Panel Chooses Zoning 'Option 2' for Downtown Schools
The long, tortuous road to a temporary zoning plan for four Lower Manhattan elementary schools came to an end Wednesday night, with the District 2 Community Education Council’s endorsement of the so-called Option 2. The Council, which has final approval over zoning, voted 6-4 over a competing proposal known as Option 3 Revised (3R).
The vote was hailed by Option 2 proponents, many of whom live just to the south of P.S. 234 in Tribeca and would have been zoned for P.S. 89 across West Street if Option 3 had been adopted. The safety of crossing West Street, as well as other busy streets, had been a focus of contention for both sides.
“I can’t believe we won. I’m so relieved my kids don’t have to cross the highway,” said Anneliese Pfeil of 101 Warren St. For the last two months, she said, she has been trying to motivate hundreds of people by sending emails, circulating petitions and attending meetings. “It’s my first time as an activist so I didn’t know how much work was involved. Now I can focus on my kids.”
“I’m very relieved,” said Grace Flood, a leader of the Option 2 proponents. “It will keep communities together and now we are going to work to try and heal the divisions that have happened because, sincerely, it’s gotten too out of hand.”
But there were no words of healing among dejected Option 3 advocates, many of whom live in eastern Tribeca, parts of the Financial District, the South Street Seaport area and Gateway Plaza in Battery Park City. They denounced the decision as giving preference to several buildings around the Whole Foods building complex.
“What is surprising is that they disregarded everybody’s feeling within Lower Manhattan because of three buildings,” said Grace Fakr, a John Street resident with a child in P.S. 397. “We’ve been working with wonderful people in eastern Tribeca [who will be zoned for P.S. 397] and we welcome them to our community—but they never are in the Seaport.”
“Why am I all of a sudden not part of the Tribeca community?” said an eastern Tribeca mother who did not want to give her name. “I’m not going to send my children to the Downtown Community Center any more. I feel very betrayed by the community.”
It was feelings like these that the principals of the four schools plus Tribeca’s P.S. 150, which is unzoned, had hoped to ease that night. Before the vote was taken, they stood together in the emotionally charged Chelsea school auditorium and took turns addressing the parents.
“Lower Manhattan is a wonderful community that offers a wealth of educational opportunities for all families,” P.S. 89 Principal Ronnie Najjar assured the parents. “It has five exceptional schools, committed leadership and staff and parents who understand how important their involvement and support are to their children’s education.”
Lisa Ripperger, the P.S. 234 principal, reminded the parents that they are now teaching their children how to face conflict. “Tonight is a good place to begin,” she said. “I want you to ask yourselves, when you go home tonight, do you want your children to hear that they are getting to go to a great school or do you want your child to hear that they are getting second best?”
Two weeks earlier, the CEC voted 5-4 for Option 2, but six votes were needed for the plan to pass. Diane Florence, the Council’s 10th member, had been absent for that meeting. On Wednesday night, she cast the deciding vote.
An open 11th seat on the panel, reserved for the parent of an “English language learner,” was to be filled by Janet Roitman, a P.S. 234 parent who lives in the South Street Seaport area. Roitman withdrew her name, citing the “acrimonious climate” around her appointment and the zoning debate.
CEC president T. Elzora Cleveland read her letter to the gathering. “Since the time of my interview, I have been literally accosted by various groups in the Lower Manhattan community,” she wrote, adding, “I found this to be particularly distasteful both for the transgression of my privacy and because my youngest daughter attends P.S. 234.”
Roitman’s withdrawal short-circuited a potentially public dispute among CEC members over a decision to exclude her from voting on the night that she was to become a Council member. It also rendered moot a formal complaint by Foster Maer, an Option 3R supporter and a lawyer, filed with the Department of Education over the CEC’s actions.
Before the vote, some Council members explained their positions. For Eric Greenleaf, a supporter of Option 2, the danger of crossing West Street trumped all other considerations. Lisa Urban, a 3R supporter, said she wasn't discounting safety, but "it's really not our concern." She said she saw P.S. 89 as a Tribeca school—and therefore suitable for residents in the nearby Whole Foods complex—even though it is technically in Battery Park City.
"In Option 2 we are dividing Tribeca right down the middle, which I don't think it appropriate," she said.
Sarah Chu, also an Option 2 proponent, said she feared 3R would overcrowd P.S. 397. "I was ashamed because we haven't talked about overcrowding as a Council, and that's the whole point of this rezoning," she said.
"Community building" was a central theme for many supporters of both options, each claiming the option they opposed removed them from the community from where they lived and belonged.
Council member Mary Silver took issue with that belief. "Communities happen within schools," she said. "It happens," she added, "because of instructional leaders. It happens because of wonderful teachers and it happens because of the magic of your kids."
Looking drained, the CEC members lingered on the stage following their vote, talking to parents and one another. Shino Tanikawa, co-chair of the CEC’s zoning committee who voted for Option 2, said she was taking no pleasure in the outcome.
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“It’s not a triumph,” said Tanikawa, who called this the hardest decision of her life. “It doesn’t feel like an achievement or a success.”
“I’m very relieved to have it done,” said Eric Greenleaf, another zoning committee member. “I think people need that sense of certainty. Now let’s hope they get together and support the schools they are going to.”
By Carl Glassman and Faith Paris