The Roosevelt Memorial Sculpture outside the American Museum of Natural History. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/MacLachlan
The American Museum of Natural History has requested that the City of New York remove the statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its front stoop. At a time when mobs in the street have vandalized public monuments across the nation, the museum and the city are engaging in their own act of civic vandalism. (read more…)
Jeffrey A. Kroessler, City Club of New York
The Castle on the Concourse is doomed. Had any other owner of a designated landmark abandoned his property to the elements like this, the Landmarks Preservation Commission would have sued him for “demolition by neglect.” But here the commission is helpless. The owner is the City of New York, and while the city fully expects owners of designated properties – private homeowners, businesses, landlords, or institutions – to adhere to standards set by the LPC, the city exempts itself from any such regulation. In such cases, the Landmarks Commission is only advisory, its pronouncements mere opinion.
