MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS HISTORIC DISTRICT PROGRESSES
By Dan Rivoli
The Landmark Preservation Commission spoke with property owners in Morningside Heights about a potential historic district in the area Monday, Sept. 20, at Riverside Church
This is a crucial but informal part of the landmark designation process, similar to a recent meeting of property owners about preserving West End Avenue buildings. Read more
PRESERVING WEST END AVE. MOVES FORWARD
By Dan Rivoli
The Landmark Preservation Commission was scheduled to meet with West End Avenue property owners Wednesday, Sept. 15, about the designation of hundreds of buildings.
The meeting, which at press time was scheduled for 6 p.m. at P.S. 75, is an informal but crucial part of the landmark designation process. The meeting is to inform property owners of the added regulation that comes with landmark designation. Read more
Ballerina Mugged
A Russian ballerina and star of the Bolshoi Ballet was mugged June 15 on West End Avenue and West 63rd Street. Police said the woman, identified as 24-year-old Natalia Osipova, was walking home around 12:30 a.m. when two teens robbed her. One punched her in the face and took her pocketbook, which contained her ballet shoes, valued at $100. The two teens ran north toward nearby basketball courts.
FOOD GRAB
An elderly man was mugged walking south on West End Avenue after leaving a Gristede’s Supermarket on West 96th Street and Broadway. Cops said that on Sept. 28 at 8:30 p.m., a thief snatched his green canvas bag. The 81-year-old West End Avenue resident told police he could not identify the suspect, who got away with $200 in cash, groceries and credit cards.
PRESERVING WEST END AVE.
The Upper West Side already has seven historical districts in place to preserve the neighborhood’s character. But Landmark West, a preservation group, wouldn’t mind having one more.
“West End Avenue is like Central Park West of Riverside Drive: it’s one of the grand residential boulevards of the Upper West Side,” said Kate Wood, executive director of Landmark West. “We think it’s a resource that’s worthy of being preserved.”
The group is pushing for a larger historical district, notable for pre-war homes and low-rise row houses, that spans West End Avenue from West 70th to 107th streets. Currently, only two chunks of West End Avenue—between West 87th and 94th streets, and West 75th and 78th streets—have been named a historical district. The demarcation protects buildings from being demolished or altered without prior approval from the community and city’s Landmark Preservation Commission.
“It needs to be preserve as a whole,” Wood said of the avenue. “Not piecemeal.”
Steve Spinola, president of the New York Real Estate Board, has been a critic in the past of the burdens and unclear protocol historic districts place on property owners.
“When it comes to someone doing something necessary to maintain property,” Spinola said, “it adds a serious process that could be problematic.”
