Just last week we spoke about this very issue and SoBro’s plan to save the building with Goldman Sachs who is interested in partnering to do so.
Now the Daily News reports that Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz Jr wants the city to strip the decaying yet beloved PS 31 of its landmark status and have it demolished.
What is going in here? We reported how eager the city was at last month’s Community Board 1 meeting to pressure the board to accept to have the building demolished saying that it was beyond rescue. This was in direct opposition to SoBro’s finding when they hired an engineer who’s report says that the building, although badly damaged, is not in danger of collapsing and can be salvaged but will be costly. That’s where Goldman Sachs comes in.
The building sits smack in the middle of a 30 block area that was rezoned from commercial and manufacturing into residential. This rezoning exponentially increases the value of the land for any developer interested in the site which is one block from the 2, 4 and 5 subway station at 149th Street and Grand Concourse – 15 minutes to midtown.
Sounds like Ruben Diaz Jr, once again, has no voice of his own and is allowing Bloomberg’s administration to dictate what happens in our borough in direct opposition to community wants and wishes.
I wonder which, if any, developer is greasing our elected officials’ palms?
