[NYguy]

http://jewishvoiceny.com/index.php?o...ork&Itemid=295

In the final days of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, a more formidable plan to revamp East Midtown, by rezoning a 73-block area so to permit new office towers, had failed primarily due to the objections of Garodnick and the Council.

A revised version of the former grandiose plans are said to be coming to the table in the next few months. Politicians expressed thoughts that the Vanderbilt deal can act as a guide for the modification to this old proposal; stipulations such as developers needing to get Council approval for each building and to complete infrastructure improvements before the new towers can be occupied.

The chair of the zoning subcommittee Queens Democrat councilman Mark Weprin said that New York would fall behind without these sorts of changes.

He said, “This city is an old city when it comes to office buildings. Right now, around the world, there are new, modern office buildings with big high ceilings. And they’re not set up like they were in ‘Mad Men’ anymore, with cubicles in the middle and little offices to the side. People want new, modern office buildings with all the amenities.”