that's untidy and they don't want to do that. I am not going to commit to you now in terms of a specific reform, but one thing I will say to you is that I fundamentally believe that better outcomes come from people mixing it up on these issues.
When I'm mayor of the City of New York, I'll come to this exact spot, and I'll talk to you about how we are doing in the administration. We'll talk a little about what your views are, we'll do this and this isn't just in the confines of communities like this that get animated around the global issue of landmarking. You have to realize that preservation of our communities has become a rallying cry in communities all throughout the city right now.
This has become a fundamental issue in the campaign that I think the mayor is ignoring. How is he dealing with these fires? By putting them out one by one based on, what I would say, is a political map. I mean if you really look at it that's what it looks like he's doing. What my administration would be committed to is at least having a broader discussion, having hearings, allowing the media to view them, allowing experts to take a look at them, allowing experts around the city, allowing amateurs around the city to express their views. I do not feel offended that having open hearings is going to muck up the works.
Will I say to you that I want 20 council members or 3 community boards being able to nominate something? No, I won't say that specifically now, but I am open to the idea of having a process that at least gets hearings to happen on a more regular basis. To not even having a hearing on 2 Columbus Circle is mind-boggling.
Q: What would you do about funding and the level of staffing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission?
Weiner: Well one thing is for sure, we have the Buildings Department with hundreds and hundreds of employees and they can't seem to get anything right. In Manhattan Beach, you know we had this long period of time where Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay had laid fallow for a bunch of reasons, the economy went south, and the Lundy estate was fighting over different properties. I remember when I was in the City Council we were trying to revive the waterfront and from all around the world literally people were saying why don't you just reopen Lundy's. And I remember when we were in discussions about how to get someone to come in, we had a lot of property speculators who came in and said we'll come in but if the building is going to be landmarked we're not going to touch it, and we want no part of it. But as it turned out in retrospect, the fact that Lundy's was preserved and the Spanish colonial architecture and the stain glass and everything, turned out to be the very thing that inspired more people to invest in Emmons Avenue. That inspired more people to want to come visit, that inspired people when they came back to New York to go back to their childhood experiences in Lundy's, which by the way isn't as good as it was.
It also wouldn't hurt to have the mayor every once in a while not celebrating some glitzy glass stadium, but celebrating some corner of the city that reflects the true community. For example, you know I drive by the far West Side and I see that giant glass thing they are building there and I'm sure someone thinks it's very attractive, and Sean Penn will be very happy living there I'm sure, but you know the real Greenwich Village is not that. The real Greenwich Village is a completely different thing.
And part of what I think we need to do from the highest levels of government is start to talk about preserving the city, not just as a political imperative to assuage Staten Island, not just as something we do in the context of the budget, but to start talking about these hearings and discussions and have the mayor, say 'This is the 215th anniversary of this building, and here is a little about the history of this and come visit New York and take a look at this.'
I think it would go a long way to kind of restore where we are as a city that thinks about these things. And it also confirms for me one other thing that I don't point out much about Mike Bloomberg, but I believe it makes a difference whether you're from New York.
I don't think he understands that being in New York means celebrating the communities, preserving the communities, seeing the old New York as a gateway to the new New York, and kind of seeing the connection. You know when I look at the, we have one picture of my great grandfather Wolf Weiner (you thought Anthony Weiner was a funny name) standing in front of this fur shop where he was a cutter. He was the first generation that was here, my great grandfather, and while it's fascinating looking at my great grandfather and my great grandmother, Anna, in that picture, what's also fascinating is to see the building of the Lower East Side and the tenements in the background.
God willing, someday I'm going to be able to bring my grandkids to that street, hold the picture, look at the building and say this is the connection that New York has and what makes it great. Anthony Weiner is going to remember that when he is mayor. And it's more than just a government. It's more than just a budget. It's more than just a hearing. It's a sense deep in us that this is an important of part of New York going forward. And that is something I'm not going to forget.
Q: The annual budget for the New York City Landmarks Commission is $3 million. When he was here as a candidate, Michael Bloomberg said that that was ridiculous, that it was ridiculous that there was only one inspector in the landmarks commission for all of the two and a half percent of the city's real estate that is landmarked. And he committed himself to do something about it.
Weiner: Look, I am committed to an increase in the budget. I'm not going to say significant, I'm not going to say a lot, I'm not going to say a doubling, but I am committed to the idea of reviewing the suggestion that my former constituent made about having a certain stop gap requirement that inspections happen of certain types of buildings, which I believe that if I drop you a letter and say I support that will require an increase in the budget of the agency, just to be able to fulfill that.
Q: When my committee approached you for a letter on 2 Columbus Circle to the Landmarks Preservation Committee, you wrote a beautiful letter.
Weiner: In fairness it wasn't actually an 'approach.' it was more like a bludgeoning.
Q: Have you given any thought to Governors Island?
Weiner: We put together a little committee. Perhaps we can ask a member of your group to be on the committee. We're giving some thought to it now, we wanted to give a speech on it and come up with a proposal two months ago, and like everything else with Governors Island the more we peel the onion, the more complex the discussion got.
One thing I say is this, it's another example, and I can think of three or four right of the top of my head, that if we devoted a fraction of the thought, of the energy, of the money, of the resources, to Governors Island, to developing the area around DUMBO, the waterfront in Brooklyn, that we did to the Olympics, we would be so much better off.
The answer is I've given the some thought to it, but I'm reluctant now kind of in the middle of the process to say what I would propose. I'm open to ideas.
Not only have there been a lot of thoughtful studies on Governors Island, but there's a memorandum of understanding that was signed by all the principle parties, including the city. Right now Daniel Doctoroff seems to be intent on reopening that, which does not give us much comfort.
Other Candidates Speeches
' Fernando Ferrer: The Irreplaceable Treasures of the Bronx
' C. Virginia Fields:Looking Beyond the Big Ticket Items
' Gifford Miller: Updating the Landmarks Law
The four Democratic candidates for mayor discussed issues of historic preservation at a series of forums sponsored by coalition of groups, including Landmark West, the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The following is an edited transcript of the candidate's opening remarks and a sample of some of the questions from the audience.
Many of you, know my mother, who designed the Conservatory Garden, Bryant Park, Wagner Park, Madison Square Park, Herald and Union Park, New York Botanical Gardens, and gardens in Rockaway, Red Hook, and Staten Island. So she's done a park in every borough which she completed before I decided to run. And my father served on the community board in East Harlem for the last 20 years. He served in the Johnson and Kennedy administrations. So I was raised as a boy with a deep love for New York City, and also a belief in the importance of public service.
After graduating from college, I went to work for Congresswoman Caroline Maloney because I wanted to be able to serve my city, as well, in the tradition that my parents had brought me up in.
Over the last 10 years that I've been in the New York City Council, I've loved what I've had the chance to do, to help change the course of our city's future, to contribute something to the greatest city in the world. In particular, over the past four years as speaker of the council, I've had an even greater privilege, which is to fall in love with all of New York. I grew up in Manhattan. It was concerned an enormous liability when I ran for speaker, but I like to say nobody's perfect. This is an extraordinary city, filled with unbelievably diverse and exciting different neighborhoods all over New York. And also filled with people that love New York and want to spend and give their time similarly to its future to preserve and to strengthen this greatest city in the world.
I'm running for mayor because I believe we need new leadership, new leadership for the city that has a sense of that whole city, of the challenges that we face, and of the opportunities that are presented, and of a vision of what we can accomplish that is better and great.
I think that landmarks and historic preservation is an example of the failure of leadership that we've had on the part of this mayor.
It's not just that he hasn't done a good job of administering our school system, or getting our fair share from Washington or Albany, or really figuring out how to deal with the structural problems. It's that he doesn't understand, to my mind, the opportunities that are presented and the responsibilities that are incumbent upon a mayor to provide real moral and political leadership on issues of tremendous concern to New Yorkers. On too many issues, what we get from this mayor are excuses about how things can't be done, rather than examining innovative ways in which things can be done.
And again, it's not just on schools, where we hear sort of a pat on the back for the fact that we've finally reached the point where half of our kids are failing in our schools, or on the fact that each year he rolls over for Washington and Albany and doesn't go out and do something about the fact that we're sending $24 billion more to Washington and Albany, or the notion that he has an economic development vision which seems to be centered solely on getting the Olympics or our goose is cooked.
It's on issues like landmarks where over and over again, rather than figuring out ways in order to accomplish something, what we get are excuses about how difficult it will be to accomplish something, and, as a result, inaction.
So, what we've seen over the last three and a half years is a real failure to exercise the sort of moral and political leadership to preserve communities that are under attack all over the city and the failure to expand and open up the landmark process to real public review and involvement and participation. That is another hallmark of this administration: an extremely closed process. This mayor doesn't believe in listening to other people, and doesn't believe that our problems can be solved by anyone outside of his own small cadre of administration.
As a result, what we've seen on issue after issue, and I think landmarks and historic preservation is a very good example of these kinds of issues, is a lack of imagination, a lack of political and moral leadership, and a closed process, which, in the end, leaves us more mystified at the end than we were in the beginning. I'm running for mayor because I want to change that, and I think if you look at my leadership of the City Council over the last three and a half years, you'll see I have a very different model of leadership and a different proven record of accomplishment.
The City Council, for the first time, has held two public hearings on the processes of the landmarks commission, examining what the challenges are and trying to get people involved and recognize that openness and transparency are not a problem. They are the solution. We don't have to, at the end, agree on every point and every decision that is made, but we ought to, in a democracy and in a proper administration, be able to agree that there's a fair shake being given and that the process has been open and transparent and accountable.
That is the work that the City Council has been moving towards, and I think that there are very common sense things that can be done in order to improve that.
There ought to be adequate time given for the public to review applications for certificates and appropriates, including revisions to those applications.
There ought to be just a hearing room that has a sound system that you can hear what's going on. There decisions about whether or not to hold hearings on items ought to be conducted in the open with clear and frank reasons given to why some things are given a hearing and why other things are not given a hearing.
We certainly need to expand the budget for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, because it is woefully underfunded. In the end, it doesn't serve anybody well. There has to be enough staff to be able to respond swiftly to decisions and to matters that are timely and require a timely decision. There has to be enough money to be able to complete its mission. Otherwise, we shouldn't pretend that it's there to accomplish what it says it's there to accomplish.
So we have work to do there, but that is certainly something that I support as speaker, and would support as mayor.
More broadly, I am proud of the work that the council has done, not just with regard to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (which had landmark status rejected by the council because it wanted to build apartment buildings on its grounds), but also with regard to the demolition-by-neglect legislation, which the council passed over the objections of an awful lot of people in the city.
Powerful interests in this city came together to object to this legislation, but, in the end, it was the right thing to do. It is wrong to allow owners of landmarked properties to allow their properties to become demolished by their neglect, and then to say, well now that it's destroyed you don't have to bother saving it. It doesn't make any sense.
And this legislation that we passed in the council, for the first time, allows the city to do something about that. You know, we had cases in which owners would actually open up their roofs so that the building, the structure would become completely destroyed and then say, 'I can't save this structure because it's destroyed, and so I have to tear it down.'
There was no legal method for handling that. We, as a result of my leadership and my colleagues in the council, for the first time now have the ability to attack that problem. The New York City Council cares deeply about this matter, that even when it's not easy, and we're going to take steps in order to try to protect our city.
I love this city, you love this city, and I'm running for mayor because I don't believe in listening to all of the voices that tell me what I can't do. You know, in government there's always people that will tell you that you can't do something that's difficult to do.
They tell you 'Look, you're never going to fix the schools. You're never going to get our fair share. You'll never be able to create affordable housing. You'll never be able to create jobs for every community.'
That's why I'm running for mayor. We need a mayor that doesn't listen to those voices. That looks at what can be done, rather than what can't be done. That thinks about the possibilities for what kind of city we can be and should be, rather than just keeps going down the same road of where we are. And we do face real challenges. I know we're going to have lots of questions about them. I look forward to working with you in this battle as well, because this is a battle that is worth fighting, that is worth waging, and, most importantly, worth winning. I thank you all for you spirit and optimism and faith in the future of our city.
'Our landmarks law was a model when it was passed. But that was 40 years ago. Even models must be updated.' |
Q: When [now State Senator] John Sabini was chairman of landmarks subcommittee, the City Council held a hearing on how the city is treating its historic public schools. At that time they asked the city to complete a survey of older building to see which ones would be eligible for listing on the national register. So my question is, as mayor would you insist that that survey be completed and would you treat historic public schools with the care and respect that they deserve as building that can serve out children today?
Miller: Yes, and let me just explain it briefly. The city does a pretty good job of certain landmarks, of restoring them, ones that are high profile, that for whatever reason somebody in city government has adopted it as a particular pet cause. The city does not do a good job in dealing with the comprehensive aspect of this problem.
We own a lot of land and a lot of property and a lot of historic structures. Nobody in this room is exactly sure of how comprehensive a list that is. There ought to be a full review of this. Then once we have that full review, there ought to be a report on a regular basis to the council, to the Landmark Preservation Commission, and to the public in general about where we are in terms of the preservation of these structures. If we are going to ask private landlords and property owners to take care of their structures we have to lead by example. There is a moral issue here and this is not a mayor that believes in moral leadership. In the end when you think about it, what are the moral issues that the mayor has provided real leadership on? I guess smoking and the Olympics. And that's about it. There is an opportunity for the city to provide moral, as well as actual leadership in showing that we are going to be a property owner who will respect our own historic structures and do it in a comprehensive and open and transparent way, its not happening. As mayor I will make sure that it does.
Q: We are presently experiencing the cost of the lack of leadership at the helm of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Would you commit to appoint a chair to the Landmark Preservation Commission who has a proven track record and knowledge base in the subject that they are asked to control for the city of New York?
Miller: What I would commit to do is work with the people in this room to identify candidates for that position. Again, I have a different style of leadership than this mayor. I think in the end it's a more effective style of leadership. I like to engage, rather than disengage. I believe in testing the power of my ideas against others. I believe in listening. I don't think that makes me a less effective leader. I think it makes me a more effective leader. And if you look at my record as speaker of the City Council that's the way that its worked. I have led a council that has had more independence. We have members that call press conferences about just about any subject at the drop of a dime. And I am not somebody who believes in closing that off. I believe in allowing that to flourish because I think in the end you accomplish more that way.
So the answer to your question is, is that I will certainly engage in an open and constructive dialogue with the people in this room about how and who to appoint to that position. I'll make my judgment at the end about who I think would be best.
Q: Mayor Bloomberg, standing at this platform before the same crowd in 2001, made a similar statement to the one you just made. We would hope and expect that if you are elected we would have a better follow through than we had in the prior exercise with the same question and really the same answer.
Miller: How many of you have seen this cult movie right now called Napoleon Dynamite? A young man runs for president of the high school. The candidates are supposed to give speech about what they'll do when they are elected president of the student body. And he asks his friend what he should say because he doesn't know what to say, and the friend says, 'Tell them that you will make all of their wildest dreams come true.' So we're at the point of the campaign right now where candidates come before groups like this one and tell you that we are going to make all of your wildest dreams come true.
And that's what happened four years ago when Mike Bloomberg came here, he told you what you wanted to hear. The challenge is to ask yourself - who is mostly likely to go out and actually live up to the pledges and the commitment that they have made? And I just suggest to you that I am the candidate that is most likely, because if you look at my character, if you look at my style of leadership, and you look at my proven record.
I mean look when the real estate and religious communities and other communities who are powerful in this city, all got together and said that they didn't like the demolition by neglect legislation, there was a choice that had to get made by somebody in a real position with real power. Which way are you going to go? And a lot of people would have said you know what it's stirring up to much of a hornets nest. And I proved that when push came to shove, we were going to go forward anyway when I thought it was the right thing to do.
So I am not going to commit to you specifically. But I would be very surprised if I were to choose someone to the Landmarks Preservation Commission who didn't have landmarks experience. I can't see a reason why I would choose somebody to run a landmarks commission who doesn't have landmarking experience.
Q: 2 Columbus Circle has yet to receive a public hearing by this administration. Will you invite us down to City Hall to hold a 'people's landmark hearing,' since the Landmarks Preservation Commission under this mayor refuses to use the landmarks law to provide a public hearing for this worthy building?
Miller: I will seriously consider that request. My only concern is that I don't want to misplace where the pressure should be. If it's a 'people's hearing' it's not a real hearing. A real hearing is what ought to happen. I agree with you. Given the extraordinary amount of discussion on this subject and the amount of concern about it, it is a case and point about the conduct and leadership of the Landmarks Preservation commission. People have different opinions about 2 Columbus Circle. But it certainly is a serious issue. The landmarks commission can say yes or no, but at least they should have to say why. What are the criteria by which a hearing is granted. This building is by a well-known architect. It is in a well known and important public space. If this isn't a building that deserves a hearing, then I don't know what it is.
Q: Can you explain your vote on 2 Columbus Circle at the borough board meeting supporting the transfer of the property to the museum, when everyone know they wanted to destroy the facade?
Miller: I think a museum use for that building is a good idea. There isn't anything else on the table. It has the support of the local council member. But I don't think that it negates the need for landmark consideration. The landmarks commission hasn't done its job. We have to live within that reality.
Q: In Staten Island and Queens one of the biggest issues is overdevelopment and tearing down existing buildings to build new ones. The mayor has a solution, which we call 'landmarking by ambush.' He comes out to a public meeting where a developer has bought a building and plans to tear it down and the mayor pledges to have it landmarked. We have a proposal before the City Council (Intro 317) on delaying demolitions so there can be an orderly process and having a hearing for each building. Can you help us move that bill along? And what is your platform on overdevelopment and teardowns?
Miller: With regard to that bill, we are working very hard to see how we can move it forward. It's a good concept. We need to look at what the resources are and it's important for people to be able to build in this city. You are right, there is no orderly way to deal with these issues. The way it works now is that if you have community group that gets whipped up enough about a particular aspect in an area where the mayor feels it's a good political issue, he will call a town meeting, arrive, and announce that all is well again.
More broadly, this is an area when we get a piece meal approach from the mayor. That is because of a lack of resources at the City Planning Commission. The City Council has worked hard to expand the planning commission's budget. And there is a lack of political will. We need a comprehensive citywide review. Land values have distorted our process. The zoning process was fine for a long time because it did not make sense 10 years ago to tear down existing building and then build to the property lines. But now, it makes sense. People are paying so much for housing and property in this city. The response from this administration has been too slow. We need to make the zoning match what we want to accomplish.
Q: You've talked about your record and the need for a comprehensive plan. But beyond these symbolic measures, can you initiative legislation to reform the Landmarks Preservation Commission? Other cities allow citizens to gather signatures and have access to the process.
Miller: Our landmarks law was a model when it was passed. But that was 40 years ago. Models need to be updated. There are issues that need to be addressed and I am open to hearing suggestions on how that could be done.
Q: Is it time for someone to do something about the school construction authority? Has it outlived its usefulness? Who is in charge in this city when it comes to our historic schools?
Miller: I don't think its about the school construction authority, it's about the person in charge ' the mayor. The best thing the mayor has accomplished in 3 1/2 years is getting control of the schools. I supported it. If the mayor isn't doing enough about historic schools, we have to hold him accountable.
Q: What would you do with Governors Island?
Miller: I don't have a plan for Governors Island. I have a lot of concern about the administration's failure to come forward with a thoughtful proposal that re-imagines the island and builds on this extraordinary asset. The idea of having CUNY use it was good, but nothing has happened since. More broadly there has to be a process that helps us move forward and make the best choices for a city's future.
Q: On 69th Street and Hudson River, the parks department will be restoring the 1911 New York Central Railroad transfer bridge into a public pier and ferry and water taxi landing. The parks department needs another $1 million. Will you support it?
Miller: I will talk to the council members about it and I hope that I will be able to support it.
Q: Do you have any plans to give resources to the community boards or community organizations in dealing with land use issues?
Miller: I believe in the work of community boards. Some elected officials try to control or compete with community boards, I don't believe in that. Community boards make my life easier as an elected official because I don't have to conduct my own public forum that I have to administer. I believe in community based planning and as speaker and have helped fund them. I would like to see them get more funding. The notion of community board as pure constituent provider is changing. Community boards ought to be more planning oriented.
Other Candidates Speeches
' Fernando Ferrer: The Irreplaceable Treasures of the Bronx
' C. Virginia Fields:Looking Beyond the Big Ticket Items
' Anthony Weiner: Old New York as a Gateway to the new New York