Festivus 2025: Time for Our Airing of Grievances!
The ‘holiday’ of Festivus was developed as an alternative to the commercialization of the Christmas season in the mid-1960s by author and editor Daniel O’Keefe (father of Seinfeld writer Dan O’Keefe). It gained significantly greater public attention on Seinfeld’s December 18, 1997 episode “The Strike,” in which Kramer refuses to work on Festivus and pickets his employer, H&H Bagels.
Seinfeld has a few links to the Village, including Kramer’s disorienting journey to 1st Street and 1st Avenue (“the nexus of the universe”) and Newman’s job at the Cooper Station post office. But Festivus has taken on a life of its own beyond Seinfeld. Festivus features a celebratory Festivus Pole made of unadorned aluminum (selected for its high strength-to-weight ratio), the Feats of Strength, and the Airing of Grievances.
The Airing of Grievances takes place at the Festivus Dinner, where you gather your family and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year. As George Costanza’s father Frank eloquently stated:
Village Preservation Airing of Grievances:
2025 Charter Revision Commission
The political hacks appointees of the 2025 Charter Revision Commission proposed several recently approved changes that will likely results in less affordability in new development, less investment in necessary construction infrastructure in neighborhoods experiencing new development, and certainly less community input as well as fewer checks and balances in our democracy. The measures passed by a smaller than anticipated margin, with groups like Village Preservation and many unions, tenant organizations, and civic groups opposing these power grabbing efforts which concentrate much more authority with the Mayor. We will all see how this plays out over the coming years and various mayors, but in all likelihood, it wont be good.
NYC Department of City Planning
We reviewed the predictions NYC made for the SoHo/NoHo Rezoning, and to no one’s surprise, the NYC Department of City Planning’s estimates of all the housing and affordable housing that would be built following were WRONG.
We wish we didn’t have to be so right all the time, but WE TOLD YOU SO!!!! It was almost too easy to predict these results. At the time, we shouted from the rooftops that this plan would lead to the destruction of rent-regulated housing, loopholes would let developers build housing without any affordable option, and commercial development would likely be built as a result of the rezoning rather than promised affordable housing. The City turned a deaf ear to these concerns, leading to no new affordable housing built in the rezoned neighborhoods. Read our full report here.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams
Last, but definitely not least, is our disgraced, soon-to-be-former mayor, Eric Adams. Last year he made the list for being the THE WORST LANDMARKING MAYOR EVER, a distinction he maintained throughout 2025. This past year, he pursued demoltion of the landmarked Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, denied protections for the area south of Union Square, and sought to build the tallest luxury high rise in our neighborhoods on city-owned property in what he sought to rebrand as “Gansevoort Square,” on Little West 12th and West Streets in the Meatpacking District.
Fortunately, this will be the last year Mayor Adams will be on our list as it is his last year as Mayor. Here’s to hoping our next mayor stays off our list in 2026 and beyond…
On a positive note, we thank all our supporters for writing thousands of letters to support these important advocacy efforts in 2025. We also thank our members for your generous support and sharing our love of history, beautiful architecture, and vibrant neighborhoods defined my small businesses, a human scale, engaging cultural and civic institutions, and a tradition of welcoming and innovation.