The Borough President has an enormous impact on development and preservation in our neighborhoods. As with our recent Mayoral candidates forum, it’s critical that we educate ourselves about candidates’ positions, perspectives, and records on these issues, and make sure they know how many people care about them.

That’s why we and fellow preservation organizations are holding a Zoom forum tomorrow night at 6 pm with Manhattan Borough President candidates — the ONLY such candidate forum focused on preservation issues. It will provide an opportunity to learn more and ask questions of candidates, and the bigger the crowd, the more candidates know preservation matters to New Yorkers.

We’re also holding forums with candidates for our local City Council seats on the following Wednesdays at 6 pm. Find out more and register: 

• City Council District 2 (East Village, NoHo, Greenwich Village east of Sixth Avenue, Union Square, Stuyvesant Square, Gramercy, Kips Bay) — Wednesday, April 23
• City Council District 1 (Manhattan south of Houston Street) — Wednesday, April 30
• City Council District 3 (West Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen) — Wednesday, May 7

Help us ensure that City leaders know that historic preservation is critical to our city’s future. Many elected officials and City leaders falsely claim that preservation measures are a cause of our city’s housing affordability challenges. In fact, older buildings are often a source of affordable housing, preserving historic sites doesn’t drive up housing costs, and building more and larger unaffordable housing as proposed hurts rather than helps affordability.

Village Preservation issued a policy brief on affordability and preservation that’s been distributed to all City leaders and elected officials. We’re calling on them to recognize that preservation and affordability not only aren’t at odds, but can and should go hand in hand.

TO HELP: