Not in my backyard!
Hell’s Kitchen community leaders demanded Gov. Andrew Cuomo look elsewhere to find new revenue to fund the string of piers-turned-parks along the Hudson River after he nixed a controversial West Village development plan.
“The governor shouldn’t be protecting one neighborhood at the expense of another,” Lowell Kern, chairman of Manhattan Community Board 4, told The Post on Thursday.
Cuomo hinted that additional development on Pier 76 in Hell’s Kitchen could make up for the now-nixed plan to build office space on the West Village’s Pier 40, which he vetoed late on New Year’s Eve.
However, Hudson River Park officials were already banking on redeveloping Pier 76 for years, in large part by moving an NYPD tow pound off the site to make room for new office buildings.
Cuomo’s office refused to comment on how it would make up for the lost revenue.
In his veto message, Cuomo hinted that he is considering putting even more development on the Hell’s Kitchen site, despite years of promises to local residents the redeveloped space would be split 50-50 between parkland and office space.
The joint city-state agency that runs the string of parks, the Hudson River Park Trust, was relying on the Pier 40 redevelopment to provide as much as $12.5 million a year to pay for maintenance and upkeep.
Pier 40 is currently home to athletic fields, the Hornblower cruise ship operations and a parking garage.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who backed the legislation to redevelop Pier 40, said she’s hopeful the governor will set aside extra state funding to avoid any neighborhood getting socked with additional redevelopment in place of parkland.
The Hudson River park system is supposed to be self-funding but has been relying on selling assets like air rights and grants from city and state officials for funding.
“I love that the governor wants to protect Pier 40, but if he’s going to [keep commercial space] out of Pier 40 then he has to [do the same] at Pier 76, too,” added Kern.