West Side Spirit, May 11, 2006

From the West Side Express page, May 11, 2006

SHOPPING CART PROTEST -- Shopping carts in hand, West Side residents and elected officials convened May 6 for a rally to protest the closing of local neighborhood stores and to express their displeasure at being left out of the planning process for a yet-to-be unveiled development.

The stores, which populated a superblock hemmed by 97th Street, Columbus Avenue, 100th Street an Amsterdam Avenue, were all emptied by the landlord over the course of the last few months to make way for a commercial and residential development. The property's owners, Stellar Management and the Chetrit Group, have not yet made plans public.

"The places that made a community cohesive are gone," said Vivian Dee, president of the newly formed Preserve Park WEst North Coalition, which organized the rally. Dee added that close to 300 signatures were gathered at the event on a petition demanding that the community be involved in the site's plans.

Kathleen Cudady, a spokeswoman for the owners, said demolition should start "within the next few weeks."

"We are sharing the plans right now with elected officials," she said. "As soon as that's done, we want to have some sort of community forum."

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who spoke at the rally, said, "We want the community to have a seat at the table in planning its own future."

Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell and Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, among others, also spoke at the event.

Click here to see the accompanying photo.