Uptown Is For People

Marx Brothers Place is an historic little block in the heart of Carnegie Hill. Informed by its cultural pedigree, which boasts the biographies of both the Marx Brothers & the Loewe brothers; the antiquity of its houses, which include brownstones older than any of the brownstones already in the Carnegie Hill Historic District and its unique stepped-down roofscape, Marx Brothers Place remains a cherished gem in NYC's collection of historic neighborhoods.

It also happens to be the sort of block where folks know the names of their neighbors' dogs and where neighborhood children pitch in to help plant daffodil and tulip bulbs in the tree pits each fall. In other words, Marx Brothers Place is a real NYC neighborhood.

And despite the fact that for decades Marx Brothers Place has been a quiet destination mapped for travelers longing to see the childhood home of the most beloved comic family in film history, it's steep hill and far-north geography (most people get nose bleeds above 86th Street) had insulated the block from the hungry glare of big-time developers.

But when money got really, really cheap, and the NYC Department of Buildings got really, really corrupt, the residents of Marx Brothers Place got a crash course in the lethal difference between being historic and being designated historic in NYC. For, as we all know by now, being historic in NYC provides absolutely no legal protection from an oncoming bulldozer. History gets a reprieve from that particular weapon of mass demolition only if the history has already been tagged and duly registered with the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Less than 30 feet outside the boundary line of the Carnegie Hill Historic District (the middle of Lexington Avenue at 93rd Street), Marx Brothers Place is a sitting duck for eager developers with visions of demolition dancing through their heads.

And in these difficult economic times, which haven't slowed down the speculators on East 93rd Street one bit, this persistent threat to the character of our block evokes the more ubiquitous dread that threatens to rob our city of one of its most vital assets: NYC's historic neighborhoods. For, it's blocks like Marx Brothers Place (is there another block so unique?) that help to inform the character of these great old neighborhoods.

In turn, NYC's historic neighborhoods serve as anchors, even magnets, for our community, helping the city to weather good times and bad. But without the people that populate these historic neighborhoods, many of whom will leave if NYC continues to fail to protect the historic character that attracted them in the first place, the probability of NYC surviving the current economic downturn becomes severely challenged.

Faced with the harsh practical reality of the long-term irreparable harm hovering over this beloved NYC block, one might think Community Board 8 and the Bloomberg Administration would be busy at work doing all they can to help celebrate and protect Marx Brothers Place: A truly unique and historic neighborhood.

Instead, CB8 and the Mayor's office have stood by passively nodding as developers dreams of out-of-scale and over-priced condominiums are waved through the same red tape that seems to slow down everybody else in this town - except builders with a backhoe.

If the Bloomberg Administration doesn't move quickly to protect Marx Brothers Place and the other vulnerable historic neighborhoods uptown, not only will our city suffer dearly from the loss of these great historic treasures, but it will begin to resemble the Wild West with urban tumble weed replacing residents who had once converged for a boom that has now gone bust.

Uptown is for people. It's a real neighborhood, not just a spot on a developer's map existing for the pleasure and short-term profit of speculators cranked up on foreign money and the ease with which they have been able to compromise the NYC Department of Buildings.



Please be sure to share this message with all your friends & colleagues
and let LPC know that you want the city to protect
Marx Brothers Place by just clicking on this link!


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Thanks for your continued interest in historic Marx Brothers Place !

For more information about the 93rd Street Beautification Association or Marx Brothers Place, please contact us at 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com or 212.969.8138 or visit our blogs at: Save Marx Brothers Place or The Marx Brothers Place Report.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution to help keep the preservation campaign alive, please just click on this link.

And please don't forget to visit our YouTube Channel Page for all of our latest videos and movies. We also invite you to join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or view our Marx Brothers Place MySpace profile.

The Demolition Review Bill - The Third Rail in NYC Politics!

Over the last decade, American cities with significant historic inventory have wisely taken steps to protect the architectural and cultural legacies they have been privileged to inherit. Chicago, Boston and nearby Yonkers, NY, for example, have all enacted laws requiring that a few key questions be answered before rubber stamping a Demolition Permit.

But sadly, the proverbial rubber stamp remains current practice in our city (sort of the Real Estate industry's version of "don't ask, don't tell") even though only 1% of its structures are currently landmarked (a status which does confer a review process prior to demolition), leaving the rest vulnerable to demolition with no questions asked (like, for instance, was it the nation's first Presidential abode?).

Now, given the fact that once NYC's historic neighborhoods and structures are gone, no amount of wand waving will ever be able to bring them back (ref. the old Penn Station), we really don't think it's much to ask that, before the NYC Department of Buildings gives a developer the green light to demolish a structure which is 50 years or older, the city first find out whether the structure happens to be historically significant.

If the goal is to manage sustainable development without destroying the incomparable character of NYC, its historic neighborhoods and its economy, this certainly seems a wise and reasonable approach. In fact, one might even call it a no-brainer.

And yet, here in our city, a municipality not exactly known for its political timidity, finding an advocate for a Demolition Review bill in the NYC Council is like trying to find a politician in West Virginia willing to advocate against the Coal Industry.

Now, we understand the politics that make NY City Council Members reluctant (read: allergic) to want to shepard a bill which seems to poke a finger in the eye of the very industry that has proven so generous to their re-election campaigns.

And, of course, now that Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau (who's got more game at 90 than most of us had at 29) has made the world aware that the NYC Department of Buildings (remember, the department charged with the duty to issue Demolition Permits?) has for years been operating as a front for the Luchese crime family, we are even more sensitive to the City Council's reluctance to wade too deep into these dark and chilly waters.

But taking a cue from the irrepressible Marx Brothers, wade they must: After moving on from their beloved childhood block in Carnegie Hill, the Marx Brothers lived for a time (before coming to their senses and returning to the greatest city in the world!) in the city of Chicago. And when that city decided the most politically palatable way to manage the energetic rash of demolitions there was to commission an inventory of its historic structures, the Marx Brothers suddenly reappeared - posthumously presiding over a rather public exegesis in managing development in the 21st century. You see, Chicago's inventory list of historic structures missed a very obvious cultural gem: the Marx Brothers house!

Well, those spunky Chicago denizens would be having none of that! And having learned from the experience that an inventory list was simply not practicable, they not only made sure the Marx Brothers house was individually protected, they also crafted and passed a Demolition Review law ensuring that such an embarrassing oversight would never happen again!

Last year, the 93rd Street Beautification Association submitted a draft of just such a Demolition Review bill to the NYC Council. That proposed NYC law is based upon the similar law enacted by the city of Boston. And while Boston may have an absolutely wretched baseball team, we must admit it does know a thing or two about history and its value.

So, now all we need is one (we'll take more!) brave soul in the NY City Council to step up to the plate on behalf of our city's historic neighborhoods, its architectural and cultural heritage, and the countless historic structures that remain vulnerable to summary demolition throughout all five boroughs.

We hope the NY City Council will do the right thing and push full steam ahead to finally pass a Demolition Review bill that will protect our city's future by protecting its history!

And in the meantime, please let the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission know that you want the city to protect historic Marx Brothers Place by just clicking on this link. Thanks!!!

Please be sure to share this email with all your friends and colleagues!

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.....................................................................................

Thanks for your continued interest in historic Marx Brothers Place !

For more information about the 93rd Street Beautification Association or Marx Brothers Place, please contact us at 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com or 212.969.8138 or visit our blogs at: Save Marx Brothers Place or The Marx Brothers Place Report.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution to help keep the preservation campaign alive, please just click on this link.

And please don't forget to visit our YouTube Channel Page for all of our latest videos and movies. We also invite you to join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or view our Marx Brothers Place MySpace profile.

Harpo Has Spoken: Now It's Up To The Rest Of Us!

Between NYC Council Members perpetually prowling for campaign contributions from Real Estate Developers to fuel their next election no matter what new office they may seek; a do-nothing-for-anybody-but-themselves Community Board and a Building Department, which under the close watch of Mayor Bloomberg had actually been operating as a public employment agency for one of the most powerful Mafia Crime Families on the East Coast, it's little wonder that Greystone Development, with its stable of New Jersey license plates clogging our street every day, got away with a shocking mid-block incursion on the R8B Zoned Carnegie Hill stretch popularly known as Marx Brothers Place.

But this latest string of criminal indictments not only reveals the NYC Building Department to be far more fox than henhouse, it smacks of the Bloomberg Administration's laissez-faire attitude about who it does business with - just as long as Real Estate Developers don't stand idle. And while all New Yorkers root for renewed and sustainable prosperity for the greatest city in the world, most of us realize that prosperity at any price is not prosperity at all.

The corrosive corruption that has finally eaten through whatever shred of integrity may have been left of NYC's Real Estate Development industry tragically demolished more than historic 19th century houses with great potential: It took with it human lives and all they might have become.

The people of NYC expect and deserve much better from those who have been granted the privilege to make decisions that effect our community, its continued development, its history, the lives of its residents and its future.

As most of you know, Harpo has already spoken on this subject. So now it's time for the rest of us to do the same.

Please take a moment right now to click on this link and send the message to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission asking LPC Chairman Robert Tierney to calendar the 93rd Street Beautification Association's Request for Evaluation (RFE) for a public hearing to consider the Association's request that LPC extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District one block east to protect the incomparable historic Marx Brothers Place.


.............................................................
.....................................................................................

Thanks for your continued interest in historic Marx Brothers Place !

For more information about the 93rd Street Beautification Association or Marx Brothers Place, please contact us at 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com or 212.969.8138 or visit our blogs at: Save Marx Brothers Place or The Marx Brothers Place Report.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution to help keep the preservation campaign alive, please just click on this link.

And please don't forget to visit our YouTube Channel Page for all of our latest videos and movies. We also invite you to join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or view our Marx Brothers Place MySpace profile.