Submitted by Benjamin Hemric, Aug 8, 2007 14:41

I've only been following this story intermittantly over the years, so I may be missing some important information, but it seems to me that it is really in the best interest of New York City to simply assure that the Manhattan street grid (public streets) extend through this site (that is, if the streets are missing because of its previous use by Con Ed) and that the area be zoned to allow for development that would be consistent with the rest of east Midtown (such as the development that has occured just to the west of the U.N.). (Also, a la Jane Jacobs, perhaps the area could use an additional north-south public street , like Beekman Place.) Other than that, why not let the developer do whatever he thinks the market will support? It will be his money on the line.

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