Six Candidates and Nearly 1,000 Attendees Show for Mayoral Candidates Forum on Preservation: Watch Our Video, and What to Do Next

Last night, six of the current crop of Mayoral candidates showed up for our joint forum on preservation issues. Lasting 90 minutes, the forum covered a range of preservation issues, with questions coming from the sponsoring organizations and those submitted in advance by the public. It offered some illuminating insights into the candidates’ backgrounds, experiences, priorities, and positions. 

Watch the video HERE

Nearly 1,000 people attended the forum, and we expect thousands more to watch the recording in the weeks ahead. All declared candidates who have raised funds were invited to attend. Few such NYC Mayoral forums this year have had as large a number of candidates participate.

Thank you to all candidates for participating, to our fellow sponsoring organizations for helping to organize, and to all the cosponsoring organizations for spreading the word. And thank you to all who attended, which helped send a message to those vying to lead our city that New Yorkers care about preservation.

To help more, please share the video: more views will continue to amplify that message. And see below for more ways to help. 

Next Steps: What You Can Do to Make Preservation a Priority in NYC

Photo by Susan De Vries

In recent years, preservation has been sidelined and even vilified by many leaders in our city. There are two main causes, and ways to help with each.

First, anti-preservation proponents of unregulated development claim that preservation harms affordability in our city. This is patently false, but like so much misinformation, it’s gained increasing traction in recent years. 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 doesn’t help affordability but hurts.

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

TO HELP: 

Tell City leaders preservation and affordability go hand in hand, and their policies MUST reflect this — CLICK HERE

Second, in recent years, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the city agency in charge of protecting our city’s heritage, has reached record low levels of new landmark designations, in every part of NYC. And the few designations that are approved increasingly focus on sites that aren’t endangered, while forgoing those that are.

Village Preservation has issued a report scrupulously analyzing 60 years of landmark designations in NYC. It found that by every objective standard, the present LPC under Mayor Adams has been the least active and least effective of any in the 60-year history of the agency. We are calling upon City leaders to reverse this trend, make the LPC live up to its mandate to protect our history, and once again vigorously undertake landmark designations where warranted in every corner of the city. 

TO HELP:

Tell City leaders the Landmarks Preservation Commission MUST do its job and return to protecting NYC’s history — CLICK HERE

More Next Steps: Forums with Candidates for Borough President and City Council Coming in April and May

Just as impactful on development and preservation issues are our Borough President and local City Councilmembers. As with Mayoral candidates, it’s critical that we educate ourselves about their positions, perspectives, and records on these issues, and make sure they know how many people care about them.

That’s why we are holding a series of Zoom forums with candidates for these offices, which will provide an opportunity to learn more and ask questions. The bigger the crowd at each, the more they know preservation matters to New Yorkers.

Find out more and register for these Zoom forums, all on Wednesdays at 6 pm: 

March 25, 2025