Our battle to stop the New York Blood Center/Longfellow 334 foot tall commercial tower continues. Last week, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer held a public hearing on the issue, and while her recommendation isn't due until July 28th, the City Planning Commission has already scheduled its public hearing for July 29th. It is crucial that you attend the hearing and voice your concerns, even if you already spoke at the previous Community Board and Borough President hearings.
The hearing will be a hybrid between in-person and on Zoom. Instructions on how to participate either in-person or online, and testimony registration will be made available here, on July 29th, at 9:00 am. We expect this to be a long hearing and the Blood Center will be the second item on the agenda for the day, so for those who are planning to attend in-person, please be reminded that you may need to commit the entire, or much of, the day. The Coalition to Stop the Blood Center Tower is collecting information to have a sense of how many speakers will be testifying against the project, we encourage you to fill out the form here.
City Planning Commission Public Hearing
Thursday, July 29
10:00 am
Location:
City Planning Commission Hearing Room, Lower Concourse
120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
Testimony or statements submitted at each stage of the ULURP process are treated separately. Even if you spoke or submitted a statement before, you MUST reiterate your comments before the City Planning Commission, and at the next steps at the City Council this fall.
Whether you are able to attend or not, your written testimony is vitally important. FRIENDS created a form to streamline the submission of written testimony. While we highly encourage you to submit your own personalized testimony in opposition to this project at CPC's website, you can also use our form and we commit to upload each submission to the City Planning Commission by August 9th.
Those who submit written testimony will not be barred from speaking live at the meeting. Additionally, we encourage you to state your position against this proposal at Council Member Ben Kallos' petition here. Your support is crucial in this battle against Longfellow's 334 foot tall commercial building. You can learn more about the proposal and how to help here.
Your opposition needs to be strongly vocal, and unrelenting. A large, vocal turnout expressing concerns about this project is key. Show up and encourage others to do the same!
