Protesters Accuse Mayor of Corruption Over Demolition of East Village Buildings

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Over 100 people protested Monday afternoon at the site of five buildings the city approved for demolition, demanding an explanation from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) as to why it OK'd their destruction just eight years after the buildings were acknowledged as potential historic landmarks.

Monday's protest, organized by Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, attracted dozens of people who have lived in or near the East Village for several decades. They held signs that said "End pay to play," "No demo" and "Save our neighborhoods preserve our story." New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman also spoke at the demonstration, demanding an explanation from Mayor Bill de Blasio and the LPC on the decision.

"There's some major questions to be answered," Hoylman told Patch. "Given the city administration's laudable goals on affordable housing, it just doesn't make sense that suddenly they want to pull out the rug from under this community and demolish these buildings to make way for a trendy hotel."

Hoylman recommended pressing the administration to get a full explanation on why the buildings that they deemed eight years ago to be eligible for historic designation are no longer eligible.

"These community groups were given the brush-off, as far as I can tell, and that's not acceptable," the senator said.

The five Old Law tenement buildings at 112-120 E. 11th St., built from 1887 to 1892, are planned to be demolished to make way for a new Marriott branch targeted at millennials called Moxy. The LPC designated the buildings as eligible to be historic landmarks in 2008, but the property was never brought before the committee for a hearing.

Several neighborhood groups wrote a proposal to the LPC two months before the decision to demolish the buildings, asking the LPC to save them. The LPC did not respond to the letter until the city approved the demolition permits, the groups said. The LPC responded that it did not believe the buildings were worthy of historic designation, Berman said.

Hoylman also called on the developer who owned the buildings, David Lichtenstein of the Lightstone Group, to preserve the buildings and the affordable housing that went with them. Lichtenstein is on the board of directors of de Blasio's New York City Economic Development Corporation, which puts him in a good position to "do the right thing," according to Hoylman.

"He cares about the city, he's a member of the nonprofit economic development council," Hoylman said. "And I think he should have a bigger frame of reference as to the city's goals in preserving affordable housing, our goals in preserving the character of our neighborhood, and finally, what it means in terms of demolishing buildings that were listed as eligible and suddenly have mysteriously been taken off that list."

"The mayor talks about the desperate need for affordable housing in the city, which is true," Berman said to the crowd. "And here he is, allowing dozens and dozens of units of what was once affordable housing to be demolished to make way for his friend, his political contributor, his ally's hotel development that will simply house globe-trotting young people with disposable income, who are here for a few days and then gone."

The crowd yelled, "Corrupt!" "They're crooks!" and "Paid him off!" within the pauses of Berman's speech.

Lichtenstein bought the five buildings as part of a $127 million deal with Pan Am Equities management company in April. Dozens of tenants who lived in the buildings were given just a month-and-a-half's notice to leave their homes after the deal set their buildings up for a sweeping demolition.

Lichtenstein said in a statement in May that he had donated $50,000 under his business A&J Contracting to the Nassau County Democratic Committee. Lichtenstein's donation was requested by de Blasio's head fundraiser, Ross Offinger, who was under federal investigation for the political donations the mayor solicited, the Albany Times Union reported.

Longtime community members say they are losing their beloved East Village, one demolition at a time.

"I voted for the mayor with great enthusiasm. It turned out to be an absolute disaster," said Jeffrey Dooley, a singer who has lived in his sixth-floor walk-up apartment at 229 E. 11th St. since 1976.

Dooley said the rents in his building have skyrocketed over the past decade, which he has managed to skirt with rent stabilization and the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE). He pays around $450 a month for his apartment.

Dooley said he's constantly being harassed by members of management who don't identify themselves to him and demand he take a buy-out for his apartment. He has three dates with housing court in his future, he said.

The 71-year-old baroque singer told the story of a little, old lady in the 1990s who used to sit on a pillow and look out the front window of the first floor of 114 E. 11th St. to greet passersby.

"She's probably long dead by now," he said. "But that's the way it used to be."

"It's just one more way they're gonna chip away at the neighborhood I've lived in since 1981," said Dottie Wilson, who lives on East Ninth Street. When asked why she thought the demolitions were approved, Wilson said, "Greed! Money, money, money."

"That's New York, it's always been changing," said Pablo Garcia, who lives in the Greenwich Village. "It's just, I'd like to slow it down again."

Garcia said it was encouraging to know a community of people were fighting for preservation alongside him.

"You don't feel like you're the only one, like the only old crank," he said.

"That this hotel is being built as a millennial hotel is an insult to a generation — my generation," Kelly Carroll, director of advocacy and community outreach at the Historic Districts Council, said in a speech to the protesters.

"This is a perfect example of tasteless, moneyed people missing the point — that what makes this neighborhood hot is not destroying its largest assets, which are its physical fabric," she said.

All photos by Sarah Kaufman/Patch