Yesterday MAS testified before the City Planning Commission, voicing strong support for city’s goals for Coney Island and suggesting improvements to the rezoning plan in the areas of urban design, zoning and preservation. During the past several months MAS has worked with the staff of the Brooklyn Office of City Planning, amusement experts, and with Coney Island  community and cultural groups to identify the best ways to restore Coney Island to its position as a world-class amusement destination. Read our testimony in full here or our press release here.

Among MAS’s specific recommendations for improving the rezoning plan:

1. Ensure Surf Avenue has a low-rise South Side by moving the hotels to the North Side of Surf Avenue. Coney Island is first and foremost a seaside resort, and it’s critical to retain the sense of openness, views of the horizon and taller amusements. Continue Reading>>

In honor of Earth Day, MAS has released a study that details a suggested framework for analyzing climate change, and enables New York State to evaluate and address the potential climate change impact of different actions in land-use, energy and industrial transportation, and other issues. In order to fight climate change, it is critical that we reduce green house gases (GHG). Just last week, the Environmental Protection Agency formally declared six green house gasses to be pollutants that endanger public health and welfare. 

The MAS study concludes that the state has the ability to require far-reaching environmental review that can substantially advance efforts to reduce GHG. Meaningful environmental review can greatly assist governmental agencies and the public in understanding the climate change consequences of an action, while helping to address the resulting impacts. 

“Climate change is a global challenge and New Yorkers have the responsibility to aggressively reduce GHG emissions and prepare for the changes in air temperature, sea level, and precipitation, and the massive implications of those changes, to human and natural environments,” said Vin Cipolla, President of the Municipal Art Society. “New York is making great strides to reduce the state’s GHG emissions, but more solutions can and should be pursued to drastically reduce its contribution to global climate change.”  Continue Reading>>

Transforming America’s Cities: Creating a National Urban Policy, the first panel discussion in the MAS series The City in the Age of Obama, will take plan next Tuesday, April 21. About 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas, yet for decaades the Federal government lacked a comprehensive approach to developing and implementing an effective strategy concerning urban America. In February, President Obama created the White House Office of Urban Affairs, now led by former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, to oversee all federal urban programs and integrate policies that link transportation, housing, economic development, energy and environmental issues. A panel of policymakers, academics and practitioners will discuss how stakeholders can capitalize on this opportunity to fundamentally rethink our federal urban policy and ensure that smart investments are made at the municipal level.

Vicki Been of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University, will moderate the panel. Speakers include Eugenie Birch, University of Pennsylvania; Christopher Jones, Regional Plan Association; Toni Griffin, City of Newark; Anthony Shorris, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. 

Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society. $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075. 

As is often the case, Jane Jacobs said it best: “Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs… If a city’s streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.”  Citing Jacobs in a recent decision which affirmed the constitutionality of New York City’s billboards and signage regulations, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York rightfully recognized the City’s substantial interests in protecting neighborhood aesthetics and promoting traffic safety. For 115 years the Municipal Art Society of New York has been fighting to improve New York City’s streets; this decision, coupled with the City’s renewed promise to enforce its signage restrictions, is a significant victory in that fight.

The problems of outdoor advertising are not, of course, a recent phenomenon; when the New York Times noted that one of Manhattan’s most celebrated retail districts had become a “frightful spectacle” characterized by a “wilderness of discordant and shrieking signs” it was not merely recalling the ills of non-compliant signage, but forecasting them, in 1902.  Continue Reading>>

MAS testified yesterday to the City Council’s Economic Development and Land Use Committees, who held an oversight hearing on the development of Coney Island. We raised concern about recent recommended changes to the rezoning that we fear would harm the district, particularly expanding the size of retail units to 10,000 square feet, transforming the amusement area into a large-scale shopping district rather than one with local businesses and world-class amusements. MAS urged the City Council to reject this recommended change.  Click here to read the entire statement.

Similar concerns about those troubling changes were echoed in a press release issued by a coalition of community, arts and planning groups, including MAS. The group affirmed that the City of New York is the only entity that can create a great amusement destination at Coney Island. It also highlighted the critical issue of land ownership. MAS President Vin Cipolla said, “We believe that the economics do not currently allow for the creation of an amusement park on privately-owned land, and we strongly support the city’s efforts to acquire private property in the amusement area.” Click here to read the entire statement.

On Tuesday, the City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Robert Lieber, announced the formation of the Coney Island Amusement Advisory Panel. The panel will also assist the City in continued planning efforts for a permanent amusement operation and development of a 27-acre amusement and entertainment district at Coney Island. MAS will be on the panel along with a group of leading amusement industry experts that will help structure and expedite the City’s plans for interim amusements at Coney Island in Summer 2010. Click here to read entire statement.

Renowned architectural photographer and long-time Broadway resident Cervin Robinson chats with Elizabeth Werbe of MAS about the images and inspiration behind his exhibition By Way of Broadway: New York Photographs by Cervin Robinson, which opens with a reception tonight, Wednesday, March 25, 6:00 p.m., at MAS.This collection of black & white and color photographs explores New York’s visual landscape with thirty views of the 17-mile length of Manhattan’s main street taken over the course of three decades.

The exhibition opens to the public tomorrow, Thursday, March 26, and will be on display through Thursday, May 7, 2009. Visit www.mas.org/exhibitions for gallery hours and more information.

Over the past several months, over a thousand people have participated in the ImagineConey initiative. The results – on display at MAS through Wednesday, March 11 – have been extraordinary, convincing us that Coney Island’s potential is truly unlimited.

While we support the City’s overall goal of revitalizing Coney Island, we are concerned that their proposed rezoning would threaten that potential, by restricting the size of the amusement area, locating high-rise buildings between Surf Avenue and the ocean, and offering insufficient protection for historic buildings in the amusement area.

Tomorrow, Brooklyn Community Board 13 will hold the first public hearing of the ULURP process on the rezoning. Please consider joining MAS in asking the City to make critical changes to the plan to ensure that we create a great Coney Island.

WHAT: Community Board Hearing on Coney Island Rezoning
WHEN: Tuesday, March 3, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Lincoln High School (by the Ocean Parkway stop on the Q train)
ADDRESS: 2800 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11235 MAP

If you plan to testify, please consider mentioning the following points: Continue Reading>>

During the Epiphany Book Sale at the Municipal Art Society’s bookstore Urban Center Books (UCB) all titles are 25% off. The sale runs through Tuesday, January 13 and covers all stock except magazines. However, you must bring in this downloadable coupon to claim your discount.

Urban Center Books is located at The Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue, at East 51st Street, and is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 10:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. , Saturday: 12:00 – 5:30 p.m.

If you would like to receive advance notice of future UCB sales and events, please make sure to give the salesperson your e-mail address when you visit the store.

The proposed Ridgewood North Historic District is comprised of the earliest examples of “Mathews Model Flats,” built by speculative developer Gustave X. Mathews and designed by architect Louis Allmendinger between 1908 and 1911. Considered to be some of the most innovative housing in New York City, these “new law” tenements were designed with more space and better sanitation than their overcrowded 19th Century counterparts. By making use of generous lot sizes, introducing wide air shafts to provide improved air and light quality, including bathrooms in each unit, and controlling occupancy, Mathews established a new housing paradigm that was a welcome departure from the congested, polluted slums of the Lower East Side. The three story apartment buildings were simple, sturdy, and relatively cheap to construct, and therefore became the standard for subsequent tenement house construction. Exhibited at the 1915 Panama Pacific Fair in San Francisco, the Mathews Model Flats were heralded as an exceptional achievement in affordable housing. Continue Reading>>

Metropolis published two articles today on several successful major redevelopment projects that MAS encouraged, such as Columbus Circle, the High Line, and Fresh Kills in Staten Island.  All at various stages of completion, these areas, former notorious eyesores on New York City landscape, are being reimaged in ways that increase open space and activate their surrounding neighborhoods.

In other news, the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected the current General Growth proposal for the South Street Seaport while there was no vote at the hearing, the Commission objected primarily to the inappropriate scale, massing and height of buildings in a historic district and the relocation of the historic Tin building. Continue Reading>>