Mayor Bloomberg’s third term really is coming to an end. In an unprecedented move, the Mayor’s Department of Education (which does nothing substantive without his approval) abandoned plans to tear down two schools so that developers could build luxury projects on their land. This retreat was the result of strong community opposition from parents and community members on the Upper West Side. This is a victory for democracy.
The students would have been displaced while developers put up high-rise apartment buildings.
“One of the schools saved, P.S. 199 on West 70th Street, was designed by the modernist architect Edward Durell Stone. Laurie Frey, a member of the Community Education Council in District 3, said that as a liaison to P.S. 191 on West 61st Street, she was relieved because under the plan that had been considered, half a playground would have been destroyed and children would have been attending classes on two floors below ground level in the new building.
“Asking 6-, 7-, 8- and 9-year-old children to walk past the demolition of their schools and then see a high rise go up is not a good way to engage with the core curriculum,” she added.
Here is a summary of the situation by Asemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, who represents the area affected. She sponsored legislation to assure that all future dispositions of land by the New York City Department of Education and related agencies would be subject to a review process that included representatives of the affected communities as well as a public hearing. This would assure, at the least, that the DOE would not be able to take the community by surprise and give away its schools and land to developers.
VICTORY!
UPPER WEST SIDE SUCCESSFULLY FIGHTS OFF DOE REDEVELOPMENT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
In a victory for Upper West Side schools, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) bowed to community pressure and has announced that it will not move forward with plans for redevelopment at Manhattan P.S. 191 and Manhattan P.S. 199. I am gratified that DOE came to realize that trying to force a project of this magnitude without any public process on the Upper West Side will always be met with a wall of united opposition.
The DOE first proposed to demolish these schools and the School of Cooperative Technical Education on the Upper East Side with an advertisement to developers in a November 2012 issue of Crain’s. The DOE would have leased the land to a private developer who would demolish the schools and build luxury housing with a school at the base. Make no mistake about it: this plan was never about education or providing seats for our children–it was conceived as a giveaway to developers. The DOE did not notify anyone in the targeted communities of its intentions and, even after a community outcry, gave just one presentation in February which provided little useful information.
On the Upper West Side, we refuse to stand for the City playing games with our public schools, and I wrote to the DOE to express my disgust with its refusal to engage the community and let parents have a say in its decision on whether to redevelop any of the schools. I also sent DOE a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for answers to many of the questions it left unanswered and worked with the affected communities of both schools to organize informational meetings and rallies. The marvelous collaboration with community leaders and area elected officials culminated last night in a rally and forum attended by hundreds of parents, teachers, children and community members who made their voices heard and said no to redevelopment.
This victory, coming on the heel’s of last night’s public meeting, would never have been possible without the thousands of Upper West Siders who signed petitions, wrote letters, demonstrated and organized. I especially want to thank the following groups and fellow elected officials for their efforts and advocacy:
Coalition to Save Our Schools
Museum Magnet School / Manhattan P.S. 191 Redevelopment Committee
United Federation of Teachers
Lincoln Square Community Coalition
Amsterdam Houses Residents Association
Coalition for a Livable West Side
New York Communities for Change
Congressman Jerrold Nadler
Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer
State Senator Brad M. Hoylman
State Senator José M. Serrano
State Senator Adriano Espaillat
City Councilmember Gale A. Brewer
However, DOE will unfortunately continue pursuing its secretive redevelopment process at the School of Cooperative Technical Education at 321 East 96th Street. I was told that DOE will release a Request for Proposals, but it does not have a firm timeline for doing so. Targeting the school whose students are most geographically dispersed and less organized does not make DOE’s agenda any more palatable. If the East Side community opposes this development, I am sure we will work together to save their school.
I want to again congratulate the Upper West Side on showing the City that we have had enough of backroom deals and secret plans. The students of P.S. 191 and P.S. 199 can go on summer vacation knowing that they will have a school to return to in the fall!
Linda B. Rosenthal
Member of Assembly – 67 AD
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Michael Bloomberg will go down in history as (and the list of adjectives and phrases is LONG) one of the most pernicious, evil, indirectly violent, selfish, disconnected, polluting, plutocratic, oligarchic, self centered, opportunistic, immoral, corrupt, unilaterial, hegemonious, undemocratic, fascist, unsympathetic, non-empathetic, socio-pathic, stealing, unfeeling, market driving, market manipulating, and grotesque individual in New York, the United States, and the world.
His fading into Time’s very mortal oblivion will be welcome and celebrated by most.
I have a friend who is a NYC public school teacher and has been actively involved in attending rally after rally in order to oppose each and every school being set up for closure under Bloomberg. The great majority of these schools are closed. She has seen Eva Moskowitz more times than she would care to. I highly suspect that the population at these two schools on the upper west side is different demographic than other schools which were closed. I suspect there is a larger percentage of parents at 191 and 199 who are educated, have English as their first language who know how to navigate the system in these two upper west side schools. I am sure their socio-economic status doesn’t hurt. Just wondering if more of these parents might come out and offer the same support for a host of schools where the parents of these student populations need assistance in learning to advocate. Just thinking.
I am an NYC public school teacher. What your friend has seen is real. I’m ecstatic that this neighborhood was able to curb Mr. Bloomberg’s enthusiasm. This plan had his mark all over it. But you’re right: he backed down because the people who fought him have a financial and educated voice. Many other schools haven’t been so fortunate. His disregard for the voice of the community is well known. He has his own agenda.
Four points. First, this is a significant victory. Recognition should be given to all those involved in this resistance and their process should be studied.
Second, this victory is not exactly unprecedented. Several years ago, the Julia Richman Education Complex (J.R.E.C.) on New York’s Upper East Side was threatened with demolition by developers who, in alliance with Hunter College President (and Bloomberg crony) Jennifer Raab, wanted to replace JREC with a new Hunter College school of health services building, which would have included multiple, private condominium, luxury apartments. Several of the schools housed in JREC are members of the New York Performance Standard Consortium, a group of New York state high schools that, as readers of this blog may know, has fought (and is still fighting) to defend the waiver it has from the vast majority of the state’s high stakes graduation exams. A series of protests and lobbying efforts, combined with the recessionary collapse of the housing market, led Hunter and the N.Y.C. Department of Education to withdraw this plan.
Third, it is equally significant that the victory occurred in an essentially gentrified section of Manhattan. There is a public housing project not far from these schools, but much of the neighborhood is now populated by white, middle, upper-middle and upper class residents. The school populations are diverse, but based on my most recent visit four or five years ago, I would guess that they are predominantly white as well. Anti-closure organizing is occurring in less privileged New York areas, but thus far it has not been as successful. We will know that Bloomberg’s school reform is on the run when victories such as this take place in other settings.
Fourth, and this is strictly personal, P.S. 199’s building may be saluted by architecture critics and internally it may well be an effective use of space, but many on the West Side regard it as visually distasteful to say the least.
Invoked Education Law 2590-h requiring educational impact statement and hearings for re-siting of schools.
Is the developer Eli Broad? Wouldn’t surprise me since he is another “reform” raptor philanthropist.
Good lawyering David. Congratulations to all who made this happen. Every win is important as it is one they did not win. This is politics. Politics is war without guns, supposedly.