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FREAK OUT: City Wants To Turn UWS Schools Into High Rises
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 18, 2013
Modified Feb 18, 2013
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Jen Chung / Gothamist
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 18, 2013
Modified Feb 18, 2013
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Super easy way to freak out New York City parents? Threaten to tear down (or rezone) their schools! And, because the Department of Education loves to freak out parents, the former is exactly what is appears it is doing on the Upper West and East Sides. Nice to know ya, P.S. 191 and 199 (also the School of Cooperative Technical Education)!
But first, let's back up: In a November issue of Crain's New York, the DoE's Educational Construction Fund put an ad in Crain's New York offering up "prime development sites" at 210 West 61st, 270 West 70th and 321 East 96th Streets—without mentioning the fact that those locations are already home to P.S. 191 and P.S. 199 and Coop Tech. You can see the full Request for Expressions of Interest here [PDF]: "This is an opportunity to develop three substantial sites within markets starved for luxury residential units," the RFEI announces amidst pretty aerial shots of these lovely lots amidst lots of tall towers. "There is an inherent lack of supply in both neighborhoods as only a few buildings are planned in both submarkets."
The only problem is, well, there are schools already there—and now parents and pols are starting to get a little antsy about it. Recently Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and community leaders including Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Councilwoman Gale Brewer sent a letter to the DoE expressing the concerns of parents who fear that "their school will be demolished imminently." After all, these aren't exactly unpopular schools. Only a few years ago, to make room for more kids, P.S. 199 booted The Center School, a magnet middle school which had lived in the school's third floor for decades (a school where, full disclosure, this blogger learned his first lines of HTML).
Still, before everyone gets too freaked out, there are a few important things to remember. First: Even if the DoE does get a good offer for the land, the sale of the schools will be subject to public review under the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), which requires a vote by the City Council. That review would start in May or June—so there is lots of time to get ready to fight, fight, fight.
And just as important? Even if new buildings get put on those plots they will all be required to include new homes for the schools in their building's bases. Which honestly might be a good thing. Twenty years ago P.S. 199 was a mess of a school building and we can't imagine its gotten any better. Yes, students will have to go to school elsewhere for a while, but these things happen.
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Garth Johnston
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