Under the NYC Landmarks Law, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designated landmark status to the historic Empire Diner, which is a 1946 Art Deco freestanding diner by mastermind Joseph Fodero of the Fodero Dining Car Co). It is of a dying breed, since it is one of the last of 2 highly intact examples in Manhattan, which was once dotted with freestanding diners. The Empire Diner is a marked contributing property to the city's Historic District. Note the Dept of Buildings' classification for 210 10th Ave as L for Landmark.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: As many people as possible need to call the Landmarks Preservation Commission's investigation unit and main phone number, and ask why the Empire State Building model was removed from the top corner of the landmarked facade of the Empire Diner at 210 10th Ave, and also mention that the new operators likely plan on changing the famed name (according to many press clips), which to our knowledge also has protection under the Landmarks Law.
Is the latter photo the ideal of progress? We believe a permit would need to be approved by the Landmarks Commission first, so it is imperative that they know.
1. Call the LPC investigation unit - Diane Simonson at (212) 669-7948 2. Also call the main LPC # for Dir of Research Mary Beth Betts, and make her aware of the ESB removal and diner name endangerment. The interior should also be recommended for Interior Landmark status (facade already has landmark status). Mary Beth Betts is reachable at (212) 669-7700. Please call, & tell your friends to call as well.
Keep Michael Perlman informed of your correspondence with the LPC via
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Susette Kelo may have lost her battle against the City of New London trying to save her house, but as the Institute for Justice video shows, her struggle has become the turning point in the war against eminent domain abuse.
For more on this issue, see our Countertop piece here.
This comes from the Star Press of Muncie, Indiana.
Old has become the new sustainability
Muncie's Millenium Place is perfect example
By TONY COSTELLO
For several years, May has been designated National Historic Preservation Month by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each year, the trust develops a theme or focus for the month's activities and events, thus ensuring that the public will continue to be educated in a different aspect of historic preservation or adaptive reuse of historic resources.
The theme for 2010 -- Old is the New Green -- is aimed at promoting the concept that in preserving, restoring and reusing existing historic buildings or landscapes, we are promoting what has become one of the main influences on planning, design and construction -- sustainability.
For the past decade-plus, this term has been applied at many scales -- from the design of a single-family, affordable housing unit that will be constructed as "infill housing" on an empty lot in a historic neighborhood to the planning and redevelopment of entire neighborhoods.
This bit of happy news comes from the Harrison Patch. Rye Playland is a county park, which pretty much insures its survival for generations to come. Maybe it's a model more places should follow.
Have some fun today!
That's the new slogan for Rye Playland as the sprawling seaside amusement park gets ready to open its new season this weekend as one of only two government-owned and run amusement parks in America (bonus points if you know the other one to be listed at the end of this story because it is commonly written that Westchester runs the only such park in the U.S.).
Before we get to that, Westchester Deputy Parks Commissioner and veteran Rye Playland Director Dan McBride spoke to Rye Patch about what the new season will bring, from choreographed fireworks to brighter, more fuel efficient lighting to light up the rides at night to –brace yourself –new pricing.
Though provoking commentary from the Buffalo News about that city's ongoing decline.
Preservation promises just empty words
Donn Esmonde
The way it lets its resources rot, you would think that Buffalo is the third-richest city in America, not the third-poorest.
By ignoring one of its strengths, by refusing— despite decades of promises— to protect its assets, City Hall plots its own demise. The city lurches from one preservation crisis to another, repeating with every emergency the same sorry excuses and the same empty promises.
Falling bricks this month signaled the latest disaster: St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill Church, a once-gorgeous sandstone structure in the shadow of the Connecticut Street Armory. Roofless, windowless and with its castlelike tower shedding bricks, the former Episcopal church— barring divine intervention—looks ready for the wrecking ball. Although the city seems sympathetic to salvation, the church—whose owner lives in New York City—has decayed for more than a decade.
This comes to us by way of the Buffalo News thanks to a tip by Doug Smith. Apparently, even when Walmart destroys, it doesn't always follow through on its plans to fill the void it leaves. Perhaps this is a mixed blessing, but now the folks in the Niagara region have neither a great roadside attraction nor a soul-crushing place to buy fodder for the landfill.
Bruce Andriatch: Overbuilding is leaving us with eyesores
Pat Bannister fought so hard to prevent Walgreens from building a store in Kenmore that even after the store was built, he vowed to never go in there.
Then one day, he needed to make a purchase, and the store was so close, and . . .
“I broke down,” he said.
But he never became a fixture at the store on Delaware Avenue. Really, no one did. The store wasn’t there long enough.
In most ways, that now-vacant drugstore is no different from the hundreds of empty buildings that dot the landscape across Western New York. But it is a stark reminder that for all their certainty about how great a project will be, developers are no better at predicting the future than anyone else.
That point was reinforced most recently in Evans, where officials were prepared to welcome Walmart to the community. The nation’s largest retailer wanted to build on the site of the former Grandview Drive-In Theater.
Just when you thought the "Great Recession" might have finally snapped us out of our consumptionist insanity comes word that yet another treasured piece of our culture will become a big box store. This story comes from the Chicago Tribune.
Kiddieland's property in Melrose Park may become the site of a new Costco store, a company official confirmed today, addressing weeks of speculation over the fate of the popular former amusement park land.
"Yes, we have interest, but there is nothing finalized," said Dick DiCerchio, senior executive vice president and chief operating officer for Costco, which currently has 13 warehouse-style membership clubs in the Chicago area.
DiCerchio added that plans for the Melrose Park location could evaporate if the company's CEO, Jim Sinegal, decided not to pursue the site.
Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico said the company has not approached the village with a formal proposal.
"Maybe they're getting a little closer... but if they've inked a deal, I have not talked to anybody," said Serpico. "Ultimately they'll have to come to us, of course, but maybe the heavy lifting right now is getting price and terms."
Kiddieland, at the corner of First and North Avenues, closed its doors after 81 years last month after a dispute between the faction of the family that operated the amusement park and the other that owned the land. Popular rides from the park will be sold in an auction Nov. 24, as Kiddieland operators have been ordered to vacate the property by the end of the year.
