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U.N. Expansion: What Comes Next? By Bruce A. Silberblatt State legislation needed before the United Nations can move ahead with plans for office construction on the Moses Playground space is currently in “limbo,” after State Senate leaders refused to bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. It is uncertain when, or if, the legislation – originally submitted by State Assemblyman Steve Sanders – will be resubmitted. Therefore the United Nations Development Corporation’s takeover of Moses Playground is currently stalemated. The TBA, which has long held that the Moses playground space should not be transferred to the U.N. until an equivalent neighborhood substitute is open to the public, cannot support the bill as it is currently written. But the TBA believes the current hiatus provides an opportunity for the community’s elected officials to modify the bill to alleviate the neighborhood’s concerns. First, the bill should be modified to add a second mitigation for the loss of the playground space. Currently, it calls for a waterfront walkway-bikeway “esplanade” running along the East River from 37th Street to 51st Street. The TBA does not believe such an esplanade is adequate mitigation for the Moses space and wants a second mitigation calling for a playground replacement equivalent in size, shape and usage to the Moses space, open to the public before UNDC breaks ground. Second, the TBA believes the legislation must spell out how much UNDC will pay for the land, currently having a fair market value of $50 million. And finally, TBA wants the bill to include a requirement that the UNDC have its project financing arranged and that it escrow funds equal to either the current fair market value of the playground, including air rights transfers, or the cost of both mitigations – whichever is greater. With these modifications, the legislation would probably win the community’s support. However, there is another option. A 2003 General Accounting Office report included an approach calling for replacing a nondescript two-story U.N. building at the corner of the FDR Drive and 42nd Street with at least four stories of office space that could be used as “swing” space for staff while the U.N. Secretariat building is renovated. Neither the UNDC nor the state legislature would need be involved in such a plan. Had the United Nations adopted this option when it was first suggested, rehabilitation would have been underway by now. It’s still not too late for it to do so.
The Turtle Bay Association is a nonprofit (501c3) community organization.
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