West 50s

The West 50s — extending roughly from Fifth Avenue to Broadway and from Central Park South — is an area remarkable for its concentration of Gilded Age landmarks and for its evolution into a growing residential neighborhood.

Much of the area's heritage centers around its most well-known buildings, Carnegie Hall, New York City Center, and the Plaza Hotel. Carnegie Hall has, of course, showcased the world's finest musicians. Many of the classical pianists who have performed there have passed through the 81-year-old Steinway Hall on West 57th Street, where they select their concert pianos from one of 300 in the landmarked building's basement "piano bank."

New York City Center, 150 feet away from Carnegie Hall, has twice been saved from demolition — once when it was spared by Mayor LaGuardia and converted into a performing arts space, and again in the 1970s, after the New York City Opera and New York City Ballet moved to Lincoln Center. Today, it is the city's premiere home for dance, and as a landmarked building, safe from the wrecking ball.

The Plaza Hotel, meanwhile, is famous for its high teas and its guest list of celebrities and foreign dignitaries, though its current conversion to include condominiums is emblematic of the growing residential presence.

Council Member Garodnick is closely involved in this process, holding meetings between businesses and residents to open the lines of communication between them and to address noise and other quality of life issues on behalf of the neighborhood's residents.

Council Member Garodnick is also a leader in the effort to preserve buildings of historical importance, and actively seeking to protect the character of neighborhoods like this one throughout the district.

Joining with other elected officials, Council Member Garodnick also has been at the front of the fight against "illegal hotels." This is the practice of landlords renting out apartments as hotel rooms to unsuspecting tourists — an activity that reduces the city's already-strained affordable housing stock and poaches the legitimate tourism industry. The problem, which is worst in Midtown, requires changes to City and State law, and Council Member Garodnick has advocated for sweeping reform.