SoHo/NoHo rezoning highlights
concerns toward other neighborhoods
BY MARK HALLUM
As curious and concerned New
Yorkers watch discussions play
out about the potential rezoning of
SoHo and NoHo, which the city predicts
will increase affordable housing opportunities,
other groups are looking to appreciate
other vulnerable neighborhoods.
While many are suspicious of what the
rezoning could bring, some organizations
are taking the opportunity to appreciate
what New York City has got, while others
believe the fi ve boroughs could benefi t
from more rezoning proposals such as this.
Village Preservation under the leadership
of Andrew Berman wants to highlight
examples of what makes the section of city
blocks south of Union Square not only
unique, but worth preserving in a time of
almost unprecedented growth in the city
seemingly unencumbered by the pandemic.
“The area south of Union Square is an
important piece of New York’s DNA, yet because
it almost entirely lacks landmark protections,
its history and great historic buildings
are being lost every day,” Berman said. “We
hope that this tool will bring increased awareness
to the critical need to preserve these sites,
which for nearly two centuries have made our
city a unique, vibrant, and progressive cultural
hub and incubator of enormous national
Historic buildings on Greene Street in SoHo.
and global infl uence.”
According to Berman, this section of
the city is not only historic, but lacking
the same protections enjoyed by other
communities. This has prompted the organization
to launch the “Virtual Village,”
an interactive online tool that offers free,
guided walking tours of the area.
Virtual Village has up to 40 walking
tours that take participants from Third to
Fifth Avenues between and between 9th
and 14th Streets. Find the Virtual Village
at this link.
PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
In recent decades, the fabric of SoHo
and NoHo has changed dramatically to its
current zoning, which allows for manufacturing
and artist studios with living spaces
as well as becoming know for housing the
brick-and-mortar locations of high-priced
fashion retailers.
Sylvia Li from the Department of City
Planning led a virtual information session
on Monday in which she outlined the
goals of the Uniform Land Use Review
Process that will take place with the goal
in mind of preserving the aesthetics of the
neighborhood while offering residential
options to a range of residents.
City Hall’s proposal seeks to change
course from M1-5B zoning currently designed
to allow for manufacturing and joint
living/workspace for artists in sections
defi ned by Canal Street to the south, Houston
Street and Astor Place to the north,
Lafayette Street and the Bowery to the east,
and Sixth Avenue and West Broadway to
the west, but has not been welcomed by
activists who have been distrustful that it
would not serve anyone’s needs with the
exception of real estate developers.
SoHo and NoHo, however, has not been
rezoned since 1971, when manufacturing
in the area was on the decline, crime was
on the rise and artists were establishing
themselves in the picturesque enclave.
Primarily, concerns seem to revolve
around big box stores moving into the area,
which has historically shown to be gentrifying
and displacing factor in the evolution of
the neighborhood.
The Regional Plan Association, however,
is taking a different view of the rezoning
plan for SoHo.
According to the RPA, zoning that facilitates
affordable housing has not only been
pitched by the organization, but other commuities
across the city would also benefi t
from such a plan.
Hate-filled vandal chops up LES bakery’s Pride flag
BY MATT TRACY
Debbie Weiner, a co-owner
of Sugar Sweet Sunshine
Bakery on the Lower
East Side, arrived to work early
in the morning on Oct. 20 and
noticed something was off.
Weiner spotted something
unusual about the Rainbow Flag
that she and co-owner Peggy
Williams have displayed in front
of the bakery at 126 Rivington
St. between Essex Street and
Norfolk Street. But it was nothing
major. She just thought the
fl ag appeared to be a bit shorter
than usual.
“I had a feeling something was
not quite right,” Weiner said.
But that was not necessarily
indicative of anything to her:
When the Sugar Sweet Sunshine
team closes the shop at night, they
simply wrap the fl ag around its
pole to shorten it for the overnight
hours before unfurling it again the
next day.
Weiner assumed the fl ag was
simply wrapped around the pole
and opted not to investigate any
further — but suspicions really
fl ared once her business partner
and the bakery’s manager came in
the following day.
“My manager was the one
that noticed,” Weiner said. “He
came back in and said, ‘Someone
cut the fl ag. They just took scissors
and sliced across it.’”
Weiner’s team believes the vandal
hit the bakery at some point
between Sunday evening and
early Monday morning, though
video surveillance cameras on
site are not angled towards the
fl ag — leaving them unable to
defi nitively determine when it
happened.
The team published a post on
Instagram and Facebook showing
the damaged fl ag and expressed
PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK/SUGAR SWEET SUNSHINE BAKERY
The ripped Rainbow Flag at the Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery
on the Lower East Side.
disbelief that someone would
bother chopping up a welcoming
symbol of solidarity.
“Seriously? Do we have to
bring EVERYTHING into our
store at the end of the night???
Someone felt the need to slice our
#pride fl ag off with a knife last
night,” the post read. “I know in
the grand scheme of what’s going
on in our city these days, this isn’t
monumental. We can and will get
a new one but that’s not the point.
It’s the WHY someone would do
this that’s disturbing.”
Weiner said she and Williams
fi rst decided to hang the Pride
Flag in a bid to stand with the
LGBTQ community. The bakery’s
manager and several employees
are gay, Weiner said, and she
has several friends in the queer
community.
“We put it up like two years
ago and never took it down,” she
explained. “Why bother taking it
down? Shouldn’t it be up all the
time?”
Weiner added, “We’ll get another
one.”
4 October 29, 2020 Schneps Media