So, What Have We Accomplished?

For just over a year, the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation (CECPP) has worked to bring reform to the city’s landmarking process and our efforts are showing positive signs of making a difference. The downward spiral seems to have slowed. Perhaps the most visible sign is the Commission’s significantly increased designation activity, enabling formal discussion at public hearings of such places as Sunnyside Gardens in Queens that preservationists have long known were worthy of landmark status but, without action by the Commission, seemed surely headed for destruction.

So what have we been up to? What have accomplished thus far?

CECPP Goal #1: Support the LPC with adequate staff and funding to meet the mandates spelled out in the Landmarks Law. In May 2007, CECPP was part of a core group of key preservationists from all five boroughs that coordinated the first-ever, widely attended Preservation Lobby day at City Hall, focusing on increasing the Landmarks Commission’s budget by $1 million. CECPP consultant, Mark Caserta, compiled meticulous research on LPC budget trends since the early 1990s, showing that at least $1 million was needed to help the LPC recoup the buying power that it had lost during the past two mayoral administrations. The City Council was ready to give the Commission an extra $500,000, until, incredible as it seems, Chair Robert B. Tierney gave a last-minute call to Council Member Jessica Lappin (Chair of the Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks) saying all the Agency could use was $300,000! Clearly, the audience for next year’s budget appeal is Mayor Bloomberg, who calls the shots when it comes to letting the Commission have the budget it needs to do its job.

CECPP Goal #2: Amend LPC procedures to improve transparency and responsiveness to the public. Despite more hearings leading to more designations in the past year, the Landmarks Commission continues to sit on many Requests for Evaluation (RFE) that it receives, refusing to give members of the public—or the 11 members of the full Commission—the opportunity to formally discuss the buildings’ merits for landmark protection. CECPP filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests in order to get to the bottom of the “black hole” that some RFE’s seem to fall into. We found there are over 500 RFEs that have never been presented to the full Commission! We are now exploring legislative and legal remedies to this persistent problem.

CECPP Goal #3: Ensure qualifications of Landmarks commissioners to carry out the LPC mission. In response to litigation filed by CECPP, Mayor Bloomberg finally acted to re-appoint or replace 7 out of the 8 Landmarks Commissioners whose terms had long expired, thus restoring their independence. We are also pleased to report that the Fine Arts Federation is jumpstarting its Charter-provided process for formally recommending candidates to the Mayor to serve on the Commission. CECPP is now at work exploring the creation of a new mechanism to independently evaluate the candidates the Mayor ultimately recommends to the City Council for appointment to the Commission.

Despite the progress, the emergency isn’t over. Now is the time to press harder than ever before. We know you are already supporting other preservation groups doing good work. The effectiveness of those contributions will be dramatically enhanced if CECPP is successful in advancing much-needed reforms. Our needs are modest but very real. We’re not tax exempt. We talk truth to power. We look to the day that we can fold up our tent because the mandates of the Landmarks Law are being fully advanced by the Landmarks Commission.

If you can help us with a contribution, please send it to CECPP, Neighborhood Preservation Center, 232 East 11th Street, New York, NY 10003. You can also donate online by clicking on the "Make a Contribution" button on this page.

Thanks! We look forward to working with you in this important fight!