On the pursuit of happiness.
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson almost had it right, I think. I’m not convinced that happiness should be the goal in life, and whether I’m right about that or not, I’m not convinced that pursuing it will get you meaningfully closer to it. But what do I know? Nothing about declaring sovereignty from Great Britain, and certainly not via parchment paper.
I had to take a break from this block association for a while for some personal reasons, but with a little time and a little assist from the people who come through for me every time, I’m back now with some not so great news: the community garden idea for the vacant lot on 29th Street & 10th Avenue is currently on the ropes. I spent a fair amount of time digging into the legalities of the situation—which candidly is far more in my wheelhouse than running a block association—and I’m losing faith in the notion that we can get the owners a property tax exemption. Some of you may recall that the tax exemption is critical to the owners allowing us into the lot, and the centerpiece to the whole scheme is the reasoning that if the owners leased the lot to a nonprofit (e.g., Friends of the High Line, Midtown South Community Council) which in turn used the lot for public use, we could get the owners a property tax exemption. The problem with that reasoning is that relatively recent New York case law indicates that the nonprofit must not just be the lessee of the lot but own legal title of the lot in order for the owners to get a property tax exemption. The current owners are not going to transfer legal title of the lot to one of our nonprofit partners, even on some creative non-permanent basis. So that is where things stand right now.
Also, just so everyone on the block is on the same page as to the future of the block, the owners are currently shopping the lot to what I gather are developers.
And so onwards, in whatever direction that is. I will keep you updated on the community garden idea, and I still have a meeting with Friends of the High Line about the lot coming up in later July.
Finally, a few of us are in the beginning stages of trying to plan a block party in late September or early October. More on that later. Happy Fourth/Fifth.
Posts you missed since last time:
