Village Preservation to Mayor Mamdani: Drop Adams Approach to Landmarking, Upzoning, and Developer Impunity

The start of a new mayoral administration is often a moment of great anticipation, especially when it brings the possibility of meaningful policy shifts. In a detailed letter dated January 1, 2026, Village Preservation extended congratulations to Mayor Zohran Mamdani on his inauguration and laid out a comprehensive set of priorities the historic preservation organization hopes he will pursue. The letter emphasizes the need for the city to pivot away from the recent approaches of his predecessor’s administration and underscores the importance of preservation, thoughtful development, and community-oriented planning in New York City. 

At the heart of Village Preservation’s message is a call for a renewed commitment to landmark designations. The organization highlighted troubling trends under the prior mayor, noting that landmark designations had fallen to historic lows across much of the city. It urged Mamdani to reverse this dramatic aversion to recognizing and protecting significant sites, pointing out that many immediately endangered or vulnerable structures had been bypassed despite strong community interest and historical merit. 

Village Preservation also singled out specific historic districts and structures that deserve attention, potential landmarks that the Adams administration ignored despite “broad support from the local community, local elected officials, scholars, academics, preservationists, and a broad range of interest groups and New Yorkers connected to the histories they embody,” wrote Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman. Still awaiting designation:

• The South of Union Square Historic District, with its broad range of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture by some of New York’s most distinguished architects and strong ties to the nation’s essential civil rights and cultural history. There are some 190 buildings in the proposed district; many are threatened, and some have already been demolished.
• Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (229 West 14th Street), the city’s first Spanish-language church.
• The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (216-222 Second Avenue), the oldest specialized hospital in the Western Hemisphere, second oldest hospital in New York, and wellspring of innovations for people with hearing and vision disabilities for more than 150 years. Once designated, the site would be the city’s first landmark focusing on the history of people with disabilities.
• Most Holy Redeemer Church (173 East 3rd Street), which has served the spiritual needs for immigrant New Yorkers since the mid-19th century, from the Germans it was originally founded to serve to southern and Eastern Europeans and more recently Latin Americans. 

By calling for renewed focus on these sites, the letter stresses that preserving a diverse array of architectural and cultural history is not just about bricks and mortar, but about safeguarding the stories and identities that make New York neighborhoods unique. 

Beyond preservation, the letter calls on Mayor Mamdani to address several contentious development plans in our communities that have recently come to the fore. It criticized an extremely large proposed development on public land that Mayor Adams dubbed “Gansevoort Square,” urging the mayor to rethink its scale, remove market-rate housing, and guarantee affordability in perpetuity. Another proposal for an “obscenely tall and out of context tower,” at 5 West 13th Street, would include only some 30 or so super-luxury condos and zero affordable housing or other public benefits; the letter calls on the administration to “consider if this type of development is in fact what it believes is appropriate or desirable at this location.” 

Similarly, Village Preservation encouraged repairing and reopening the long-neglected Tony Dapolito Recreation Center rather than demolishing it and constructing oversized new facilities at nearby 388 Hudson Street. These points reflect the organization’s broader concern that some planning decisions have ignored community feedback and historical context. In an almost last-minute move, Mayor Adams put forward plans for development at the latter site that went against community feedback for a lower, squatter building there and jeopardized the goal of reinvigorating the beloved rec center.

Moreover, Village Preservation called on the new administration to address systemic problems beyond high-profile sites, such as the failure to enforce penalties for illegal work that damages older and landmarked buildings. The organization warned that allowing such practices to continue contributes to the loss of affordable housing and longtime community residents, all while eroding the city’s historic fabric. They urged meaningful policy responses to hold developers accountable and protect both people and places. 

Finally, the letter challenged Mamdani to rethink such failed conventional strategies as upzonings and market-based “supply increase” that Adams espoused to address housing affordability. Village Preservation argued that simply increasing housing supply or relaxing regulations has not delivered affordability for most New Yorkers and has, in some cases, accelerated the loss of older affordable housing. Instead, the group advocated for policies that respect neighborhood scale, protect existing affordable units, and balance new development with preservation goals. 

@gvshp Read the letter and send your own to the Mayor. Tell our new Mayor that New York deserves better. #CommunityOverDevelopers #UrbanJustice #SoHo #NoHo #GreenwichVillage ♬ original sound – Village Preservation

The letter closed with a willingness to work collaboratively toward these objectives as the new administration takes shape. Read the letter in its entirety here; sign our letter calling on Mayor Mamdani to break with Eric Adams’ policies here; and share our video about the letter via YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok (above).