Moving the UN

Lisa Foderaro has an article in The New York Times about the East River Esplanade:

For at least a decade, the United Nations has coveted a playground just south of its landmark tower, where it would like to construct a new building. For just as long, city and state officials have longed to fill in the largest remaining gap in the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, from 38th to 60th Streets on the East River, but have not had the money.
Now, in a series of real-life Rubik’s Cube moves, elected officials are on the verge of signing an agreement that would create a framework for both sides to get what they want. The United Nations would take part of the Robert Moses Playground for its new building, while the city would end up with enough cash to finish an esplanade for the 32-mile Greenway and a replacement playground. In July, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation that gave the city and state governments until 10 October to agree to the terms of a deal.
If the agreement, or memorandum of understanding, is signed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the heads of the Assembly and the Senate, as required, the United Nations Development Corporation could begin a land-use review for its new tower, which could be no taller than the 505-foot Secretariat Building. It would pay the city at least $65 million for the parkland, which, in technical terms, would be “alienated”.
Once the new tower was built, the United Nations, which has been renting the United Nations Plaza buildings from the city at below-market rates, would move its offices out of those buildings or begin paying market rents. Selling those buildings would provide the rest of the money for the esplanade.
Some residents of the area, especially those in Tudor City, have blasted the plan, saying a new skyscraper, at First Avenue and 41st Street, would wall them off from the East River. But for some officials and other East Side residents, the swap could help realize their long-held dream of waterfront access.
“It is a very rare occasion where I would ever find myself supporting the alienation of open space in my district,” State Senator Liz Krueger said. “But we think mathematically this is a win. It helps New York City make good on its commitment to a green ring around Manhattan. We’re in bad economic times. I just don’t see any money appearing on the horizon for something like this.”
The city would build the northern portion of the esplanade first, with the $65 million it would receive for Robert Moses Playground. That would allow it to take advantage of existing pilings in the water, saving tens of millions of dollars in construction costs. The portion of the esplanade from 41st Street to 53rd Street would be paid for by the sale of United Nations Plaza, which could yield hundreds of millions of dollars, to be split between the city and the esplanade project.
Part of the proceeds from the sale of the playground would go toward improvements to St. Vartan Park, five blocks south of Robert Moses Playground. The agreement also secures money to stabilize Waterside Pier, a former Consolidated Edison site owned by the city, which runs from 38th Street to 41st Street. Design plans are under way for the rehabilitation of the pier, which would fill in the southernmost part of the gap and does not hinge on the United Nations’ intentions.
At a series of forums to discuss the deal, the playground, a little more than an acre, was depicted alternately as a beloved park where children learn to ride their bikes and as a desolate patch of blacktop that will not be missed. The United Nations would build on the western half, which is now used by a roller hockey association, while a dog run and basketball courts to the east would be untouched.
The memorandum has identified a site sixteen blocks to the south for a replacement park, turning Asser Levy Place, a two-block street that runs between 23rd Street and 25th Street east of First Avenue, into a playground.
Even if the memorandum is signed by 10 October, there is no guarantee that the United Nations will commit to the deal. Negotiations between elected officials have included the United Nations Development Corporation, a city-state public-benefit corporation that handles the United Nations’ real estate needs. But, while there is every expectation that the United Nations would want the playground site, the organization is not party to the memorandum.
“In the past decade, it has repeatedly expressed interest in consolidating its operations on this particular site,” said Micah Lasher, the city’s chief lobbyist in Albany.
Alternatively, the United Nations could build on its own campus. If it did so, however, it would be exempt from zoning laws and could avoid the city’s uniform land-use review procedure, which puts major building projects under a microscope.
“The UN could decide to build on their North Lawn,” Krueger said. “The community gets another large building and somebody other than Tudor City gets impacted, but there’s no funding at all for improvements to park space or a new esplanade.”
That is little consolation for residents of Tudor City, a cluster of neo-gothic apartment towers near the United Nations. A new United Nations tower would affect two buildings in particular: 2 and 5 Tudor City. “It would feel smothering,” said Muriel Gross, a retired teacher who has lived in the complex for thirty years. “We’ve had it open all these years. Who gives away playgrounds?”
There is also opposition from groups critical of the United Nations, particularly the conservative Heritage Foundation. Anti-United Nations sentiment in the Legislature helped quash a similar plan several years ago. “We’re not doing this deal for the benefit of the United Nations,” said Brian Kavanagh, a state assemblyman who represents the East Side. “We’re doing this deal, if we do it, for the benefit of our community and New Yorkers.”
Community Board 6, whose fifty members will soon hold a non-binding vote on the proposal, says that its district, from 14th Street to 59th Street, east of Lexington Avenue, has the lowest ratio of open space to office workers and residents in the city. And many there have felt more than a twinge of envy as they have watched Hudson River Park take shape across the island.
“We look at the West,” said Mark P. Thompson, the community board’s chairman, “and think, ‘Wow, we’d love to have something as wonderful as that, too.’ ”

Rico says the UN alienating land is pretty funny...