“Top Chef” host Padma Lakshmi turned heads today when she showed up to lend her star power to the legal fight against NYU’s controversial expansion plan.
The famed cookbook author and onetime Indian supermodel wore a white summer dress as she slipped into one the last available seats in a Manhattan courtroom packed with about 100 activists who claim the iconic school’s blueprints will illegally eliminate vital green space in Greenwich Village.
Lakshmi’s appearance prompted a flurry of whispers in the gallery as people craned their necks to get a peek at the brunette beauty.
“I’m just a concerned mother, Village resident. There’s not a lot of places to play downtown,” shei said after intently watching the arguments.
Nearly a dozen community groups are suing the city for approving NYU’s $6 billion, 20-year plan, with plaintiffs’ lawyer Randy Mastro arguing today that the four sites at issue should be considered untouchable park land under the theory of “implied dedication” because they’ve been used by the public for decades.
Mastro noted that the spots are all listed on the Parks Department Web site, have Parks Departments signs all over and are maintained by the Parks Department.
City lawyers countered that the “strips” of land aren’t listed as parks on city maps, but are designated as streets and belong to the Department of Transportation.
The hearing was cut short because it started late, and the judge told both sides to submit additional, written arguments in two weeks.
In a statement, the city Law Department called said it was working “aggressively” to get the suit tossed, calling it “long on embellished rhetoric and short on the facts” and “a desperate effort to block a thorough and publicly vetted plan that is good for NYU, the local community, and the City’s educational and economic future.”
“The NYU plan will yield a pedestrian-friendly mix of public open spaces and academic, residential, and retail uses on the site of two Robert Moses-era superblocks,” the Law Department said.