WEBVTT - Andrew Berman - Summer Staff Picks 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.600 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.640 Thing from iHeart Radio. Over the last few weeks, you've 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.480 heard from some of our staff as they showcase their 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:18.680 favorite episodes from our archives. Now it's time to hear mine. 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:23.280 Since conservation and the enduring character of New York are 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.040 topics close to my heart, I wanted to share with 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.680 you an episode with someone fighting the good fight. 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:30.080 Andrew Berman. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:35.159 Berman is the executive director of Village Preservation, a nonprofit 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:40.120 that works to document, celebrate, and preserve historical and significant 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.400 buildings in downtown New York. Named one of the one 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.479 hundred most powerful people in real Estate by The New 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.720 York Observer, Berman is a lifelong New Yorker whose work 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:56.120 led the charge against development plans by NYU and Donald 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.280 Trump and secured landmark protection for over one thousand buildings. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.920 We'll have an update with Andrew Berman later in this episode. 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:11.200 We began my twenty fifteen conversation with Andrew Berman discussing 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.360 the One that got Away, the one building he wasn't 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.200 able to save that still haunts him. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.280 You know, this is gonna sound sort of strange, but 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.679 one of my personal favorites that we lost. Was this 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.840 beautiful building called the Tunnel Garage, which, believe it or not, 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.679 was a parking garage which you would never think who 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:30.720 would care about a parking garage. It was one of 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.280 the first purpose built parking garages in New York. It 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.440 was this beautiful Art Deco building that had a medallion 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.600 on it that was an image of a model t 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.360 Ford emerging from the Holland Tunnel, which hadn't even yet 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.960 been built. When this tunnel, which was built near the 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.160 entrance to the Holland Tunnel, where was this. This was 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.040 on the corner of Broome Street and Thompson Street, so 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.560 sort of at the edge of soho the South Village. 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.160 Beautiful building. I mean it really, if there's a parking 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.000 garage anywhere on Earth that people would raize about, it 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.360 was this one. And it had been on sort of 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.600 lists for years of a building to be saved. A 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.320 developer came along and bought it and said, you know, 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:11.079 I just want to tear it down and build a 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.720 slightly larger condominium building. Here. 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.880 How many stories eight stories? How many units? 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.040 I think about thirty or so, you know, a pretty 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.480 a bland, you know, sort of you'd never look at 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.000 it a building, you never look at it twice. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.079 What's another example, Well. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.720 Here's one where sort of the opposite. There was a 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.680 vacant lot at the northern end of the Greenwich Village 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.800 Historic District and there was a plan to develop it, 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.200 which we had no objections to. You know, vacant lots 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.160 are there to be developed. But the developer put forward 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:45.720 a proposal for this thirteen story curving, entirely glass walled 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.960 building in the Greenwich Village Historic District and we thought 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.079 that's ludicrous, that would never never be approved. What does 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.560 that have to do with the Greenwich Village Historic District. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.480 The notion is new development in these areas should kind 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.440 of fit the character. They don't have to mimic it. 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.679 It doesn't have to be some bo town, some compatibility. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:07.000 The Commission unanimously approved it, which we were really taken 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:07.520 aback by. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.560 What's one that was a tremendous victory for you Where's 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.360 Where's something where you guys really fought and you scored. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.440 I'd say one of the ones that we're most proudest 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.760 of is the part of Greenwich Village south of Washington Square, 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.000 what we often call the South Village the part of 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.920 Greenwich Village that everybody associates with, you know, the folk Revival, 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.760 the beat Nicks in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:34.400 Bleaker McDougal. That area amazingly was not protected by landmark protections. 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.680 Any of those buildings could have been demolished and replaced 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.400 with pretty hitty beach in New York. Yes, very much so. 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.880 And after really fifty years of people trying to get 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:46.800 that area of landmarked, we were able to get it 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:52.760 landmarked in two stage shake. It took thousands of people 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.720 really coming together and pushing the city. One part of 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.120 it is we actually had to almost sort of blackmail 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.720 the city. They wanted to get an area adjacent to 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.320 that rezoned as basically a sort of a stop to 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.000 a developer, Trinity real Estate in this case, and we 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:13.040 pushed the city council to say, we won't approve the 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.200 rezoning that you the city want, unless you move ahead 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.440 with this landmarking that the community has been asking for 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.680 for years. So we really kind of backed them into 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.040 a corner. And to be honest, we sort of used 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.599 election year politics as a bit of a cudgel. You know, 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.840 people were trying to look like they were being friendly 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.040 to the community. So we were able to make them 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:35.760 do something that they had not wanted to do and 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:37.320 had been unwilling to do for years. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.200 What area do you live in yourself? 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.080 I actually live in Hill's Kitchen, so I'm a bit 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.719 further to the north. But I'm a lifelong New Yorker. 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.960 I've worked in the village. I grew up in the Bronx, 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:49.760 but I've been working in the village and on the 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.840 West Side of Manhattan since for over twenty years. 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:54.040 Now, where'd you go to schools? 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.120 I went to Bronx High School of Science, so I've 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:58.320 lived in New York my whole life. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:04:59.680 What about college? Where did you go? 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.640 I went to Wesleyan University. Well, do you study art 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:04.880 history with a focus on architecture and urban planning? 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.479 Talk about, if you would, what happened to Christine Quinn 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.120 with the Chelsea Market, because of my understanding is correct, 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.159 that was in her district. Yes, And I want to 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.960 be very clear that during that political race, I endorsed 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.240 Deblasio and worked for Deblasio and did not support Quinn. 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.440 And this is not, you know, to bash Quinn at all, 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.120 But describe what happened in that Chelsea Market thing and 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.360 what you think was going on from pressures that were 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:29.760 on her. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.320 Yeah. Well, so you know, Chelsea Market is this old 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.520 industrial complex built by Nabisco in Chelsea that was a 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.040 Nibisco factory. Bisco Factory is where the oreo was invented. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:42.520 It was a bakery. Yeah. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.680 And who developed into the current Chelsea Market how long ago? 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.640 It was originally another group of people, including a guy 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.960 named Irwin Cohen, and that was in the late nineteen 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.760 nineties that had been sitting there basically abandoned, and he 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.839 came up with this idea that everybody thought was crazy 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.839 at the time because this was a real backwater fifteen 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.719 years ago, of turning it into this huge retail market 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:05.240 with offices and things like that, I mean. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:06.640 The food equivalent of a show. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:06.880 Yes. 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.680 Yeah, and it was wildly successful. You know, the neighborhood 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.719 around it transformed. It's a huge building. It's a beautiful 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.280 old building, but it's a huge building. They have above 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:18.560 they did not have air rights up above, and that 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.280 that's that's where the key comes in with this. So 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.880 they wanted to build basically two towers on top of 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.920 this lovely old building, but they couldn't because they had 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:28.920 no development. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.560 On top of the eight stories that are already. 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.640 There, on top of the building that already exists. So 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.720 they came to the city and they said, we want 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.000 you to rezone us to give us. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.800 These developed stories. Did they want they Originally. 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.599 It was going to be the addition was going to 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:44.320 go up to something like two hundred and fifty feet 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.200 in the air or something like that. I mean huge, 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.600 and one on the west end, one on the stories. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.039 huge building, huge building. And you know, at this point 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.640 Quinn had already kind of shown herself to be very 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.400 willing to be accommodating to developers, so we knew this 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.320 was going to be an uphill battle at best. Although 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:04.720 Chelsea was where she was from and a lot of 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:06.760 the people who were very adamantly opposed to it were 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.080 people she'd known and worked closely with for years, we 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.360 were opposed to it as well, and she did eventually 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.480 approve it. A slightly scaled back version made it a 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:18.520 little less little less bad. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:19.920 As the work started already. 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.520 No, and it's not been clear to us why they 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.680 haven't moved ahead yet, but they have all the approval, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.840 so it's really up to them to go any time 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.800 that they want. But this was definitely a disappointment. And 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.440 what was particularly disappointing was that there were commitments that 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.000 were quote unquote made as part of this approval about 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:40.000 how it would have to remain all independent businesses, there 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.760 couldn't be chain stores and all these other kinds of things, 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.720 which it turned out none of these agreements were enforceable. 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.000 It was really just sort of window dressing to this 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.360 approval that the city gave them. And that's disappointing when 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.440 you see things like that happen. When do buildings need 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.720 to come down? Things have to change, We need to 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.000 make room for more people. For you, oh, it's absolutely reality, 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.840 and you know we would never do you acknowledge that 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.320 one you wanted to save ultimately didn't need to be saved. 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:11.200 I'll give you an example. There's areas of our neighborhoods 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.840 where we've fought for new zoning that we thought would 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.200 encourage good development as opposed to bad developments, which meant 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.520 the expectation was things will get built. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.720 Yes, give us an example of an area where this 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:23.400 came into play. 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.000 For instance, in the East Village, we working with a coalition, 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.080 we were able to get almost the entire East Village rezoned. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.640 So the old zoning would have encouraged big, tall towers, 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.000 it would have encouraged building things like dormitories and hotels. 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:37.920 Believe it or not, but as an NYU, that's where 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:39.440 NYU went to build a lot of their. 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.640 Dormitories along Third Avenue in that area. Yes, and we 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.920 didn't want to see NYU take over the East Village, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.200 so we pushed for and got a rezoning that said, yes, 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.320 there can be new development here, but the size and 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.360 scale of it is going to be more like what 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.360 you think of the East Village. Seven story buildings, six 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.960 story buildings. This is what zoning does. You can get 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.320 these what are called contextual zoning disc that says you 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.400 can build but to a certain height, certain number of 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.000 square feet, things of that nature. So we've seen a 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.200 lot of developments go up in the East Village under 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.040 this new zoning that are so much more in character 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.520 with the neighborhood than what would have been built under 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.600 the old zoning. So we weren't pushing there to say 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.000 no new buildings or nothing can ever be torn down, 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.480 but that there should be new buildings, but it should 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.719 really reinforce the character of the neighborhood. Just around the 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.720 corner from our office, there was a huge parking lot 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:29.840 that was just built on with an eight or nine 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.680 story building. Right next door to it is a dorm 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.080 that NYU built a couple of years earlier. That's twenty 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.680 six stories. There have been quite a few new buildings 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.120 closer to the traditional campus, but this will be a 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.119 whole additional campus for the university. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.160 Do you feel like the city you turn around one day, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.640 you know, we have another subway tunnel, so we have 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:51.839 water tunnels that are coming in. I mean, the city 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:57.560 is constantly, constantly, constantly being changed. And if you had 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:59.920 one wish, I mean, I'm sure you have a laundry 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.600 and things. What's one wish of how you'd like things 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.040 to change in the next twenty to thirty years, you. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.360 Know, I mean, I think the biggest pressing issue facing 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.720 New York is ensuring that it stays a place that's 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.560 affordable and accessible for a broad range of people. So 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.800 I'd say, if I had one wish for the city, 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.600 it would be that that somehow we could it could 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.600 be a place where, you know, sort of the most successful, 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:29.040 you know, innovators and zillionaires can live there, and poor 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.040 working folks and middle class people who are you know, 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.600 sort of raising kids or starting out or living on 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.200 their own or sort of whatever, and everybody in between, 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.480 you know, the immigrants, the longtime residents. 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.680 And see some of the steps that were taken to 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.000 allow for like Mitchell Lama that's. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:45.920 Dying, that's. 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.520 Up in Mitchellama Housing, and it's it's tragic. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.000 For those who don't know who were listening that don't 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.480 know what Mitchell Llama Housing was. This was an attempt 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.439 back then to have the city develop property where developers 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.640 would build affordable housing and manage it as affordable housing. 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.679 I'm being very shorthand with this, and manage it as 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.080 affordable housing for a given period of time, like thirty 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.640 years or something, and then after a certain period of time, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.680 it would slowly evolve, if you will, into or evolve 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.920 into private housing. They would sell it as condominiums. And 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.840 right now we're hitting that place where. 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.679 Especially in Manhattan, very few of them are left. 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.000 A lot of them. Mitchellama's rolling over now to private. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.680 Co kindominiams, which is really changing the city. 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:29.200 But New Yorkers have resigned themselves to the fact that 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.920 affordable housing itself, just like paythons, is a thing of 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.199 the past. And now more and more people who never 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:37.800 dreamed of going to Long Island City and to Astoria 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.959 and to Brooklyn is just apart of Manhattan now in 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:42.520 terms of how many people who live and work there 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.040 and put their kids in school there, but who work 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.160 in the city and commute. More and more and more 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.640 people have resigned themselves or even are happy to commute. 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:51.720 Is that your experience as well? 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.920 Yeah, and you know, in some ways, I don't think 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:55.720 it's such a bad thing that a lot of people 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.880 who would have only considered living in Manhattan before now 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.240 are living throughout the city. What I think would be 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.160 a terrible thing is if Manhattan became a place that 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.400 only the wealthy could live, and that more and more 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.200 the other boroughs that became the case as well. I'm 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.480 not sure that I know what the answer is. I mean, clearly, 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:16.880 if we had a different political environment, we'd have things 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.320 like mitche Lama programs and other things to create and 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.600 build affordable housing, saying this is an investment in our 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.040 city's future. The construction is good, it creates jobs, the 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.600 fact that we give good, affordable housing to people who 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.280 we need, you know, to be teachers, to be firemen, 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:33.679 to be sanitation. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.040 We don't have housing for those people. Now, you know. 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:38.640 One of the first things that happened in New York 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.800 years ago was the police were successful in argument against 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.520 the residency requirement because they said, you can't force me 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.439 to live here because I can't afford the rent here 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.160 on a policeman's salary. So they did away with But 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.480 of course this is a city where rather than build 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.040 affordable housing for people like the police and have them 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.400 invested in the community they live in, they all leave, 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.480 which makes them somewhat less invested, I think in the 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.640 community they live in, although many of them come from 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.839 the city. It seems we could do a whole hour 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.520 about the power of the real estate development community and 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.120 the landlords forth in this. I mean they run the city. Sure, 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.160 they run the city in so many ways, and they 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.640 run the city. I mean what gets built, what doesn't 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.520 get built? Guys like you fight them and win because 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.000 public outrage and public passions about these things still have 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.439 some power. 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.520 Right Well, Ultimately government makes the decisions, and while certainly 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.200 the people with money and access have enormous influence over them. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.520 The average people do because they vote, and if you 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.000 exercise that strength that we have, and it's the only 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.000 thing we have, is the power of the vote, that's 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:44.280 the way that we can affect these. 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:45.160 I want to finish with this. 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.520 The society has an LGBT initiative for some of the preservation. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:51.199 They do talk about that. 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.240 Look, sure, New York and especially the village really has 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.960 such a wealth of sites connected to the LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.160 transgender civil rights movements. I mean the one that everybody knows, 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.080 of course, a Stone Wall where the riots took place 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.600 in nineteen sixty nine, which in many respects kicked off 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.120 the gay movie exactly. But there's many other ones as well. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.240 I mean, just around the corner from there, there's Julius's Bar, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.840 where in nineteen sixty six there was this sit in 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.280 or sit in as it was called, the first planned 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.080 civil disobedience for gay rights. At that time, few people 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.640 sort of know or remember this. It was actually illegal 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.320 to serve alcohol to someone who you knew was a homosexual, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.760 so it in essence made gay bars illegal. That's why 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:36.200 they were all. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.640 The hotel Tennessee Williams of a state and people were 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:39.280 breaking the law. 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.120 I know. Yeah, So as a result of this, actually 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.120 there was a legal case that more or less changed that, and. 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:48.400 So that was how to put that in a movie. 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:48.800 I love that. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:51.840 You know, back when there were very, very very few 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.920 places that gay people could meet, almost all of them 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:56.520 were in places like Greenwich. 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:06.400 Village Preservation executive director Andrew Berman. In late June twenty fifteen, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.479 just a few days before New York City's annual Pride Parade, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.400 and after many years of behind the scenes politicking, Andrew 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.760 Berman and his colleagues celebrated early the Stonewall Inn won 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.320 its New York City Landmark status, making it the first 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:28.640 site designated primarily for its significance to LGBT history. Take 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.840 a listen to the Here's the Thing Archives. I talk 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:36.160 with another hard working advocate, Josh Fox, the environmental activist 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.880 whose film Gasland exposed the dangers of fracking. 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:42.480 They would say, oh, your water's fine, and then they 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:44.200 would go and get them a glass of water. Drink 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:45.560 sor right, well, if you think this is fine for 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.280 my mother to drink, then you go ahead and drink it. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:48.080 And they wouldn't drink it. 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.600 Take a listen at Here's the Thing dot Org. We'll 0:15:52.600 --> 0:16:04.680 have an update with Andrew Berman after the break. I'm 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:08.280 Alec Baldwin, and this is Here's the Thing. I spoke 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:12.320 with Executive Director of Village Preservation Andrew Berman for an 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:17.080 episode that originally aired in November twenty fifteen. Obviously, much 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.800 has changed in New York since, and I wanted to 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.200 sit with the Berman for an update on what has 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.680 developed and not developed in that time. Two things come 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.680 to mind. One of them is they say that New 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.800 York is sinking under the weight of all the building too. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.240 I know you no doubt read that correct. Is New 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.080 York actually sinking under the weight of man? And I 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:36.560 know you're not a geologist. 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:42.320 Well we'll find out. I mean either it's sinking or 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.880 the water levels arising. I mean, between the two of them, 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:46.640 where we seem to be going underwater? 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:47.560 Is that true? 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.200 Well, certainly the water levels are rising. I mean that's 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.400 a big problem for New York City, which they're still 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:53.880 trying to figure out what to do about that. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.680 When Sandy came. I'm in New Yorker. I've been here since. 0:16:57.760 --> 0:16:59.840 I have had an address in New York since nineteen seventy, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.440 and then when Sandy came that was just so singular 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.560 and so unprecedented. They're saying the water might come up 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.600 to fourteenth Street, and I'm like, come on, I mean, 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.159 get serious, all right, I could imagine this is not 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.440 the Caribbean, and the water came up to fourteenth Street. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:20.640 Buildings wiped out in Tribeca, flooded, not just in the basement, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.240 but even the first floor were took in a lot 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.919 of water. The impact of Sandy I was, I was 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.800 just shocked, and I'm wondering if the city had done 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.280 anything to prepare for that happening. 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.080 Again, well, I know they've done a bunch of things, 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.120 but I think by any measure, they haven't done enough. 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:38.679 You know, there are some new rules in terms of 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.879 construction in flood zones that you know, have to have 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.120 some greater level of precaution, but they're still really encouraging 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.720 a lot of development in what everybody knows is the 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.600 first places that are going to flood if there's another 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.080 Superstar and Sandy or something like that. The other thing 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.720 that they've done or they're doing, is they're building these 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.520 berms and other types of protection along very We're going 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.680 to build the big wall the river in the harbor. Well, 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.320 there's been everything from the proposal to build a giant 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:08.439 wall from New Jersey to Long Island that would you know, 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:10.840 a floodgate that would keep it from coming in, and 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.280 then you know, some more modest proposals. But right now 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.600 East River Park in the East Village and Lower East 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.359 Side has been completely leveled because they're rebuilding it at 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.280 about fifteen feet higher, I believe than it used to 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.600 be as a way of protecting the neighborhoods adjacent to it. 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.439 Although a lot of people would argue that it's not 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.480 the best plan and it's doing more harm than good, 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.080 But there's piecemeal things going on throughout the city to 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:33.040 try to address that. 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:35.399 In the years I've lived in the city, of course, 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.480 I've seen tremendous change on a number of levels. I 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.800 do notice that it's like, especially in midtown, I just 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.760 see so many goddamn ugly buildings going up here, and 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:50.080 I see those kind of those tall, thin shafts along 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.280 the East fifties there, those big buildings went up there 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.160 which are so ugly. Why do you think the city 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.760 allows so much construction in Manhattan rather than diverting it 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.520 out to like the Bronx, working with the state of 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.919 New Jersey and so forth, to not have what we have. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.600 And part of that, of course, is the pressure on 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.919 the village and what your organization is focused on to 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.160 knock everything down and rebuild that. Why do you think 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.800 the city it just thinks that, you know, the Manhattan's 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.280 going to look like some obscene megalopolis like twenty five 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:20.760 years from now. 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.639 Why do you think the city doesn't fight that? Well. 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.239 I think it's a couple of things. There's obviously a 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.359 tremendous demand from the real estate industry. They see the 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.600