It’s time for the City Council to fish or cut bait: Will it breathe new life into a key commercial district in the city — Midtown East — or let the area continue to decline and see its economic vitality wither?
If council members care about New York’s commercial future, they’ll pass Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to update obsolete zoning rules in Midtown East and help spark redevelopment.
Think about it: The average building in the area (around Grand Central and north) is nearly 70 years old. That means they were built just after World War II. So out of date have these buildings become that businesses increasingly find them undesirable.
The problem is that zoning laws dating from 1961 — more than half a century ago — discourage upgrades. In many cases, new towers would have to be smaller (which likely means less profitable) than the ones they replace. Small wonder there’s virtually no renewal taking place in that area.
The Bloomberg folks want to change that by updating the city’s zoning laws. For the plan to go through, the council must vote to approve it by Nov. 19. Unfortunately, our City Council isn’t known for its vision. It’s anyone’s guess what its members will do.
The one hope is that, on zoning issues, lawmakers usually follow the lead of the member who represents the area in question. For Midtown East, that’s Dan Garodnick, who also aspires to be council speaker. Garodnick’s support for rezoning would help show that he’s ready for the job, that he’s grown beyond a not-in-my-back-yard councilman and is ready to act on behalf of the city’s broader interests.
So far, alas, Garodnick’s been behaving like the proverbial parochial council member, trying to squeeze the Bloomberg folks for concessions. And the city’s made him some good offers in return — such as lending its own funds to finance infrastructure upgrades that ultimately would be paid for by developers.
It’s time for Garodnick and the council to take yes for an answer. Putting off the decision any longer could spell the slow death of a key part of the city’s commercial center. And what a sad omen that would be for the start of our post-Bloomberg era.