Road To Get NYC Historic Landmark Status Hits Roadblock

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - The long road to get historic landmark status is about to hit a roadblock for close to 100 sites in New York City.

As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the famous Queens Pepsi Cola sign hits the spot for many New Yorkers, but it's not a city historic landmark.

"It's one of the things you see on the east side, of course it should," Lower East Side resident Joseph Myska said.

The sign is up for consideration with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, or LPC, and likely not for much longer. The LPC is poised to scratch it from the master list for possible designation along with 95 other sites.

"I think they should be protected," Williamsburg resident Middalia Torres said.

Preservationist Simeon Bankoff says it stalls the landmark status hopes for the Bergdorf Goodman building and Union Square Park and others, including lesser-known properties like one on Oliver Street in Lower Manhattan.

"These buildings already have a headstart. Why are they kicking them off?" Bankoff said.

Bankoff says instead of sweeping a chunk of the backlog away, the city should give each landmark wannabe a thumbs up or thumbs down.

"It's 96 sites. You could probably do, let's say, a dozen of them at every public meeting and get this over with in six months," Bankoff said.

But LPC Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan says it's time to take the properties out of limbo; some have been clogging the system for half a century.

"By removing the backlog, we can actually focus on our properties right now," she said.

"We're here and now protecting 31,000 properties so we're talking about a handful that we're taking off our list," she added.

The chairwoman says nothing is stopping people from filing on behalf of the properties again, but some worry about what might happen in the meantime.

"Demolition is forever. Once the building is gone the conversation ends," Bankoff said.

The Commission votes on this at a hearing on Dec. 9.

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