Sam Levin

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, with dozens of officials around him, announcing new NYU partnership.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, surrounded by around 30 officials -- electeds, reps from his administration, university partners, and more -- announced yesterday that New York City would be partnering with New York University to create an applied sciences center in downtown Brooklyn.

It was such an important, exciting, win-win-win announcement that 14 people had to speak about it (y'know, it's good for New York City, it's good for Brooklyn, it's good for engineers and innovators, it's good for people looking for jobs. Everyone wins).

The ridiculousness of so many folks wanting in on the press conference was not totally lost on the mayor.

"You can always tell whether something's important by how many people want to participate in the announcement," the mayor said, as a host of local pols, university people, and other somehow relevant leaders tried to organize themselves behind Bloomberg for the start of the press conference. "My vague recollection is when we wanted to ban smoking in public places, I stood there..."

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via NYU 2031

As the 2013 mayoral elections near, the expected candidates are looking to build platforms through the work in their current jobs. For Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn -- who will likely go up against each other in the race to replace Mayor Mike Bloomberg -- the controversial expansion of New York University in the Village is one opportunity to influence a development issue that will impact the city for decades and beyond.

But Quinn's not quite ready to talk about it yet.

This week, Scott Stringer, standing beside NYU President John Sexton, announced his support of a scaled-back version of NYU's two-decade expansion in Greenwich Village, pushing the project one step forward in the lengthy review process mandated by the city.

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via NYU 2031

No one's going to get exactly what they want. But that's the essence of compromise!

This was part of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's message today when he officially announced his support for a scaled-back version of the controversial 20-year expansion plan for New York University.

This latest news is part of an ongoing urban development saga where not-in-my-backyard advocates have clashed dramatically with a powerful university that hopes to grow in the Village, its homebase neighborhood. Elected officials like Stringer have been caught in the middle of the fight, forced to navigate competing interests of preservation, development, and education. For the borough president, who is expected to run for mayor in 2013, taking a stance on NYU is more than an opportunity to influence a project that could fundamentally change the Village -- it's also a chance to start building a platform for his bid to replace Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

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In an editorial published in today's paper, the New York Times throws its weight behind NYU's controversial expansion plan, saying that the project's opponents have "mostly overreacted." Although the paper does honor some criticisms of the plan, their ultimate point is broad. "N.Y.U., along with other great educational institutions in New York, like Columbia, needs to expand," the Times wrote. "It's good for the entire city, and it's inevitable." Runnin' Scared reached out to Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has fought against the plan. Berman said that the editorial "ignores some of the basic facts."

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It was a given that NYU's expansion plan would create a commotion -- any proposal cramming 2.4 million square feet, which is about equal to the size the Empire State Building, into a six-block radius will have that effect. The Manhattan Community Board, a collection of citizens from the neighborhoods that make up NYU's core, has already made its opposition to the proposed towers clear ("Flowers Not Towers," for example, is a key slogan). But the decision to construct four high-rises, underground space and an array of "superblocks" below Washington Square Park might be out of their hands.

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NYU wants to add an expansion to the existing Metrotech campus. There are some new renderings of what the above might look like. Drumroll please: it's going to look like a big glass tower thing. Two possibilities:

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Every year, NYU hosts a Halloween children's parade in conjunction with Manhattan Community Board 2. This year they're holding a contest to design the parade's official tote bag. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), sworn enemies of NYU's massive 2031 expansion plan, have made a submission to the contest and called upon others to do the same. Behold:

GVSHP

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NYU-hating village preservationists will probably be celebrating today. The real-estate-hungry university has announced it will withdraw its application to build a planned 400-foot-tall tower in the Silver Towers complex at Bleecker and West Houston streets that was planned to include a dorm and hotel.

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John Sexton, the president of NYU, cares what Villagers think. During a town hall meeting for NYU students held yesterday, he answered our question, "How do you feel about animosity you face from Villagers about NYU expansion?" with an eight-minute-long response.

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NYU unveiled a major part of their "NYU: 2031" expansion plan this week. The plans loosely detail the construction of a 400-foot tall dorm and hotel as part of the Silver Towers complex at Bleecker and West Houston.

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