In a vote whose lopsidedness left no room for uncertainty, the City Council dealt the death blow to preservationists’ attempts to have the Austin Nichols building at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg landmarked. 43 council members voted against the designation and 6 in favor; a handful of others couldn’t be bothered to get up to speed on the issue. In a quote that will hopefully follow him around until the day he’s voted out of office, Simcha Felder had this to say about the building: “This is a piece of trash. We should knock it down and put something nice up.” Gee, Simcha, wonder if Moishe Kestenbaum’s written you any checks recently. Affordable housing deal in hand, David Yassky was happy to do his part to ensure that a hideous rooftop addition would grace the Brooklyn waterfront skyline. “This is simply not worthy of landmarking,” said Yassky. What’s the point of having realtively knowledgeable and cultured people on the Landmarks commission if their recommendations can be shot down by a bunch of politically-motivated bureaucratic philistines?
City Council Stated Meeting [Gotham Gazette]