REAL ESTATE OP-ED
Providing food —
and hope — for
people and pets
BY LESLIE GORDON AND
MATT BERSHADKER
A hallmark of the holiday season is
compassion—a spirit of appreciation
and generosity that can extend to both
vulnerable people and pets in need.
Typically, we see those acts as separate, but in
many ways, they are connected. In the work of
both human social services and animal welfare, it’s
become clear that when you help people, you help
pets, and when you help pets, you help people.
One of the most practical and direct ways to act
on this understanding is to address the needs of both
pets and people in a shared setting. Nowhere is this
better illustrated than in the partnership between
Food Bank For New York City and the ASPCA®
(The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals®), which have collaborated for the last
four years to serve both human and pet food in soup
kitchens and food pantries across the city.
Finding innovative ways to address food insecurity
is more important than ever. An estimated 1.6
million New Yorkers are currently food insecure,
a situation made more severe by the spread of
COVID-19.
On the animal side, increases in poverty had
a dramatic impact. Recent data collected by the
ASPCA estimates that more than 4.2 million pets
entered poverty due to the economic fallout of
COVID-19.
In response to immediate regional needs during
the start of the pandemic, the ASPCA opened pet
food distribution centers in several cities, including
New York City, that ultimately provided more than
1,900 tons of emergency food for dogs, cats, and
horses to struggling owners.
From July 2020 through June 2021, Food Bank
For New York City distributed over 307,000 pounds
of pet food to 89 agencies in its member network
through the ASPCA partnership. In addition to
serving an immediate need, the free food also frees
up money that struggling families and individuals
can put toward other crucial household needs.
When pet owners struggle, so do their pets, and
the appropriate response to that challenge is not to
point a fi nger but offer a hand.
Please visit the Food Bank For New York City
website and look for the “Get Involved” tab to learn
how to volunteer, advocate, and contribute.
Leslie Gordon is the CEO of Food Bank For NYC;
Matt Bershadker is the CEO of the ASPCA
Prime
time for
towers
High-rise aff ordable
housing at Hell’s
Kitchen site gets closer
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
For decades, the city has grappled with the question
of what to do with a small parking lot above
the Lincoln Tunnel in Hell’s Kitchen “Slaughterhouse,”
its informal name honoring the major hub of
local butchers that once stood there.
On Dec. 20, it seemed all parties got a little closer
to getting the answer when the city’s Economic
Development Corporation announced that the
Manhattan Borough Board had approved a dual
skyscraper plan for 495 11th Ave. that would bring the
community hundreds of new affordable housing units
as well as an hotel, offi ce space and even a supermarket.
It was the latest bureaucratic hurdle that the EDC
cleared toward gaining approval of the project, which
will be developed by Radson Development and Kingspoint
Heights. The Department of Buildings and the
Public Design Commission must still approve the project
before ground is broken, but the EDC projected that
could happen sometime in 2022.
All of the 350 housing units within the two
skyscrapers, 55 and 56 stories high, will be 100 percent
and permanent affordable housing, the EDC noted.
Approximately 75 of the units will be provided to
formerly homeless individuals and families as supportive
housing units, where the residents would receive various
social and health services from the Center for Urban
Community Services.
“This project will provide much-needed affordable
housing and services for some of our most vulnerable
New Yorkers, and will strengthen the business and the
tourism sectors, which are key to the city’s economy and
recovery from the COVID crisis,” said EDC President
and CEO Rachel Loeb.
The Slaughterhouse site was once the home of the
New York Butchers’ Dressed Meat Company, a sixstory,
A rendering of one of the skyscrapers slated for
495 11th Ave.
block-long building that for years served as the
fi nal stop for cattle on their way to the killing fl oor, and
then meat markets around town. The company went out
of business in the 1970s, and the city took title of the
building in 1978 due to non-payment of property taxes.
In 1993, the city tore down the structure and, after
18 months, the site was converted into a parking lot for
the NYPD.
Over the last decade, the city sought to redevelop the
site along with other underutilized locations in nearby
Hudson Yards. In 2015, at the urging of Manhattan
Community Board 4, the EDC issued a request for
proposals to redevelop the Slaughterhouse site.
The fi nal plan led to the dual skyscraper plan that
will create about 2,540 construction jobs and 641
permanent jobs.
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