City Council Foes Argue At Rally To Stop Tallest Development On Upper West Side

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — What was supposed to be a unified rally against the tallest development on the Upper West Side turned into an awkward political squabble Tuesday, as City Council foes Helen Rosenthal and Mel Wymore engaged in an argument over who had the right to speak.

In the end, Rosenthal barred the challenger for her seat on the city council from speaking, claiming that because her office organized the rally she had full control over the list of speakers.

"This event was planned by my office, along with the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, to announce the filing of the zoning challenge to the proposed building at 200 Amsterdam," Rosenthal told Patch in a statement. "The list of speakers was discussed and decided by my office and the Committee the night before the event."

But Wymore contends that he did more to organize the rally, originally intended to be non-political, including securing the sound permit and police protection, a spokesman for Wymore's campaign told Patch. The spokesman told Patch that Wymore was included on the original speaker list for the rally.

Organizations such as Landmark West and the Committee for Environmentally Responsible Development also had a hand in planning the rally on the condition that it would be a neutral event which didn't favor either candidate, Wymore's spokesman said.

"Yesterday morning, we organized a collaborative, non-political event to stand up for our neighborhood. When we divide ourselves and exclude community voices for political reasons, we throw away our power as a community," Wymore told Patch in a statement.

Many Upper West Siders have balked at the 200 Amsterdam Avenue development due to its sheer size. The proposed 668-foot tall building, with more than 350,000 square footage, would be the tallest building on the Upper West Side.

The development has cleared all required approvals from the Department of Buildings, so the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development has filed a zoning challenge against the development. The challenge argues that the development in noncompliant with city zoning resolution because its 110,794-square-foot zoning has been gerrymandered to cover five different tax lots on West End Avenue.

Photo by Google Maps street view.