Summary

I thought it would be a good idea to summarize the events to date. As most readers have gathered, this is a blog on which neighbors on 12th and 13th Streets surrounding the ever expanding Zwirner mansion post. It is not fair to say that we are organized. The username and password were posted in a few of the neighboring buildings, and any neighbor can post to the blog.

David Zwirner, is a well known art dealer. Monica Zwirner designs handbags for elite NY socialites. The family first turned a multiple dwelling unit into a single family mansion about 3 years ago. At that time, they blocked the light of four low-income tenants at 234 E. 13th St. without compensation. They were able to do this mostly because the light encroachment laws for this block date back to the 1800s. While it was legal, it was unethical, and they upset many of the people on the block.

Throughout the first phase of the construction, they worked beyond the legally allowed limits, working late at night and through Saturday and Sunday. The Department of Buildings didn't seem to do much to stop them. Either that, or they paid the fines.

One neighbor did bake them a pie, and he received a note from their lawyer a month later with a thank you note. They realize how much they are disliked.

Nonetheless, this year, they purchased another neighboring building, and again expanded it, blocking the light of 4 more apartments. Despite their resources, they are using immigrant labor. The poor guys are walking on 2 X 4 planks without safety harnesses or other forms of protection. Once, I heard screaming coming from the construction site. I assume someone fell, but couldn't make out what had happened.

The tenants at 228 E. 13th St. notified various representatives about the light encroachment issue, but even the elected representatives received a form letter from the Zwirner's lawyer in response. I was impressed with our representative's caring and rapid response to this issue. We hope that the laws will be changed to protect future neighbors.

Their building was condemned with a red X on the front, but somehow, they continued construction.

It is a classic move for out of touch art dealers to move into a neighborhood that used to be on the cutting edge of the art scene, but whose days have long passed. First it was SoHo, now, the East Village. The problem is that the wealthy folks moving in with their Mc Mansions don't really seem to care about the low-income populations they displace. I'm sure that the Zwirners will pack up and move to Williamsburg sometime in the next few years once they realize that it is the "hot place" (though it never was, it has thus been advertised).

The only way that David Zwirner can survive in the art world is by dealing with previously recognized top artists. If he had to go by any sense of aesthetic, he would never survive. After all, he is old German money, with no sense of reality.

8 am saturday morning construction!!!!!

IS WEEKLY 8 AM SATURDAY CONSTRUCTION REALLY LEGAL?!!!!!

Here it goes again, construction/demolition started this week and this morning at 8am I was woken by the "joyful" sounds of very loud shoveling, scraping, dragging, dropping and talking. This morning the Zwirners' construction crew are excavating and moving around big loads of brick, earth and stones. Now, as I sit at my computer, I can barely hear the radio which is set at the volume I usually listen to. In a moment, I will get up or rather give up, and turn up the volume.

For two years during the last construction project of the Zwirners, we were disturbed for most of our Saturdays by their interminable construction noise. I was under the impression that one had to apply each time for a one time specially approved Saturday work permit.

We should find out it this is legal.

Would Brooke Astor have put up with this?!!!!!!

Do you think that this time the Zwirners will at least be living next door to their Saturday morning noise?

Doubt it.

community and neighborhood

Some ideas and questions about appropriate behavior within a community or neighborhood. The east village is a new york city neighborhood that prides itself on its diversity. This is a diversity that is cultural and racial but also economic. This diversity is probably one of the attributes that attracted the Zwirners to our neighborhood originally. This diversity is also probably a reason that a couple of years ago no one took to the streets, or to the net, or to the press, although the Zwirners' original construction at 234 East 13th Street turned a multi-dwelling building into a single family house that is so out of scale with the majority of the very small apartments existing within the surrounding old tenement buildings. I, for one, try to be as accepting as possible and thought let's give them a chance (even though the original construction was extremely loud and echoed throughout the back courtyard, broke many NYC rules as to accepted construction times, caused our apartments to be filled with dust, lasted a long time, and I work from home.)

But this time is different. I find it completely inappropriate that the Zwirners are now about to double the size of their current home which is already over 7000 square feet. Their new construction will mean that 5 out of the 7 windows in my 450 square foot apartment will eventually have a wall three feet a way from them. Although my apartment is extremely small, I invested all of my savings into it because its large windows allow sunlight to fill its small space and to fill me with happiness.

These are the questions I have for the Zwirners right now:

Is this really what you want to do?

Do you know that this would completely negatively affect all of your neighbors lives not just in the short term but in the long term? And then, would you really want to live among so many resentful people and have them as your neighbors?

Is it really within a community spirit to take away so much from your neighbors who already have so little when compared to you?

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to move to an already large property on the upper east side or in tribeca where there is room and many properties like the one you are envisioning, rather than jam an extremely large mansion into a community of 300 - 500 square foot apartments in old tenement buildings and while doing so take away all of the light of your surrounding neighbors?

I really do think that when the Zwirners think things through and realize the potential impact of their actions, they will change their minds.

Some of our personal appeals

The following are scanned images of some of our personal appeals, which we have sent in hard copy to your home and/or gallery. (Obviously, we are not in touch with everyone who has been affected by or is concerned about your planned construction, so there may be more out there.)

Appeals by Matt, Peter, Natalie, and Celina (click to enlarge):

(To all of our neighbors) Please post your personal stories

Please send in your personal appeals, or stories on how you will be impacted by the expansion. (Post them as comments, and we will public highlights in future posts.)

Please be respectful! We cannot ask that David Zwirner be a good neighbor if we are not good neighbors ourselves.

Please put your home expansion on hold

Dear David Zwirner,

Let us introduce ourselves. We are your neighbors on the south side of East 13th Street, where you own a home, and on the north side of East 12th Street, where our backyards face yours.

Last week, we discovered that you have bought 232 East 13th Street, the building next door to your current 5-floor, 5-bedroom single-family townhouse with elevator and swimming pool. Congratulations! We are disturbed, however, by the fact that you plan to immediately begin constructing an expansion upon your 7,158-square foot home (71,585 according to your Buildings Department permit, but we assumed the last digit was a misprint), both vertically and horizontally.

We urge you to reconsider this.

First, your home expansion risks permanently blocking off sunlight for many of your neighbors to the west, just as the expansion at your home at 234 East 13th Street did for your neighbors on the other side. Consider this: Your have almost 7,200 square feet in your home. You have multiple homes. Most of us live in 300- to 500-square-foot homes, and these are our only homes. Some of us have lived here for decades. Others have recently saved up money for apartments in this booming real estate market, and some even recently refinanced. Your expansion severely devalues our investments-- the blocked sunlight will cost some apartments 30-40% of their current value.

Second, the demolition, construction, and expansion of your five-story townhouse in 2002 greatly upset the rhythms and the social fabric of the local community. Your construction crew regularly flouted regulations, often beginning before 7 am on weekdays and 8 am weekends, for so many months. Hundreds of people were affected along the way-- We are doctors, nurses, teachers, librarians, sales clerks, photographers, students, children, and retirees. We do not choose our schedules, and the noise from your home-building wreaked havoc on quite a few families' lives. Perhaps you did not know that hundreds of your neighbors were quite upset by your plans. Back then, we had discussions as a community, on how we should respond. We decided to let it go, to make it end as quickly as possible.

You can afford to do this home renovation right, and to not severely devalue our homes and quality of life in the process.