Thursday night almost 200 people came out to a meeting Thursday night called by the Broadway Community Alliance about what is being called 'Overdevelopment in North Riverdale. People from all over Riverdale came together to also sign on to fight the recent Mayor Bill de Blasio plan for rezoning which will lead to taller buildings, smaller apartments, and little if any parking spaces.
The agenda of the meeting consisted of a welcome by community activist Laura Spalter, an update on the new Selfhelp building (an 11 story building that is being built on Broadway south of Mosholu Avenue), An update of the Van Cortlandt Motel site on Broadway, An update on the Riverdale Manor, a short summary of the mayor's rezoning plan, a proposed building at 5278 Post Road, elected official responses by State Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, and Councilman Andrew Cohen, and then questions from the audience. The photos below will tell the story, but you should check out their website at http://www.broadwaycommunityalliance.org/ for more information.
Above - The lighting in the room was low, but as you can see there was standing room only at the Broadway Community Alliance meeting.
Below - Community Activist Laura Spalter welcomes everyone, and gives a little history of the BCA and what they have been doing the past yeay plus.
Above - Damien McShane of BCA explain, or tries to explain the very complicated (as he said) new mayor's rezoning plan.
Below - some items that the BCA wants and needs the entire community board area to do.
Above - State Senator Jeff Klein received a warm welcome from the attendees as Senator Klein has been with the local community when problems arose in the past. Klein pledges to continue to work with the community.
Below - It was Councilman Andrew Cohen's turn to speak to the audience. Cohen reminded the crowd that he was a former member of Community Board 8, and has worked with other local elected officials on quality of life issues.
Lastly it was time for questions from the audience, and Sergeant of Arms (and former principal) Deidre Burke moderated this part of the meeting.
