The local paper for the Upper East Side THE MUSEUM AT FIT TURNS 50
WEEK OF FEBRUARY-MARCH
28-6
◄ P.12
2019
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LITTLE PERSIA ON 73RD STREET RELIGION
NEW DETAILS ON 92ND STREET MTS RAMP ▲ P.5
A growing Jewish congregation made up of refugees from Iran and their families is developing a new spiritual home in two buildings on “Carriage House Row” BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
It was 1979, and the Shah of Iran had been ousted in the revolutionary furies unleashed by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Propelled by the collapse of the Peacock Throne, thousands of Jewish families whose roots in Iran went back centuries fled their homes. Most of the exiles settled in America, and in Brooklyn and Beverly Hills, Queens and Great Neck, they reinvented their lives. A much smaller number found their footing in the apartment buildings and townhouses of the Upper East Side, mostly in the East 60s and 70s. But unlike their cohort in California, Nassau County and Brooklyn, they never developed the critical mass to build synagogues and community centers in the neighborhood where they reside. Now, exactly 40 years after the eruption of the Islamic Revolution, that is about to change. The Persian Jewish Center of Manhattan has bought two landmark buildings on East 73rd Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, a block known as “Stable Row,” or “Carriage House Row,” because of its centuryold history as a base for the horsedrawn livery business.
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Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer plans to take legal action if Mayor Bill de Blasio attempts to unilaterally waive the zoning requirements for a planned tower on the Holmes Towers campus rather than subjecting the project to a public land use review. Image: NYCHA
‘IF WE HAD A GYM...’ ▲ P.6
BREWER CHALLENGES DE BLASIO ON HOLMES TOWER PLANS HOUSING Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer vows legal action if city allows private development on NYCHA land without public land use review BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial plan to allow a private developer to build a residential tower on the
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grounds of a Yorkville public housing development without a public land use review could spur a legal showdown with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. In a Feb. 20 letter to de Blasio, Brewer signaled her intent to take legal action if the mayor grants zoning waivers to the project, rather than subjecting it to the city’s extensive Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP. Fetner Properties’ planned 500foot tower, which would sit directly
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between the two existing 25-story buildings of the Holmes Towers campus at East 92nd St. and First Ave., would not adhere to zoning requirements governing open space, building spacing and setbacks. Brewer objects to the administration’s planned use of a mechanism known as a mayoral zoning override to waive these restrictions, effectively precluding formal public review. She argues that the project is instead sub-
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A MESSY MODERN FAMILY ▲ P.8 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, March 1 – 5:29 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastrside.com.
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