Why Mark Ruffalo and Wendell Pierce Are Fighting for a Crumbling Church
And, more broadly, it represents New York City’s many fraught attempts to balance growth and preservation, a conversation that has become more consequential as the city struggles with a housing shortage and officials hunt for places to put new homes — even luxury ones.
But the entry of Mr. Ruffalo and a number of celebrities — the actor Wendell Pierce, the comedian Amy Schumer, the rapper Common and more — into the fight over the church, more than two decades after it first began, has added an unusual twist to a common city conflict.
Mr. Ruffalo even cornered Mayor Eric Adams at the Tribeca Film Festival this month to plead his case. The meeting led to another more formal one on Thursday with members of City Hall, including the deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force, Maria Torres-Springer, and church leaders, who find it baffling that their quest to destroy the building has turned into a high-profile political melodrama.
All sides agree about the storied history of the church and its architectural significance. The landmarks commission praised the “extraordinarily deep color of its red sandstone cladding” and its “monumental and distinguished presence,” which it said made it “one of the Upper West Side’s most important buildings.” West Park became known in the 1970s and 1980s as an early ally of the antiwar movement and L.G.B.T.Q. people, Mr. Leaf said.
But around the same time, the church became a flashpoint in the city’s real estate battles.
As early as the 1980s, West Park fought against preservationist regulations that would limit how it could use its property, arguing that it should be excluded from a historic district in the neighborhood.
Source: The New York Times
