The Fix Was In: Community Board Unanimously Denies Landmark Status to Ground Zero Mega Mosque Site

New York politicians are bending over backwards, violating protocol, to build a mega mosque at Ground Zero. In warped speed they are ramming it through, removing every obstacle to expedite the process and erect a triumphal mosque at Ground Zero in time for it to meet its stated opening date, the tenth anniversary of September 11th. Why? Would they do this for a church? A synagogue? This is an outrage ………….

Last night, on less than a week and a half’s notice
(at a time when most people who care are not even around), the Lower Manhattan Community Board 1 (“LMCB”) Landmark
Commission (“LMCBLC”) held its meeting to consider the landmark status of
45-47 Park Place (the site of the proposed 911 mega mosque). Refusing to wait until the entire board could meet, seven board members voted unanimously to deny landmark status to the Burlington Coat Factory building, removing another obstacle to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s supremacist, triumphal mosque.

One journalist noted that the “CB1 Landmarks committee, which is a stickler for details when someone wants to install new windows or awnings, voted to recommend to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission that landmark status not be given to the two antique buildings on Park Place that the owner wants to tear down to build the mega-mosque at Ground Zero.”

The historical significance of the property is clear: it was designed by the famous architect Daniel D.
Badger. A number of his buildings have already been given landmark
status. The New York Times
obituary (19 Nov. 1884, p. 2) for Daniel D. Badger (1806-1884), read
in part, “Daniel D. Badger, the pioneer of this country in the use of
iron for building purposes” ……. Further, the building was the headquarters of Merck & Company from
1911 to 1925.

More importantly, his building has special historical significance because of 911. It was part of the attack. The landing gear of one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers flew out to the Burlington Coat Factory building, and fell through the roof to the basement. The fact that the
committee ignores that fact is outrageous, and disrespects the victims of 911.

The LMCBLC unanimously (with one recusal) voted to recommend to the
Landmarks Preservation Commission (“LPC”) that landmark status be
denied. Yes, this ugly decision was unanimous. The one recusal came from a board member who admitted to being in bed with the owner (future financial gains implied). This was the same tool who during last month’s community board meeting was shilling for the mosque. Apparently, one
of
the owners of the property approached him and subsequently corresponded
with him. He said he was recusing himself because although there was no
“immediate” financial benefit to him, he thought it appropriate given
potential conflicts of interest. The same member of the LMCBLC made
reference to Kristallnacht, implying that opponents of the mosque are
Nazis. Outrageous, I tell you.

The basis for the decision was that the LPC had not recommended landmark status for other architecturally and aesthetically significant buildings in the neighborhood — which is patently untrue. See below:

Volume 22, Number 36 | The Newspaper of Lower
Manhattan | January 15 – 21, 2010

Buffalo style Italian Renaissance

Tribeca got a new landmark this week: 311 Broadway, a five-story Italian
Renaissance-style building.

“This building recalls not only mid-19th century New York City, but also
early 16th-century Rome and Florence,” Bob Tierney, chairperson of the city
Landmarks Preservation Commission, said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s one of the
few remaining palazzo-style buildings on Broadway in Lower Manhattan.”

Built in 1857, the building between Duane and Thomas Sts. was once located in
the center of New York’s textile district. William Waldorf Astor bought the
building in 1887 and subsequent tenants included L.C. Smith & Brothers
Typewriter Company, David T. Abercrombie Company and Hagstrom Company, Inc., the
mapmaker, which bought the building in 1948.

An L.P.C. report noted the building’s detailed stonework as particularly
worth preserving. The architect is unknown. The ground floor is occupied by
Atomic Wings restaurant and a Super Value closeout store, with apartments above. 

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that the facades of these store-and-loft buildings suggest the profound impact made by the Italian
Renaissance Revival style introduced by Joseph Trench and John B. Snook with their design for the A.T. Stewart
Department Store; that the buildings in the T ribeca South Historic D istrict Extension, ranging in width from three to
six bays, share certain design elements, which collectively create harmonious streetscapes; that the buildings are rich
in a variety of Italianate-style architectural features; that the window openings of different shapes are emphasized by
pediments, arched hoods, flat lintels, pilasters, and projecting sills; that the buildings are crowned by deep cornices,
characteristic of the Italianate style; that many of the buildings retain parts of their early cast-iron and glass
storefronts, some of which are documented in the 1865 catalogue of Daniel D. Badger’s Architectural Iron W orks;
that by the early 1860s, the area had become the thriving hub of a national system for the distribution of wholesale
dry goods, as well as the location of textile importers, dry goods jobbers, and related businesses; that after the Civil
War, as the dry goods firms began moving northward, new kinds of businesses, such as hardware and cutlery
merchants, moved into the area’s store-and-loft buildings; that the endurance of such enterprises reflects a continuity
in the mercantile use of the district, and has been a major factor in retaining much of its nineteenth-century
architectural character; that the Tribeca South Historic District Extension represents a significant pre-Civil War
commercial architectural environment in New York City; and that the intact and cohesive streetscapes provide the
Tribeca South Historic District Extension with a special sense of place.
Accordingly, pursuant to Chapter 21 (formerly Chapter 63) of the Charter of the City of New York, and
Chapter 8-A of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission
designates as an historic district,

Does this not deserve further investigation? Where are those architectural elitist effetes at the NY Times, who take themselves and their expertise so seriously?

UPDATE: Go to the Landmarks Commission Meeting July 13th. Just go:

According to our legal team, the hearing starts at 2:00 p.m. and will be
held at 904 Lexington Avenue (at the corner of East 68th Street), in Lecture
Hall 714 of Hunter College on the 7th floor. Anyone who wants to speak gets two minutes — sign up in advance in the lobby of the auditorium.