By Ed Hersh
Community Board 7 held its first meeting of the year on Tuesday night, presided over by its new chair, Beverly Donohue.
In hopes of making meetings more streamlined, Donohue instituted a three-minute time clock (visible on the Zoom screen) to limit speakers, which many seemed to ignore, especially some of the public officials who joined the meeting to give their legislative updates. Donohue also announced that she was changing the meeting format to move citizens’ comments further up on the agenda.
“We are very concerned and think this [new shelter] merits discussion,” said the first of several community speakers expressing trepidation about a homeless shelter slated to be built on West 59th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. It will house 200 women experiencing homelessness, substance-abuse, and mental-illness issues.
The shelter will be operated by the nonprofit Project Renewal, which also ran the now-closed and controversial shelter at The Lucerne hotel, on West 79th Street. The Lucerne became a lightning rod for opposition when it took in homeless men during the pandemic.
Several people, including Board Member Courtney Clark Metakis, pointed out that the site is in a residential area, near schools and a popular playground, and voiced alarm about potential drugs, crime, and even secondhand smoke. But Board Member Sara Lind countered that “schools, playgrounds, and families are in EVERY neighborhood in the city.” Another community resident said that “Project Renewal has proven it cannot be trusted.”
City Council Member Gale Brewer later reported that she has “had about 20 meetings on the shelter issue” with city officials, trying to persuade them that — rather than a shelter — 60 permanent apartments for the formerly homeless should be built instead, attracting a more stable population. “But the city was just adamant,” Brewer said, admitting, “other than going to court there’s not anything we can do.”
The site is located on the border of Community Boards 4 and 7. CB7 Board member Sheldon Fine suggested that CB7 and CB4 talk to Project Renewal before the shelter opens and any issues arise, to establish lines of communications — perhaps creating a community advisory board.
Citizen commenters also made statements about the proliferation of illegal smoke shops and concerns about the construction of new 5G poles that can provide wireless internet to homes.
The board took several actions, among them:
- Renewing the West 97th Street Greenmarket (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) on Fridays.
- Urging city officials to expedite delayed DOE Funding and Reimbursements to Early Childhood and Education Program Providers.
- Approving the applications for several liquor licenses, including one for a new, still-unnamed indoor restaurant at 144 West 65th Street (by Film at Lincoln Center and Fireman Hospitality Group), and for a new restaurant at the American Museum of Natural History.
The board also rejected an application for a liquor license for a new building – The Apsley — at 2330 Broadway (W. 84th and 85th), which sought to have a private restaurant for residents only that utilized the public sidewalk. The board cited as its reasons for its rejection the idea of a private restaurant utlizing a municipal space, along with its location and proximity to several other sidewalk restaurants on 85th Street.
You can watch the entire meeting here at MCB7 Full Board Meeting | January 3, 2023 – YouTube
Let’s face it no community wants homeless shelters and wants to take on the burden for the rest of the city, at the same time you have urbanist YIMBY types who want to target specific neighborhoods with homeless shelters in order to destroy the quality of life in certain neighborhoods so certain real estate interests can chase out other property owners in the area so they can knock down buildings and put new luxury buildings. These folks are already want to get rid of historic districts in Manhattan and this is all a push to run certain neighborhoods into the ground. There’s a balance between exclusionary policies and purposely targeting neighborhoods to do their “fair share” so that certain real estate interests can benefit long term.
Wow! Have you got a single shred of evidence to support this claim?
Pierre is absolutely right!! Plenty of proof if you know where to look!!
YIMBYs want to build more homeless shelters so they can build luxury housing next to said homeless shelters? That doesn’t make much sense…
this is fascinating, but needs evidence, citations, etc.
I checked the public agenda for this meeting to see if they were discussing anything I would be interested in. I don’t see any mention of Project Renewal, any building on 59th Street or any homeless shelter. https://www.nyc.gov/site/manhattancb7/meetings/full-board-agenda.page
These meetings are already unfriendly to members of the public who don’t have hours to have their voice heard. Concealing items from the agenda makes the issues even worse.
I was at the online meeting and to be fair, it was NOT on the agenda but was discussed because it came up as part of the “citizen comments” section, brought up by several residents of the vicinity who might have been acting in concert, not introduced by the Board.
The Apsley is a ridiculously expensive luxury building for seniors, Kudos to the board for rejecting their residents only sidewalk restaurant. And Gale Brewer had best idea – no shelter, but permanent apartments which, of course, was rejected.
Sara Lind made very unkind remarks in another CB meeting to a woman who had survived being abused by a former spouse. She shamed this woman for contacting the police by saying that the police are unhelpful.
The thing about domestic disputes in general is that the state can never legislate away family/domestic disputes. For every truly violent aggressor that needs police intervention, there’s many more domestic disputes where police involvement would make the situation more awkward and wouldn’t lead to a better outcome. There’s also partners/family members who weaponize the police to gain leverage in a domestic dispute when there is no major threat. There should be better mediation services which can iron out domestic disputes so that police are the option of last resort. When police get involved, sometimes it is the one who’s the victim that ends up getting arrested and prosecuted, police are a HUGE wild card.
It’s not the first time Sara Lind did this. It seems to be a pattern with her at many board meetings. She’s anti-police. Her past behavior was unacceptable.
I wouldn’t call Sara Lind anti-police. She did support DA Alvin Bragg aggressively prosecuting car drivers. The left leaning urbanists in general want to replace the police with themselves. I don’t even think that Sara Lind personally is even the crux of the problem here.
Yes, I was on the community board meeting by zoom and was really dismayed by Sara Lind’s comments.
Just to give this context to those who were not on the zoom meeting. It was a very brave woman who spoke about domestic violence and how grateful she was to the police that they saved her life and her children from being harmed.
Sara Lind told the community ( although no one had addressed any remarks to her) That no one should call the police in domestic violence issues.
Many of us complained to the head of the community board that she should not be there, but I guess our feelings about domestic violence were not taking into consideration.
I believe the suffering that this woman went through and there is a place for the NYPD in domestic violence situations, at the same time there are many more people who end up in a situation where there’s a bad argument, someone got mad called 911 thinking that police would mediate the situation and someone ends up getting arrested. There are mother child domestic disputes that end up in the system where a child or their parent ends up homeless due to an order of protection that may not necessarily be warranted. At the core, most people want their problems to simply go away and police more often than not are used as leverage. Does that mean the police and domestic violence programs should be defunded, of course not. But there’s a reality to domestic disputes that isn’t openly discussed because these offenses carry such a political payload in the criminal justice system.
I never heard of Sara Lind, but she sounds idiotic. Of course, the police should be called. Domestic violence against partners and/or children is a criminal offense. Lind should be kicked off the Board for such hideous advice.
Sam-
Sara Lind has been on the Community Board for a while. She is an attorney who works for bicyling lobbying group Open Plans. She ran for City Council and lost.
Incredible that a CB member would opine about someone else’s family situation/DV matter.
Yes Gale Brewer Its time to take this to court. We will all stand behind you. Our lives cannot be further ruined by Project Renewal. The neighborhood has never recovered from their over nite destruction (Lucerne etc.) And they cannot bring more chaos, crime, and despair here. Blocks of empty storefronts, dark and dirty streets etc etc. This new shelter cannot be dropped on us. We will march protest and more .
Anyone supporting Gale Brewer on this housing v shelter should definitely say so to the City and send a copy to Gail Brewer as well.
“The neighborhood has never recovered from their over nite destruction (Lucerne, etc.)”
Au contraire! Since the homeless were moved out of the Lucerne, the neighborhood has bounced back almost completely, with at least three new eateries within two blocks of the Lucerne, several new stores, and an overall betterment of the area.
I stand with Gale Brewer on this. Project Renewal is a failure, yet they are hired again to manage another major failure. I’d rather see permanent housing. Two hundred unstable people are way too many to handle.
Our neighborhood lived through Project Renewal at the Lucerne and we were not impressed by their supervision, remedial program or support for the men who they housed. Often, Project Renewal would just turn out men who violated their rules which left the men roaming our streets begging. The most visible threat to our neighborhood was the multiple drug dealers who took up residence on the corners near the Lucerne. I support Gail Brewer’s recommendation of apartments for those stable enough to remake their lives.
Having been in 2 shelters for women like this in Brooklyn I wouldn’t want one near me either. Being homeless in one of those places was a horrible experience. That being said I think another apt building for ex-homeless is a far better option. I live in one actually and I’m very grateful for the opportunity and doing well because I got this chance. I was very happy to come back to the UWS as for years it was a home for me. Placement here has made all the difference in my life.
I’ve actually heard a few very nasty comments from various people in the neighborhood about the low income buildings being around here but it’s mostly suppositions not reality. Most of us are just quietly minding our own business and trying to be like anyone else. I’m finally “normal” again and believe me nothing is ever going to jeopardize that again. If you saw me on the street you’d never guess that I had spent over 5 years homeless and that I once slept on the subway because it was safer than in the shelters.
Give these women a chance. Many of them will surprise you. They just want out and to get back to having a home. They are not so different than you.