In Their Own Words: What Tribeca's Artists Have to Say

The Arts Committee for the Defense of Tribeca recently circulated a manifesto calling for the protection of Tribeca through historic district expansion and zoning reform.  Some 250 artists signed it.  If you are not an artist and agree with them, go here to sign the “Me Too, Protect Tribeca” petition.

Meanwhile, here, in their own words, without editing, is what the signers had to say about Tribeca in the “comments” part of the petition:

• I moved to this neighborhood in 1979, before it was Tribeca. I helped to turn it into a Historic District and to become Tribeca. It has become very difficult for me to walk in the neighborhood that I LOVE without being sad and outraged seeing buildings being destroyed and inappropriate development in its place. THIS HAS TO STOP.

• I think that there could be value in calling this group together beyond the signing of the manifesto. The Tribeca community is fractured and the artists who live and work here could form a connective tissue.

• Taking a great umbrage to the unbridled new architecture.  The total disregard to the historical, spatial, social make up of this very special part of the city has been under attack. The community must have a final say how development will be conceived and executed

• The NY Law School tower is a prime example of the heedless and outrageously inappropriate intrusions into our community being allowed by a development-bent city government and a negligent community board. Yes, let’s wake up and fight back.

• Can we have decent,respectful Real Estate Taxes for all of us who have been in TriBeCA for decades, instead of real estate taxes that assume we are all hedge fund managers

• Tribeca has the most concentrated population in Manhattan of important cultural buildings, creative talented artists, and architecture that if erased-the city loses its ground as justified to be called NYC of the arts! The human element development has erased, erases NYC as a true force , and its Manhattan magic. There will be no more reason except shops to live downtown ever again before one floats away…

• Protect the beauty, dignity and historical value of Tribeca.

• We need this. The neighborhood is getting overwhelmed with buildings, real estate moguls, and unprotected rents

• Tribeca has such history. My own grandfather had an importing business at 156 Franklin Street in the 1930s . Let’s do what we can to preserve what we have.

• I lived and worked in TriBeCa for 25 years. Its unique character is not being a monolithic grid like Soho, but having government buildings, light industry buildings, storage buildings – a historic mix. It’s access and historic use of the Hudson River in the 18th & 19th century also add to the value of preserving TriBeCa.

• Let’s not lose what made the neighborhood so great

• The unending obliteration of the past for financial interest alone continues to erode New York’s historical significance and present value as a place to continue to attract artists.

• When the arts and artists are forced out of a community it loses the very thing that brought it’s caché, all you are left with is cash. So dirty it must be laundered…empty glass buildings.

• STOP DESTROYING THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITH THESE OVERSIZED CONDOMINIUMS

• I have been here since 1977,before it was called TriBeCa.  Fighting non-stop,to keep my place in TriBeCa. One of the greatest spots in the Whole World

• Save Tribeca from grotesque over-development by greedy outside interests who would knock down historic buildings and destroy our unique small businesses in favor of hulking glass and steel monstrosities and big box national brand stores and thus destroy this diverse community by throwing out small interests (aka the 99%).

• This neighborhood has hosted me since 1975. I am still here painting and writing and have recently completed a commission- a painting “Tri Be Ca”. There is no place like home and mine is Tri Be Ca…I wish to see it preserved and conserved!

• Tribeca is the greatest place to live and work.

• Suffering from unscrupulous neighbors (led by artist XX) suing to evict our family for 5 years

• Yes, please help to save this neighborhood from historical and architectural destruction by excessive development. What a tragedy to destroy a once historic and cultural asset to New York City.

• Preservation and balanced growth benefits all of us. Uncontrolled and un-thinking destruction of the vital history of Tribeca serves no one

• Don’t let New York become Houston. Save our historic buildings!

• I’ve lived here in the same building for 35 years, first as a painter and now as a writer. To me, Tribeca has been in the process of being systematically destroyed, both architecturally and in spirit.

• TriBeCa (and the city in general) is being tremendously pressured by global real estate interests that are creating inappropriate outsized “sore thumb” buildings for international ( eg China) real estate investment interests that are based on simple greed and have no connection to the existing fabric of the local communities. The city is beginning to look more like Hong Kong with its grotesque residential high rises. This has to stop.
  Thank you.

• Better now than never. The deeper detriment is the density (that is choking the nabe) more than the destruction (of historic architecture). 70+ story towers! Five stories built on top of 5-story buildings! Buildings on all open spaces, including parking lots and destroyed low-rise buildings. The future population needs more green and outdoor recreation spaces (and not just on the perimeter river banks), or this will be a nightmare neighborhood in the 21st century.

• Stop the building of oversized and I inappropriate sky scrapers that are taxing the infrastructure and the character of one the most livable and historic neighborhoods in New York City.

• Keep us in the loop

• Having been born in the city in 1942, I’ve seen many changes in neighborhoods, ethnic populations and architecture – this is what makes NYC the place to be! As an artist, I’ve lived and worked in Tribeca for 34 years. I moved here because the neighborhood was ideal in terms of affordable work space, the scale and architecture of buildings – proximity to the river and an open sky. Many people have moved here since because of these qualities. It would be a classic mistake to destroy the very reason Tribeca has attracted artists (those that are able to remain) and those who love the quality of life here. We are on the verge of destroying this historic area – little by little – so that one day we will no longer say, “look how this city values the architectural heritage of its’ distinct neighborhoods!”  Where is the inclusive, creative urban vision for Tribeca???

• The nature of Tribeca has changed so radically since the time we moved here in the 1980’s. Tribeca was a community of artists then; you knew the people on the street. It was quiet. The empty weekends were almost bucolic. You could see the sky. Now so much is threatened: the streets are crowded, huge buildings loom blocking treasured views. whole blocks of little shops vanish overnight. it is essential that we do something to halt the further erosion

• I am also the Founder and Executive Director of HIV ARTS NETWORK, INC. = a non-profit organization in Tribeca that supports fine arts and performing artists in their daily challenges with the HIV/AIDS disease. The organization reaches to many artists who either live and/or work in Tribeca.

• What about space to do work? Sadly, that will all be gone too…

• Culture is the memory of who we are, taking care of culture is the means of insuring our survival. To destroy the architectural integrity of this neighborhood is to destroy the culture that has made NYC a cultural capital for decades.

• I lived on West Broadway between White and Franklin from 1991 to 2007. Development is rendering an architectural treasure unrecognizable.

• New York into the increasingly bland and common world of development and what would make profits.  The exchange of depth, creativity, culture, imagination, and diversity for the sameness and the flatness of modern development is dreadful and soul killing.

• PLEASE PROTECT TRIBECA, AND KEEP IT HISTORIC.  PLEASE MODIFY ALL THE ZONING, AND LIMIT THE CONSTRUCTION OF INAPPROPRIATE NEW DEVELOPMENT. THANK YOU

• People care about neighborhoods, not economic development zones.

• I lived on Lispenard Street for 33 years. I was evicted five years ago when my landlord used the loophole in the rent stabilization law and claimed my small and dark loft “for his daughter.” The neighborhood is much transformed from when I moved in in 1978 and even from when I left and for the worse architecturally and socially.

• Those Tribeca blocks running north/south, bordered on the north by Canal Street and stretching from West Street to the Holland Tunnel were excluded from any zoning protection. These blocks have many beautiful historic buildings, but are now the vulnerable target of excessive and uncontrolled development.

• I’ve lived in this area since 1981, It’s sad to see the whole area losing its original identity of supporting the arts and being affordable for people who give back to the community

• I grew up at the corner of Hudson and Chambers, home from 1984-2012).  The visual significance of New York’s skyline and architecture has a global cultural influence. Fast, flashy, tasteless glass towers demonstrate short sighted priorities and insult the architectural heritage of the neighborhood, and of the city at large.

• Expand the boundaries of Tribeca’s historic districts. If not we will see North Tribeca turned into Soho with billboards the size of buildings and advertising slogans at every intersection

• Tribeca and Soho attract people from all over the world, it brings wealth. City must preserve Tribeca as it is by not allowing development of new buildings. This is important for the future of the Great City to remain as the center of the International art world.

• Great Idea to further enhance the landmarking which so many of us fought

• I THINK THIS IS A WORTHWHILE CAUSE.I LIVED AT136 W BWAY FOR 40 WE ALL KNEW EACH OTHER.I LEFT BECAUSE THE RENT WAS WAY WAY TOO HIGH. AND IN MY HEART I FEEL THAT NY IS NOT REALLY INTERESTED IN THE ARTIST COMMUNITY

• Thank you for getting this off the ground. The events surrounding clocktower are just the latest assault.

Again, if you are not an artist and agree with them, go here to sign the “Me Too, Protect Tribeca” petition.