by Jennifer Tiedemann
January 13, 2019
For more than nine decades, the Strand Book Store has been a New York City institution. But could making it a designated city landmark actually put an end to this piece of New York history?
None other than the
Strand’s owner says yes.
In early December, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on a proposal
to make the Strand Building a city landmark. Nancy Bass Wyden—who owns both the
business and the building in which it operates—strongly opposes the city’s
efforts to formally “preserve” the building because, she argues, making the
building a landmark would severely limit her ability to alter, improve, or make
needed repairs to the building without crippling financial costs and a deluge
of red tape.
In a new
video for Reason TV, Wyden likens the city’s push to putting a
“bureaucratic noose” around her family’s business. The Strand is one of the
country’s most famous bookstores (how many bookstores can boast that they have
18 miles of books to peruse?). It’s
been in her family for three generations, and she hopes to pass it along to the
next. But ironically, efforts to preserve the building that the Strand inhabits
may kill the business that made it historic.
That’s because with
landmark status comes more rules and regulations from the city—which are not
only more onerous to navigate, but also more expensive. Should Wyden want to
make any change to the building—even something necessary like repairing a
window—she will have to get approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation
Commission. In a new
op-ed for CNN, Wyden writes that such rules are dislocating to small
businesses—and it could even end up killing hers: “The labyrinthine process for
such approval places a burden that would cost us time and money—as it does
every other small business that is so designated. Maintaining the building
would require hiring landmarking experts, architects and lawyers. This additional
cost, on top of our already thin margins, could very well grind the Strand into
bankruptcy.”
The Landmarks Preservation
Commission will vote next month on whether to designate the Strand Building as
a New York City landmark. Unfortunately for Wyden, she doesn’t have much if any
recourse to fight the Commission should they vote in favor of preserving the
building. “I’ve been told that nobody wins with Landmarks, but I want to fight
them because it’s just so wrong, and so unjust, and so unfair, and we can’t let
them keep running over everybody in their way,” Wyden told Reason.
Wyden’s—and the
Strand’s—plight is a great example of why states should enact stronger private
property rights protections, such as the Goldwater
Institute’s Property Ownership Fairness Act. The Act requires
government to compensate property owners when its regulations undermine
property rights and decrease property values. If the Act were law in New York
State, the city would have to pay Wyden for taking away her right to repair and
improve her property.
The Act is already law
in Arizona—and it’s been used to positive effect. In Tucson, local developer
Mike Goodman bought up run-down buildings near the University of Tucson, with
plans to replace them with upscale housing—much needed in the booming college
town. But after Goodman had acquired all of the necessary permits and begun
construction, the Tucson City Council passed an anti-demolition ordinance that
applied to any building over 45 years old. Goodman took the city to court, and
ultimately, a judge found that the city would have to pay Goodman if it was
going to prohibit him from improving his property. The Act works because it
achieves a smart balance between allowing government officials to stop property
uses that threaten public health or safety while still preventing them from
inflicting costs on property owners when health and safety are not in question.
Obviously, protecting
public health and safety is not an issue when it comes to the Strand—just classic
government overreach (more
than one-quarter of Manhattan buildings are designated landmarks!). An
unelected council of 11 city officials shouldn’t have the power to bury a
nearly-century-old business by stealing its owner’s property rights.
Jennifer Tiedemann is the Deputy Communications Director at the
Goldwater Institute.
