On April 27, 2016, the New York Daily News ran a front-page headline entitled, “Blaz chose cronies over kids.” The news article described how the de Blasio administration filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of real estate developers who were trying to overturn a lower court decision that imposed stricter lead reduction and noise mitigation requirements on Jewish Home Lifecare’s (JHL’s) proposal to construct a 20-story nursing home on a parking lot on West 97th Street in Park West Village, immediately adjacent to P.S. 163. The lower court’s decision was later overruled by the appellate courts on technical legal grounds.

On October 16, 2018, the Park West community and the children of PS 163 won a significant victory. The Appellate Division, First Department, ruled in favor of a zoning challenge brought by neighborhood residents claiming that there was not enough open space on the proposed site to construct a nursing home or any other building because the nursing home and the property owner were trying to count as open space two rooftop gardens in the luxury 808 Columbus Avenue building that were neither open nor accessible to the residents of the three Park West Village buildings on the same zoning lot. Under the New York City Zoning Resolution, open space is defined as space that is “open” and “accessible” to all persons residing on a zoning lot, and the Appellate Division stated that this “clear and unambiguous” language precluded the nursing home and the property owner from counting the inaccessible roof top gardens as open space for purposes of satisfying the minimum open space requirements for the proposed facility.

On October 17, 2018, Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell wrote a letter to Mayor de Blasio stating that the Appellate Division decision provided much-needed relief to the community which had passionately opposed the construction of the nursing home on the grounds that it would expose seniors and children to unnecessary risks from toxic levels of lead, and exacerbate traffic congestion and impede emergency response time. On November 1, 2018, Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council Member Mark Levine wrote a letter to the New York City Corporation Counsel, Zachary Carter, urging him not to appeal the Appellate Division decision on the grounds that sound public policy required that the maximum amount of open space on a lot be accessible to the maximum number of residents, and that the community strongly opposed the project.

Notwithstanding the powerful reasons advanced by our elected officials to refrain from filing an appeal, the Corporation Counsel did the opposite and filed a motion for permission to appeal the case to the state’s highest court, the NY State Court of Appeals. The Corporation Counsel parroted the same bogus arguments made by the nursing home and the property owner that the Court’s decision would have a harmful effect on real estate development in general, including residential developments, affordable housing units, and existing housing stock. It is clear that the primary purpose of this filing was to enable the mayor to throw his support for the real estate industry against a decision that benefitted the Park West Community and PS 163. A sad reminder that once again, “Blaz chose cronies over kids.”

Concerned parents and neighbors should call 311 and tell Mayor de Blasio to stop this dangerous project. 

​One of the justifications that JHL has given for its proposed 20-story tower on the West 97th Street Parking lot of Park West Village is that it would be the first example of the Green House (GH) model in an urban environment. There are two major problems, among others, with the proposal.
 
First, among national “small house” models, GH is significantly inflexible and its small number of residents per household severely limits reimbursement, which in turn limits staffing. The proposed plan eliminates RNs on the floor,and, in fact, limits all staff with the exception of two aides who would be responsible for cooking, housekeeping, and laundry – in addition to care of the nursing home residents. And it would have only one aide at night. GH is known all over the country for not offering activities– neither meaningful nor meaningless activities – since there simply is not sufficient staff. 
 
Secondly, one main goal of the original Green House model was to give residents the opportunity to participate in local community life, to socialize with other community members and enjoy the outdoors to the maximum possible. By locating frail, elderly residents on the upper floors of a 20-story tower, it is highly unlikely that these residents would have the opportunity to participate in local lifewhen they must wait long periods to get on an elevator.
 
In contrast, on its large existing West 106th Street property, JHL could build two interconnected 8-story wings of a nursing home.The frailest residents could be located on the lowest floors so they would be able to see street life and be accompanied outdoors. Short-stay rehabilitation individuals could occupy upper floors. And on street level, there could be a performing arts center so nursing home residents and their families and neighbors could enjoy plays, concerts, films, and lectures. The facility could become a cultural hub for nursing home and community residents – and show how a committed lower-rise urban nursing home could lead in developing a replicable national model.

JHL’s proposed 20-story New Jewish Home on the West97th Street parking lot of Park West Village presents significant concerns for the quality of life and safety of the frail, elderly people who would reside there.
 
As for quality of life, JHL’s plan would placetheir frailest, long-stay residents on top floors, while allocating rooms on lower floors for people requiring short-stay rehabilitation services. This would have the effect of severing street-level connections for resident likely to spend the rest of their lives in the high-rise tower, while allowingthose who would stay for only a month or two to with easy access to the normalcy of street-level life.
 
As for safety, there is neither a plan nor possibility of evacuation of the tower in the event of a fire or natural disaster. Fire experts have stated that elderly residents in nursing homes are at risk of dying from smoke inhalation. Evacuation from a 20-story tower is problematic when elderly residents are housed on top floors. And JHL’s proposed location is already on a heavily congested block, which takes ambulances and fire trucks as much as threetraffic light rotations to travel just the one block between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.
 
Manhattan is severely under-bedded in nursing home beds for people needing long-stay skilled nursing residential services, and the Upper West Side does need a nursing home. Despite this, as its response to the recommendations of the Berger Commission (2006), JHL proposed and the NY State Dept. of Health approved a reduction of 100 beds, or approximately 20 percent of JHL’s current capacity, for the proposed location.
 
JHL’scurrent building on West106th Street has deteriorated. But thatlocation, containing 2.5 acres on a wide street, allows for a lower building that would be safer for its residents, without the traffic and safetyissues at West 97thStreet. That is why it should be rebuilt on 106th Street – as originally approved by the State Health Department in 2008.

​In a New York Times op-ed piece (October 3, 2018), Philip Landrigan, the director of the Global Public Health Initiative at Boston College, and Lynn R. Goldman, the dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, warn of the dangers to children’s health by the decision of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to place the director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection on “administrative leave” – a  signal that the EPA may close the Office of Children’s Health Protection.
 
These events are significant for the children of the Park West Village neighborhood because the proposed construction of a 20-story nursing tower on the West 97th Street parking lot by Jewish Home Lifecare, next to P.S. 163, would unleash toxic airborne dust containing lead, mercury, arsenic, barium, and other volatile chemicals. The New York State Department of Health, in its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project, stated, “The most likely routes of human exposure from the hazardous materials evaluated would occur during construction and would include the inhalation of VOCs [volatile organic compounds], the ingestion of particulate matter containing SVOCs [semi-volatile organic compounds] or metals or dermal (skin) contact with hazardous materials that can be released during soil-disturbing activities, such as excavation of soil and extraction of groundwater.” According to Landrigan and Goldman, “Exposure to chemicals is linked to a wide array of pediatric diseases. Lead and mercury can cause brain damage with loss of intelligence.”
 
The State Health Department found that although there were places on the proposed site where lead levels did exceed acceptable soil cleanup objectives, under current federal EPA standards these levels did not indicate a “soil-lead hazard.” However, a federal appeals court has ruled that the EPA’s dust-lead hazard standard is outdated and has ordered the EPA to update it. The court noted that in 2012 the federal Centers for Disease Control acknowledged that there is no known safe blood lead level and recommended a target amount that was half the EPA target amount to trigger a public health concern. To date, the EPA has not only failed to update the dust-lead standard but may be considering closing the Office of Children’s Health Protection and has eliminated the Office of Science Advisor.
 
The airborne dust from the proposed construction of the nursing home would enter P.S. 163 and the nearby Chabad Learning Center, as well as the surrounding buildings on West 97th Street and in Park West Village. The Remedial Action Plan ordered by the State Health Department imposes strict safety requirements for the workers on the proposed site, but for everyone else attending school or living in the area simply requires that “water will be available (and used as necessary) for sprinkling/wetting, to suppress dust, especially in dry weather.” This totally inadequate form of protection from airborne lead dust is an example of the way in which the State Health Department has ignored the concerns of the parents and children and neighbors of the Park West neighborhood regarding the hazards arising from the proposed construction of the nursing home.

A recent construction accident at the Javits Center on September 11, 2018, illustrates one of the many possible dangers children and staff at P.S. 163 would face during the proposed construction of a 20-story nursing home tower by Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) on the West 97th Street parking lot directly next to the school. At Javits, two large steel beams fell from a construction crane and penetrated the “protective” sidewalk shed below. Although no one was injured, other crane accidents in New York City have resulted in deaths, injuries and major property damage. 
        
JHL’s proposed 20-story tower would rise 230 feet, and beams or other debris falling from the construction crane or the tower itself could easily penetrate the roof of PS 163 next door, causing significant damage to the school building and anyone in its path. In addition, standing cranes used to construct such towers have long swing arms to deliver heavy building materials to any locale on the site and must, under local law, be turned loose to pivot like a weathervane when winds reach 30 MPH or more. In the event of a hurricane or severe nor’easter, the arm at the top of the crane would swing over the school and surrounding residential buildings, placing the school, the residential buildings, and those inside in extreme danger if the crane were to collapse in high winds.
        
Construction of the proposed nursing home tower is planned to take three years. Were construction to go ahead, steel beams would be pounded around the perimeter of the site to brace the cement walls of the foundation after excavation. During the construction period, children and teachers at PS 163 would be subjected to a cacophony of deafening blasting, pile driving, jack hammering and riveting of the building’s steel superstructure. Excavation of the proposed site would expose schoolchildren and the entire neighborhood to ambient lead dust and other toxic substances that have been identified in the West 97th Street parking lot. Children at P.S. 163, many of whom live in public housing, have already been exposed to high levels of lead contamination and suffer from high rates of asthma. The proposed construction would cause severe health problems for those most vulnerable – children being particularly susceptible.    
 
Concerned parents, teachers and neighbors should voice their concerns to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has the ability to direct the New York State Health Commissioner not to approve the proposed project; to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has the ability to direct the New York City Buildings Department not to approve a building permit for the proposed tower; and to Richard Carranza, the New York City Schools Chancellor, to use the power of his office to stop this dangerous project for the sake of the children, school staff and the entire neighborhood.

A group of Park West residents recently had three meetings with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s staff to express strong objections to Jewish Home Lifecare’s (JHL) proposed 20-story nursing tower directly next to the P.S. 163 elementary school on West 97th Street. Soil in the proposed site has been tested and is proven to contain dangerous levels of lead and other toxins. Deafening noise, toxic dust, and traffic congestion from proposed construction (projected to take 3+ years) would create major health problems for school children and the community.  
            
The site on the West 97th Street parking lot of Park West Village is narrow. To make it profitable, the proposed building would need to be a high-rise, which is bad for nursing home residents with limited mobility who cannot get outside often or easily, and in case of fire or natural disaster would be trapped inside to die. There are better, safer alternatives to building on this site, but JHL has so far refused to return to its original plan to build a new facility at its present location on West 106th Street, which was approved by the NY State Department of Health in 2008.
 
The meetings with the Governor’s representatives took place on March 28, 2018 at the Ryan Center; on May 9, 2018 at the Westgate Community Room; and on June 26, 2018 at the Governor’s Midtown Manhattan Midtown office. Park West neighborhood residents were represented by Dean Heitner, Catherine Unsino, Hillel Hoffman, Gerald Sider, Winifred Armstrong, Jean Dorsey, Juliette Leak, Edward Garelick, Emily Margolis and the late Martin Rosenblatt. Representing the Governor were David Turley, Director of Constituent Affairs; Ryan Naples, Legal Counsel; Megan Baldwin, Assistant Secretary for Health Care; Venetia Lannon, Deputy Secretary for Environmental Affairs, liaison to the State Department of Environmental Conservation; Aries Dela Cruz, Manhattan Regional Representative; Matthew Rubin, a campaign aide and Lilly Faulk, an intern. Shana Harongoff and Neil Reilly attended on behalf of Senator Brian Benjamin, who helped arrange the meetings.
 
At the three meetings, the Park West residents outlined multiple reasons why the construction of the proposed nursing home would be a threat to the community and a threat to the residents of the facility. They also presented a more enlightened and humane alternative.
 
The residents made it clear at the outset that the Park West community is not opposed to JHL as an organization, but opposed only to its plan to build a 20-story nursing tower on West 97th Street. Construction on the site would release lead, arsenic, asbestos, and other toxins in the air. Medical experts agree that there is no safe level of lead – a toxin that would be particularly harmful to the children attending P.S. 163, many of whom live in the Frederick Douglass Houses and already suffer from high asthma rates. The standards for ambient lead which the NY State Department of Health relied upon to approve remediation of the proposed site are outdated and need to be replaced by the more stringent standards recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) scientific advisors and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
 
The proposed facility would pose a danger to the community and the area’s large pedestrian population because it would increase traffic congestion and air pollution in the already dangerously overburdened West 97th Street corridor, and further delay emergency response times to the neighborhood. In addition, in violation of the State Hospital Code, the proposed facility does not include its own access road for service vehicles; instead, it would share a driveway with the residential building, 784 Columbus Avenue, impeding emergency response to that building. A traffic study by professional traffic engineer Robert Chamberlin of Resource Systems Group noted the conflict between vehicles and pedestrians in the proposed shared driveway. Chamberlin also warned of the dangers of particulate matter that would blanket the community due to increased congestion and idling vehicles.
 
The proposed facility would pose a danger to the tower’s elderly residents who would be trapped on high floors in the event of fire or other emergency. Heat-generating appliances are a major cause of fires in nursing homes, and the design of the proposed facility would exacerbate the risk of fires because each floor would have a kitchen. Among many other design flaws, only one bathtub has been planned for the 414 people who would reside there. The height of the building would create an island of misery for its frail residents who would have no opportunity to engage with the surrounding community. Constructing a lower rise nursing home at JHL’s present West 106th Street site, accompanied by a performing arts center which could provide concerts, plays, films, and lectures for residents and the community, is a much safer, humane alternative.  
 
At 20 stories, the proposed facility is the wrong footprint for a “Greenhouse” model nursing home because its elderly residents would be deprived of the ease of access enjoyed at other “Greenhouse” nursing homes – a model specifically conceived as one or two stories. Further, it would be a backwards step for elder care if the proposed high-rise 20-story tower became a prototype for nursing homes nationwide. Other preferable small models are safer in design, with superior staffing levels compared with the extremely lean staffing numbers proposed by JHL for this project. The Governor’s representative noted these objections and but stated that the proposed nursing home design had already been approved by the State.
 
At each meeting, the Governor’s representatives stated that they would study the objections made by the Park West residents and respond to them. At the June 26th meeting at the Governor’s Office, the Deputy Secretary for the Environment read a response from JHL attorneys outlining the measures that would be implemented to reduce noise levels and exposure to lead dust at P.S. 163, were the project to go forward. She also outlined measures that would be implemented at the site to reduce noise levels and remediate the removal of toxic waste during construction. 
 
Park West residents objected that proposed measures do not go nearly far enough to eliminate the health and safety hazards proposed construction would impose, and that there is no enforcement mechanism to insure compliance with the proposed measures: no protective tent would be erected to protect the community from windblown toxic dust. They also noted that the proposed measures accept the proposed nursing home as a given whereas the Park West community and the wider community, as well as many of the community’s elected officials, advocate for the nursing home to remain on West 106th Street.
 
The Governor’s Office has yet to respond to the proposal that West 106th Street would be a better site for a more humane, low-rise nursing home facility, accompanied by a preforming arts center, that would benefit both nursing home residents and the community. One of the Governor’s representatives stated that nothing would be done until a decision was rendered by the Appellate Division, First Department, in a zoning challenge that was brought by fifteen members of the Park West community. A decision has been pending since November 2017.
            
The Governor is represented by the same law firm that represents Jewish Home Lifecare: Greenberg Traurig, Esqs. 
 
Mayor de Blasio is represented by the same law firm that represents Joseph Chetrit, the developer who plans to swap the West 97thStreet Park West Village parking lot for the entire JHL site on West 106th Street: Kramer, Levin, Esqs.
            
Little wonder that the community has not yet heard from the Governor or the Mayor whether either of them plans to intervene and convince Jewish Home Lifecare to remain at its present location, thereby obviating all the harm that JHL would cause its elderly residents, the Park West community, and P.S. 163 schoolchildren by building its proposed 20-story tower on West 97thStreet. The Park West residents await further responses from the Governor’s Office.