New York City does things on a grander scale than Bristol, but behind every great building is a planning office (the Department of City Planning), a local government body (The New York City Council), a planning committee and a few community groups to soak up the energy of local do-gooders (specifically Manhattan Community Board 1 in this case). And also a huge pile of planning and zoning applications.
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Proposals to create a mosque in an old coat factory in New York – previously “Cordoba House”, now the “Park 51 center” - have raised the expected heat and light in political and media circles due to its proximity to the site of the former World Trade Centres (Ground Zero). A particularly well-quoted poll purports that 64% of Americans think it is “wrong”, or that 34% say the group “don’t have the right”.
As with all polls: the trick it to ask the right question to get the required answer.
I suspect the following questions were not included asking:
- Does a government have the right to stop the owner of a building using it for lawful purposes?
- Is it wrong for the government to prevent a place of worship being opened?
As with all polls: ignore it, and look at the details.
One might think from what has been said in much of the press that this initiative is a plan to create a cubby hole for a store-front preacher. In fact the mosque is one tiny part of a $100 million property deal (the Cordoba Initiative) run by Soho Properties, a moderately successful developer backed by money from the Arab diaspora. So although one of the main backers, Imam Feisal Abdul Raif opting to make himself scarce, you can relax; this is all about Capitalism, not Islamism or indeed Terrorism. This bunch are no more likely to blow themselves up than is the Archbishop of Canterbury to strap on armour and smite unbelievers in the Holy Land.
This property deal is in the news due to the August 3rd decision of NYC’s Landmark Preservation Committee to not designate the Park Place building as a Landmark; more bureaucratically “to remove it from the Commission’s calendar”. The original proposal put to the commission (someone local needs to find the RFE form) was as follows:
45-47 PARK PLACE BUILDING, 45-47 Park Place (aka 45-51 Park Place)
Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 126, Lot 9 in part, consisting of the portion of the lot bounded by a line beginning at the southeastern corner of the lot; running westerly along the southern lot line 54 feet 5 inches to the southwestern corner of the 45-47 Park Place Building; thence northerly along the exterior of the western wall of said building and parallel with the easterly side of West Broadway to the northern lot line; thence easterly along the northern lot line to the eastern lot line; thence southerly along the eastern lot line to the point of beginning.
But if you have a look at it:
(note – I’m working by comparison to this picture of the old coat factory which is approximately half of the block, rather than the Google Maps address)
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then surely as long as the developers re-use the marble columns, what’s the problem? Mind you, I may be biased due to my old world values; I’m pretty sure I can stand in the middle of Bristol blindfolded and confidently point at something older than New York.
