THE UNDERSIGNED MEMBERS OF THE KIPS BAY AND MURRAY HILL COMMUNITIES HEREBY EXPRESS THEIR PROFOUND OPPOSITION TO THE ELIMINATION OF THE RETAIL OUTLETS ON THE EAST SIDE OF SECOND AVENUE BETWEEN 30TH AND 33RD STREETS.

The retail space (currently with businesses including Fairway Market and AMC Movie Theatres) is intended to be demolished and replaced by YET ANOTHER REDUNDANT new medical building restricted entirely and exclusively for medical use.  Rather than several neighborhood retail stores, there will be one tenant.  All businesses currently operating at this location will be forced to close due to the encroachment of sprawling and underused one-tenant medical buildings.   As a social and consumer anchor for our neighborhood, our retail mall is vital for the health and quality of life for Kips Bay residents. 

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Kips Bay is a vibrant, diverse community home to more than 68,000 New Yorkers, including families with young children, seniors, young professionals, United Nations staff, and healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, personnel) and students (medical, dental, nursing, postdoc).

Our neighborhood offers convenient, wheelchair-, walker-, stroller-accessible services; a committed community spirit; and an accessible quality of life with good schools, supermarkets, shops, restaurants, and entertainment for New Yorkers of all ages.

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The Second Avenue retail space is critical for accessible shopping and services, and anchors our neighborhood.

This new medical building destroys our access to:

●        Fresh Produce and Groceries. Fairway Market is Kips Bay’s only large-scale, wheelchair-accessible supplier of fresh produce and groceries, such as organic and gluten-free items, kosher products, and international foods, in addition to on-site butcher, fishmonger, baker, and cheesemonger services. Loss of this supermarket will have a particularly adverse impact on our most vulnerable members, such as the elderly and neighbors in wheelchairs, who cannot rely on online grocery shopping or cannot easily reach or access alternative stores.

●        Movie Theater. The popular, newly renovated AMC Movie Theatre provides the only locale for cinematic entertainment within a 30-minute walk.

●        Other Retail Outlets. These include a large 24-hour pharmacy (Rite Aid), a paint supply store (Sherwin Williams), and banks (Bank of America, TD Bank). The pharmacy operates outside of normal business hours -- critical to those working hospital night shifts, the paint supply store is unique to the neighborhood, and the banks provide convenience for local residents.

According to a report “New York City’s Neighborhood Grocery Store and Supermarket Shortage,” from the NYC Department of City Planning, NYC Health, and NYC Economic Development Corporation, “supermarkets attract complementary stores and services … residents benefit from lower prices, less travel time, and greater merchandise selection … and increased foot traffic creates walkable neighborhoods and reduces crime.”
 

This new one-tenant medical building will take away our supermarket and movie theatre, force residents to spend and travel more for access to groceries and entertainment, and increase daytime congestion.  Our pedestrian spaces will be turned into parking lots for idling ambulances and the like.  The decrease the neighborhood’s foot traffic and elimination of community "eyes on the street" (especially during evenings, weekends, and holidays) -- will adversely affect the safety and success of our neighbors and neighborhood businesses.

Our community residents have worked hard to increase pedestrian and green spaces at this location.  All this is to be destroyed.  A pattern of increased commercial traffic, and noise and air pollution -- from hundreds of employees, patients, and idling cars and service vans - is already visible at the nearby "Medical City." The adjacent medical center recently opened two high-rise medical buildings on First Avenue with plans to open other medical buildings nearby.   

We want to preserve our real community and residential neighborhood .  Due to the substantial and negative impact of this proposed one-tenant medical building to our community, we ask that you add your signature to the petition below.