Village Preservation has updated its mid-2024 report examining all landmark designations in New York City since they were first allowed by law in 1965. The new report takes a close look at how each Mayor’s tenure affected landmark designations, as well as how they were affected by changes in laws and policies.

The upshot:

• Outgoing Mayor Adams was the worst Mayor in history for new landmarks designations since the landmarks law was passed, with the only Mayor even coming close being the fiscal crisis–wracked Abe Beame — though even he demonstrably outperformed Adams. Several of Adams’ predecessors designated 10 or more times as many buildings per year, including his two immediate predecessors, Mayors de Blasio and Bloomberg, each of whom designated at more than four times Adams’ rate.
• Every part of the city saw a dramatic drop in landmark designations under Mayor Adams — the Outer Boroughs, Upper Manhattan, and the “Manhattan Core” (the lower two-thirds of the borough). 
• The very few landmark designations approved under Mayor Adams disproportionately covered sites that were already landmarked or in other ways protected or safe from demolition, whereas historic sites facing immediate threats proposed by the public for landmark designation were disproportionately passed over.   

Village Preservation is reaching out to the incoming Mayor to urge him to reverse course and abandon the anti-preservation approach of his outgoing predecessor.

TO HELP:

Explore all our reports HERE.