{"id":302651,"date":"2026-07-22T09:06:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302651\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:06:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:06:55","slug":"west-park-churchs-hardship-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302651\/","title":{"rendered":"West Park church’s hardship is real"},"content":{"rendered":"

In New York City, we often speak about social justice as an aspiration. At West Park Presbyterian Church<\/a> on the Upper West Side, it had long been a daily practice.<\/p>\n

For decades, West Park and other churches in the Presbytery of New York City have served vulnerable New Yorkers through food assistance, immigrant support, housing partnerships, education programs, and outreach to those facing poverty and isolation.<\/p>\n

When its building was landmarked in 2010 with promises of funding that never materialized, the burden fell onto the shoulders of the congregation. This obligation has reduced its membership to a handful of members and driven it deeply into debt. And for the past five years, the church has been trapped in an exhausting and deeply expensive process before the Landmarks Preservation Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

West Park has asked LPC to grant a hardship that would enable it to sell a crumbling building it can no longer afford to maintain to a developer that would build new worship and community space for the church on the site. In addition, the bulk of the proceeds from the sale would endow the West Park Presbyterian Church Social Justice Fund<\/a> under the auspices of the Presbytery of NYC<\/a>. This $25-30 million endowment could dramatically expand programs that Presbyterian churches in the five boroughs provide today.<\/p>\n

Now, after years of study, analysis, hearings and public debate, the facts are abundantly clear \u2014 the church has made its case for a hardship. On May 5, the Landmarks Preservation Commission\u2019s own independent consultants confirmed that it would cost millions of dollars the church does not have to restore its building to a safe condition, and tens of millions to make it suitable for use by others. The conclusion by one independent consultant, Weitzman Real Estate Consultants, could not have been more direct:<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on our review of the submitted materials to date and our expertise in the underwriting of development and re-development opportunities in Manhattan, New York City and beyond, it is our opinion that the [church\u2019s] calculations and analyses \u2026 are reasonable and supported by market conditions and underwriting standards that are present in the market as of the date of submission.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been public officials, an arts group, and even celebrities who have spoken out in opposition to the hardship application. They have prepared misleading reports and hired expensive lawyers to support their efforts. But they all have one thing in common: none of them have any connection to the church or the building, or any responsibility for its upkeep.<\/p>\n

This is not a debate about whether preservation matters \u2014 it does. New York\u2019s architectural history is important and worthy of thoughtful stewardship. But landmark law was never intended to force a congregation into perpetual financial distress while preventing it from carrying out its mission. That is precisely why the hardship provision exists.<\/p>\n

At a moment when nonprofits and faith-based organizations across New York are struggling to meet growing needs amid rising costs, the city should not be standing in the way of one of the most significant faith-driven social justice investments proposed in years.<\/p>\n

It is time to move forward and let the church and the Presbytery return their focus to where it belongs: serving the people of New York City.<\/p>\n

Newbern-Williams is the transitional presbyter, Presbytery of New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In New York City, we often speak about social justice as an aspiration. At West Park Presbyterian Church…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,299],"class_list":["post-302651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}