Jefferson Market Courthouse in New York

A Love Affair with a Landmark in Manhattan: An Arresting Drama in Greenwich Village. [Opinions expressed are the views of OLD JEFF unless attributed to other - - potentially less-reliable - - sources, i.e., newcomers who have not been around since 1832 on Sixth Avenue.]

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Another Facade: Village Alliance

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and see the FACADE.
Yes, indeed, here's another one that's full-of-hot-air.
Funded by real-estate-gazzillionaire Norman Buchbinder, the BID [Business Improvement District] has a mission statement gassy with promises of "landmark preservation" and "protection" for historic eye-candy. Meanwhile, despite the city's real estate boom and despite the juicy fees that the BID charges its members, West Eighth Street is steadily on the skids: a slum corridor of tacky storefronts and half-a-century of neglect, a street so ugly that even dog-walkers avoid it. Many of West 8th's landlords have had no choice but to lower rents. Unfortunately, this "8th Wonder" is the yellow-brick-road that leads pedestrians to Jefferson Market Library [425 Sixth Avenue], a unique landmark no better for its proximity to this misalliance. Tsk!
* * Does this 19th century Venetian Gothic beauty [under scaffolding since 2004 but not under repair] look protected or preserved?


MISSION: The Village Alliance was signed into law as a Business Improvement District (BID) in September of 1993, by the Mayor of New York City, to include within its boundaries 8th Street from Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue and Saint Marks Place; Astor Place and Sixth Avenue from West 4th Street to 8th Street.
AREA: Within the district boundaries are two special designations: The Greenwich Village Historic District and The Special Limited Commercial District, a zone created to protect the historic nature of the commercial area which along 8th Street and Sixth Avenue is located in a variety of brownstone-type buildings representing a number of architectural styles of a bygone era.
EXPERTISE: Among the programs we provide to our constituents are supplemental public safety and sanitation services, graffiti removal, economic development and community revitalization, facade improvement, marketing and promotion, streetscape enhancements, and tourist information and tours. ...
The Village Alliance
8 East 8th Street
New York, NY 10003
T.:212-777-2173; Fax:212-505-0639; E-mail:bid@villagealliance.org

Source:http://jeffersonmarketcourthouseny.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Jefferson Market.