On Friday, August 30, 2013, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Professor Kenneth T. Jackson endorsing Mayor Bloomberg’s crusade to gain approval for the rezoning of East Midtown prior to December 31, 2013 — the last day of Bloomberg’s third term.

On Friday, September 6, the NYT published our response letter to Professor Jackson in both its print and online editions. You can read the LW! letter here, along with six other featured letters to the editor compiled as “More Glass Towers for New York?
LW! proudly stands by our record not only as champions for the buildings and many people of the Upper West Side, but also as stewards of responsible growth and economic development within our vibrant, diverse, and yes, historiccommunity.

We know that Professor Jackson does not speak for all of us when he claims that New York must make an either/or decision if it wants to remain “the wonder city” or if it should “follow the paths of Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston and Savannah in emphasizing its human scale, its gracious streets and its fine, historic houses.” In fact, LW! believes that New York should be proud to be included in the same sentence as these remarkable world-class cities.

The Times stopped accepting online comments in reply to Jackson’s op-ed at 2:41pm after posting 89 comments — the majority of which called the professor to task for his dubious argument to turn East Midtown into an exclusive playground for real estate developers.

LW! was shut out of the online comments section, but you shouldn’t be. Please take this opportunity to publicly respond to Professor Jackson’s op-ed by emailing us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.organd we will include your comments here on the LW! blog in our next post.
 

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