A bipartisan majority of NYC Council members is demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani seize privately owned property in order to save a piece of Manhattan history tied to the Underground Railroad, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
Councilman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) fired off a letter Tuesday to Mamdani signed by 31 other members urging the mayor to work with the Council to use the city\u2019s eminent domain powers to block a proposal to build a 100-foot-high commercial building <\/a>next door to the Merchant\u2019s House Museum in NoHo, where a secret passageway used to smuggle slaves to freedom was discovered in February.<\/p>\n Experts say construction of the planned building will cause irreparable damage to the adjacent city-owned, three-and-a-half-story site\u2014which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the earliest known location of Underground Railroad activity in NYC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city should, as it has done in the past, take the steps necessary to continue preservation of this historic property, especially given its recent discovery as an African American Heritage Site,\u201d said the pols, which also included Speaker and Manhattan Dem Julie Menin and Queens Republican Joann Ariola.<\/p>\n NYC Councilman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) and 31 other Council members are urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to use the city\u2019s eminent domain powers to block a proposal to build a commercial tower next door to the Merchant\u2019s House Museum in NoHo, where a secret passageway used to smuggle slaves to freedom was discovered in February.<\/p>\n Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n The seized property would become NYC\u2019s first \u201cUnderground Railroad Memorial Learning Center,\u201d the pols propose. <\/p>\n NYC and the state have used eminent domain \u2014the government\u2019s right to seize private property for what is considers a public benefit \u2014to drive large-scale infrastructure and economic development like highways, Central Park, Hudson Yards and the Atlantic Yards project<\/a> that included Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center.<\/a><\/p>\n Experts say construction of the planned building will cause irreparable damage to the adjacent city-owned Merchant\u2019s House Museum (right) \u2014which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the earliest known location of Underground Railroad activity in NYC. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n Mamdani is already facing heavy criticism from real estate groups and conservative lawmakers for his Marxist \u201cFix the City\u201d<\/a> plan, which proposes seizing derelict buildings from negligent landlords and transferring ownership to favored \u201ccommunity land trusts\u201d or tenants.<\/p>\n Ariola defended the Council\u2019s plan to use eminent domain.<\/p>\n Councilman Harvey Epstein and Mayor Mamdani. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n \u201cThis is American history being preserved,\u201d the Republican pol told The Post. \u201cOrdinarily, I would be adamantly against the city interfering with private development, but this is one of the rare occasions when I think such action is warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mayor\u2019s Office did not return messages.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Underground Railroad passageway<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 built in 1832 beneath\u00a0a built-in dresser of drawers<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 is the only one in NYC that is accessible to the public, and the second to still exist in the city, aside from the Hopper-Gibbons House on West 29th Street.<\/p>\n Kalodop II Park Corp. wants to demolish a one-story garage it owns at 27 East 4th St. now being used to store food carts. It would be replaced with a nine-story office building that includes ground-floor space likely to be used for a restaurant or art gallery.<\/p>\n Illustration of a proposed commercial building, next to the Merchant\u2019s House Museum.<\/p>\n Since the lot is\u00a0located\u00a0within\u00a0the\u00a0NoHo Historic District Extension<\/a>, which consists of 56 buildings that date back to as far as the 1820s, the Landmarks Preservation Commission must still approve the proposal.<\/p>\n