Peter G. Masullo, CPA
Attorney at Law
Specializing in Tax Law
New York, NY
www.cpa-taxlawyer.com

The following is a copy of a recent letter to Mayor Bloomberg outlining Masullo's view of how the quality of life is declining in Greenwich Village because of New York University's massive and never ending real estate construction projects.

October 6, 2004

Mayor Michael Bloomberg
City Hall
New York , NY 10007

 Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

          There is an urgent problem threatening the very existence and integrity of our community here in Greenwich Village . Simply stated, that problem is the lack of air and sunshine caused by NYU’s grandiose overdevelopment.

          Ironically, NYU is granted special zoning privileges because of their status as a “community facility.” This is a grand fallacy for NYU does absolutely nothing for this community. To the contrary, NYU has done nothing but take from this neighborhood for as long as I can remember.

          You’re probably thinking, “This guy’s got an axe to grind against NYU.” You bet I do! But please, hear me out. I have valid reasons for my contempt of NYU. I also have my own insights, from street level, of the history of this area. This institution has been bullying me around and needlessly tearing up my neighborhood for too long.

          Washington Square Park was a sunny place when my grandfathers wrote poetry and played their musical instruments there. And sunshine was abundant in the photographs of my parents in the park shortly after World War II. The sun no longer shines on most of West 3rd and West 4th Streets because of the dreary shadows cast by NYU’s oversized edifices. Many of the pubs and clubs that made the Village famous have been replaced by classrooms for foreign students. Our neighborhood has been changed; our historic places have been destroyed; and we have been crowded together such that there is not enough room for pedestrians on our sidewalks. And now, NYU plans to take away our last patch of sunshine by building yet another enormous structure on the corner of Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place . If left unrestrained, NYU will “develop” every square inch of our neighborhood. This mindless expansion must be curtailed. We need your help in our battle to retain the vestiges of one of the City’s most historic and desirable residential neighborhoods.

          Not one of NYU’s enormous towers fits in with the historic buildings in the area. For example, they’ve surrounded Judson Memorial Church (built in 1892) with tall, modern structures that nearly obliterate any view of the church tower. The façade of one of these edifices ( Kimmel Center ) is largely glass. Yet this glass building sits across the street from a windowless red slab of concrete known as the Bobst Library. And this windowless red slab is adjacent to two multicolored superstructures known as Washington Square Village . It’s bad enough that NYU’s construction projects do not fit in with the rest of the area – they don’t even fit in with each other.

          You’ve got to see this thing they call the Bobst Library to believe it! Next to their Washington Square Village , it is one of the butt-ugliest structures ever conceived by mankind. Tragically, the quaint brownstone that housed Our Lady of Mercy School on this site (attended by my father and my Auntie in the 1930s) has long been demolished. So has the playground where my father used to push me on the swings. They usurped my former playground with an unsightly red slab of concrete.

         Today, I have no choice but to view this eyesore from my apartment window. Yet, I have never been granted the privilege of viewing the beautiful atrium NYU built inside this library. The general public is denied access to this gigantic indoor garden. So the neighborhood got stuck with an ugly red slab while NYU kept all the beauty inside for itself, to the exclusion of our community. This illustrates one of the biggest problems as regards NYU – they do not share anything with the surrounding community.

          It’s the same story at Washington Square Village. As a teen, I would venture into the private gardens and fountains when I wanted a place to be alone to just to sit and think. Inevitably, the guard would remind me, “Hey Kid! You don’t belong here!”  As he chased me I would point to the very spot where my father was born (in a tenement, on what used to be Wooster Street , behind Citibank) and exclaim, “I do belong here!”

          That seems to be the thyme of my life long relationship with NYU. “Sonny! You can’t play ball here!” “You can’t sit there!” “You can’t go to school here!” That’s right! I grew up in the shadows (literally) of this “great” institution yet they said I was not smart enough to be educated there. When they denied my application for admission I thought, “What kind of heartless institution is this? They can destroy the homes of my forbearers and they can destroy the whole neighborhood. Over half NYU’s student body is comprised of foreigners yet they won’t make room for one neighborhood boy.”

          You would think NYU would embrace and befriend it’s neighbors in the community instead of alienating and locking us out. Perhaps some kind of scholarship program for area youth would be in order. But there is no gift back to the neighborhood by NYU. Despite their billions of dollars in real estate and other endowments, I have not seen NYU spend a single dime on any sort of youth program. Why can’t they throw us a few crumbs and buy our kids a few baseballs and maybe some uniforms? Unfortunately, the extent of NYU’s “Community Relations” program has been a couple of meaningless lectures for senior citizens. Oh yeah! They also planted a couple of shrubs near the statue of LaGuardia.

          Another disservice is being done to this community, and our nation, in the way NYU caters to wealthy foreign students. By favoring these foreigners NYU is now helping to export our children’s jobs overseas. Congress and many state and local governments are now considering legislation to curb US corporations from shipping our jobs and economy overseas. Where is the legislation of these unrestricted mega-universities such as NYU? They must bear their share of blame for the demise of our labor force. They must be regulated to insure we have enough workers within our country to keep our Social Security system alive in the not so distant future.

          You would think this oppression by NYU would have ceased now that I have reached middle age. Think again! NYU has constructed a monstrous gymnasium that is almost as big as Washington Square Park on the site of what used to be our sandlot baseball field. When the guy at the front door told me, “You don’t belong here,” he also said I might be allowed to apply for some kind of limited membership. Apparently, NYU is willing to let me use the facility on certain Saturdays and Sundays as long as I pay a stiff fee for each visit. In other words, I could use the gym when they weren’t too busy as long as it was profitable for them to let me do so.

          I told the guy, “Thanks a lump” and decided to join the gym across the street. Why should NYU be allowed to capitalize on the neighborhood in this way? Instead of serving as a “community facility” they are competing with small businesses in the community.

          And this competition is on an uneven playing field for NYU is granted huge advantages in the form of real estate tax and income tax exemptions. They should not be granted additional, unfair advantages in the form of zoning regulation exemptions. It just ain’t right to grant them a special “community facility” allowance so they can then turn around and lock the community out. A large and powerful institution like NYU does not need special privileges. Instead, we need protection from abuse by NYU.

          It is time to end this oppression of our community by NYU. If NYU is to be granted the privileges of a “community facility” they must be forced to act like a “community facility.” Unfortunately, they have proven, time and time again, that they are incapable of performing any type of meaningful community service. NYU has ignored the pleas of this community for years. That is why we desperately need your help in our fight to initiate legislation and zoning protections to preserve what’s left of our neighborhood.

                                                                                    Respectfully yours,

                                                                                                   Peter G. Masullo, CPA

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