The Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. Photo: Ashwaq Masoodi.

Imagine lounging in a posh Manhattan hotel room while listening to vinyl records on a vintage turntable, or soaking in a warm bath while watching a movie on the bathroom’s flat screen TV. Guests who forget their laptops at home can even find an iPad in the room to use during their stay.

With the busy holiday season in full swing, Manhattan luxury hotels are offering a wide range of guest services.

Be it a legendary skyscraper or a new edgy, avant-garde hotel, the lodging industry is spending more money on luxury amenities and gadgetry. “Hotels have to keep pace with technology. Different amenities are expected at different levels. A luxury hotel customer expects different things than a budget hotel client,” said Cheryl Boyer, president Lodging Advisors LLC, a New York-based hospitality consultant firm. “The increase in the amenities is carefully scrutinized.”

A study released in September 2012 estimated that hoteliers will be spend almost $5 billion this year, which is the most since 2008, when spending topped $ 5.5 billion. The survey, by Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, noted that capital expenditures by hotels primarily went to improved guest amenities and services.

“The hotel companies have been patient, with the owners recognizing that they were suffering,” said Hanson. “The bad phase has passed and most owners are able to fund the required improvement and upgrading.”

Hanson, a hospitality and travel industry researcher, said that hotel occupancy dipped from 59.8 percent to 54.6 percent immediately after the recession, but that numbers are now on the rise. Statista, an online statistics portal, projects the 2012 occupancy rate of U.S. hospitality industry to be 61.5 percent.

To attract more customers and to cater to their increasing expectations, several hotels, since 2008, have introduced features like room iPads, redesigned lobbies, hi-tech fitness facilities, and newer and fancier brands of toiletries, like Asprey, Malin & Goetz, Tuscan Soul, Kiehl and Cowshed.

“The guests have become more and more tech-savvy. Their expectations are higher than they were, a few years back,” said Four Seasons public relations director Tiffani Cailor.

The Four Seasons, on 57th Street, offers fitness facilities, including a spa and steam baths. For those on a business trip, the hotel offers translation and interpretation service in the room, and is considering adding in-room iPads to their list of amenities, as the 100-year-old Plaza Hotel already has. The Four Seasons has already introduced several “memorable amenities” for their family travelers.

“We click a picture of the child during check-in and then we stick it to a postcard and send it to whoever the child wants to send it to,” said Cailor.

The hotel has also introduced age-appropriate amenities like “I love NY” tees or special cookies for children.

Jeff Leeds, editor-in-chief of Hollywood-based Buzzmedia Music, often stays at the Ace Hotel when he comes to New York, where he found a guitar placed on a stand in his room on his first visit. Hotel rooms also have vintage furniture and turntables for retro lovers.

“The hotel has unusual touches,” Leeds said. “The bar is very active and pretty sophisticated. I liked the hotel stylistically.”

The average daily rates for a luxury hotel room range from $300 to  $4,000 per day, depending upon whether the accommodation is a standard room, a family room or a suite.  Legendary hotels like The Roosevelt, which opened in 1924, on  45^th Street, have been renovated and redesigned to enhance their allure.

“In 2009, we opened Mad46, a rooftop bar and a billiard room. We are redesigning our rooms while keeping in mind the legendary look that we have,” said Jennifer Gillespie of The Roosevelt.

“We haven’t added anything specific but we have replaced items like bathroom amenities, soaps, shampoos, creams and are working on new vendor relationship,” said Patrick Roy, The Ritz Carlton Director of Sales and Marketing.

The Plaza, which since 2008 has had two new owners and has turned some of its space into residences, introduced a European-inspired specialty food hall in 2010.

Known for its legendary afternoon tea, The Plaza started a new tea service in the Palm Court, in November, to honor one of its most important patrons, author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The hotel, famed as the home of “Eloise,” the fictional character from the 1950s children’s books, has also opened an “Eloise Rawther sweet shop.”

Neighborhood in flux: Fulton Houses residents — surrounded by luxury condominiums, hotels, the High Line Park and Chelsea Piers — worry about being priced out the area. Photo: Mei-Yu Liu.

A single question comes up everywhere in Midtown West: Who gets to live here? The $15 billion Hudson Yards development project will turn a railroad storage area into a 26-acre complex of offices and residential skyscrapers, and that, in turn, will change the lives of the neighborhood’s residents. But that’s only the most visible project in a fast moving, continuously transforming Manhattan neighborhood.

From the Hudson River to Fifth Avenue, from 14^th Street to 66^th Street, Midtown Gazette reporters cover a wide range of stories – education, religion, real estate, business and economics, the arts, or simply daily life. No matter what the story, the dynamic is the same: Everything’s in flux, whether it’s the impact of Google’s new building on a little Puerto Rican restaurant a block away or West Clinton’s zoning grid.

Major transformation in the area started about 20 years ago, but the pace in Times Square, Chelsea, and the Garment and Theater Districts has picked up over the last few years. From the 1960’s until the early 1990’s, the Times Square area reaching from 42^nd Street to 47^th Street and spanning Broadway and Sixth Avenue, was a center of crime and prostitution; today, two- and three-star hotels overshadow the small, cheap hotels that used to dot the landscape.

And Hell’s Kitchen, between 59^th Street and 34^th Street and Eighth Avenue and the Hudson River, is becoming a trendy destination, but was once a poor working class neighborhood, one of the film locations for the musical “West Side Story.”

The neighborhood began to change when Rudy Giuliani, New York City’s mayor from 1994 until 2002, came into office, as Midtown West’s once poor and dangerous neighborhoods were slowly reshaped with an eye toward security and improved quality of life. With the construction of high-end buildings and the implementation of increased safety measures, the neighborhood began to change.

The onset of urban development in Midtown West also attracted wealthier residents looking for the next real estate frontier – and today, some of the most expensive residences in Manhattan are located in the area, including One57 Condominium Residences, which will be the tallest residential building in New York City.

But these rapid changes have made it harder for some of Midtown West’s residents to stay. “The dynamic works like this: One neighborhood becomes hot, so many businesses move there. After some time, prices are raised, it becomes too expensive, so they move away again,” said Aaron Gavios, the 53-year old Vice President and general Partner of Square Foot Realty, a retail listing firm in Hell’s Kitchen, who has lived in New York all his life. Long-time tenants – from public housing residents to exclusive art galleries – wonder how long they’ll be able to stay where they are. The Ali Forney Center, a homeless LGBT youth shelter in Chelsea, has already announced that it will relocate to Harlem because of rent increases over the last seven years.

No one’s immune to the effects of gentrification. Not even the physical landscape will stay the same – far beyond Hudson Yards, increased rents and sale prices, redrawn zoning lines, and ongoing architectural landmark debates guarantee only one thing, that Midtown West will not be the same place in five years that it is today. In this special edition, the Midtown Gazette staff takes a comprehensive look at what’s in play.

Here are the links to the other stories:

Renewed Attempts to Preserve “New York’s Temple of Power”

CB4 Launches Community Job Site

New Year Brings Changes for Library’s Main Branch

Will This Area Catholic School Be Saved?

Midtown Traditions

Finding God in Midtown

Vulnerable Pets Find Helping Hands

Upscale Consignment Shops Sprout Up in Chelsea

Contributors include Kamakshi Ayyar, Anna Cooperberg, Qi Chen, Morgan Davis, Emmanuel Felton, Mei-Yu Liu, Ashwaq Masoodi, Gregory Moomjy, Stephanie Ott, N.G. Onuoha, David Palacio, Valerie Prassl, Simone Scully, Claire Stern and Annie Zak and Digital Media Fellow Carmel DeAmicis.

The Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Powerhouse occupies an entire block on the city’s West Side. Photo: Kamakshi Ayyar.

Take a walk west on 59th Street, toward the Hudson River, and you will end up face to face with one of the most important buildings in New York City’s history. Situated between Eleventh and Twelfth avenues and occupying an entire city block, the legendary Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Powerhouse sits majestically amid a mix of glass high rises and vacant plots, next door to John Jay College.

Earlier this year, the Preservation League of New York State added the Powerhouse to its annual Seven to Save list of the state’s most threatened historic resources, to draw attention to a building that has been up for landmark status three times since 1979, with multiple attempts falling through due to opposition from its present owner, Consolidated Edison (Con Ed). In the past, a Seven to Save designation has helped to protect several buildings, including the Montauk Manor on Long Island.

The 1904 building, designed by legendary architect Stanford White of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, was used to power the city’s first subway system, which began running in the same year. The firm has designed several other notable buildings such as the New York Public Library, the Manhattan Municipal Building and Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus. The Powerhouse’s Beaux-Arts style of architecture, with high arched windows and characteristic flat roofs, is reminiscent of several other buildings that were part of the early 20^th century City Beautiful movement, which was based on the idea that public buildings should enhance a city’s beauty and order.

With advances in technology, the building was no longer needed to power the subways, so in the 1950s the city handed it over to Con Ed, which uses it today to supply steam to about 1,700 private customers south of 96^th Street, including large apartment building complexes like Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, as well as the Empire State Building and Grand Central Station, both landmarks themselves.

According to Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the building’s status is still under consideration. “We held a hearing on a proposal to landmark the building on July 14, 2009,” she said. Technically, there has been no delay because there are no mandated deadlines by which a vote must be taken after a hearing is held. Although it is not unusual for a vote not to be taken immediately after a hearing, there was also a change in the Commission members, which required a re-hearing of the testimonials given at earlier hearings.

“You should keep in mind, that before designation, our staff compiles a detailed report on the building or district in question, which is a very labor and research intensive undertaking,” said de Bourbon. The Commission has a busy calendar with designations in the works for more than 3,000 properties throughout all five boroughs. For now the Powerhouse is “calendared,” which means Con Ed has to get the LPC’s consent before making certain changes to the building.

One of the reasons Con Ed is against the landmark designation is that once the status is granted, the LPC would have to give permission for most types of work on the building.  In 2009, the company was given the green light to remove the last of the six original smokestacks due to “its deteriorated condition and to protect the building’s façade and underlying structure from water damage,” de Bourbon said. What remains now is a 500-foot concrete smokestack built in 1968.

Another reason to avoid landmark status, according to Con Ed, is that it will cost the company a substantial sum to maintain the façade of the building (one of the requirements of a landmarked building), which would mean an increase in customer rates. The company also contends that since the building has been subjected to many changes over the years, and its original structure has been altered, it is not a suitable candidate for such a status, according to the 2009 testimonial of Michael Corcoran, senior architect with Con Ed.

The company’s spokesman, Bob McGee, said, “There’s a reason why there aren’t smokestacks on the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building belching black smoke into the city’s air – it’s because of the steam from the Powerhouse.” He stressed the importance of steam energy, explaining its essential role in maintaining the city’s air quality. “This is a working plant, supplying an integral commodity that benefits all New Yorkers.”

Given the neighborhood’s residential feel, Raju Mann, from the Municipal Arts Society, an organization that works toward smart urban design and preservation, said, “As that part of the city is changing, from a place where no one wanted to stay to a valuable area now, it raises a lot of questions about the place of old manufacturing buildings in such neighborhoods.” To him, people living in luxury condos on the Hudson wouldn’t want a steam plant near them.

Construction sites surround the Powerhouse. Photo: Kamakshi Ayyar.

On the plot adjacent to the Powerhouse, the Durst Organization is constructing a pyramid-shaped complex with 600 residential units. Jordan Barowitz, the company’s director of external affairs, echoed Mann’s thoughts. “ Our current rates take into consideration the presence of the Powerhouse, but if the space was more community friendly then there is a chance that the property value would have increased,” he said.

A topic always addressed during testimonials before the LPC was the use the building could be put to, if landmarked. The most commonly mentioned idea is to develop the building’s vast halls into a public access, mixed-use cultural space – like a museum, similar to London’s Tate Modern. In the past, several high-profile personalities including Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, have expressed interest in the space, with Carter proposing to move the International Center of Photography to the cavernous Powerhouse.

Even some developers, like Robert Quinlan, founder of the Quinlan Development Group and passionate preservationist, would like to see the structure preserved. “It’s a major building in the city’s history,” he said. “That’s why it’s so beautiful – otherwise it could have been a factory in New Jersey.” If Quinlan had his way, he’d open a vintage automobile museum in the building; he also supports the idea of using the space as a gallery to document the city’s cultural importance. “I believe creating a mixed-use space would bring more people in,” he said. “Cars, fashion, photography – these are kind of sexy, they’ll get people interested.”

One of the reasons people, especially tourists, haven’t heard of the Powerhouse is because it isn’t centrally located. But Quinlan said that could be overcome: “With Lincoln Center nearby, the city could try to develop a shuttle service from Grand Central Station, through Times Square to the Powerhouse, making it more accessible.”

Preservation groups have been in talks with Con Ed about a possible sharing of space, but to no avail. There are conflicting reports of how much space the steam generators actually require, with some arguing that modern technological advancements would allow the operations to be conducted in a much smaller space, opening up the rest of the Powerhouse for other use. Lack of public disclosure has led to the discussion around the subject being nebulous.

“Con Edison has invested millions of dollars in the plant,” said McGee, “including investment to be able to generate steam from natural gas instead of oil, enhancing environmental benefits to the city.  We wouldn’t be investing millions of dollars in the plant if we had other plans for it.” But Quinlan contends that it is only a matter of time before steam energy is replaced with a newer, more economic form of power and that the first step in preserving the building would be to grant it landmark status. The proposal, authored by the now dormant Hudson River Powerhouse Group, even has Mayor Bloomberg’s support.

With over 30 years having passed since the first landmarking attempt, it is impossible to predict how and when the process will end. It is safe to say, however, that there are many who will be sad to see the building demolished, including the employees who work there.

When asked how it was to work at the Powerhouse, a worker, who declined to give his name, answered, “Noisy.” He then went on to add, “ But it’s over a hundred years old. I want it to stay this way – they don’t make them like this anymore.”

Outside La Taza de Oro. Photo: N.G. Onuoha.

La Taza de Oro: A Restaurant through the Decades in Chelsea from Annie Zak on Vimeo.

In the middle of Eighth Avenue, between West 14 and West 15 Street, La Taza de Oro, Spanish for “the golden cup,” sits dimly lit among the bright lights of neighboring shops.

For 44 years the restaurant has maintained its signature old-fashioned style—the original burgundy leather covering the stools at the counter, aside from occasional repairs; the large yellow menu lining the wall still lists a seven-day selection of meals in Spanish, written boldly in red; customers still order large portions of Puerto-Rican cuisine cooked in a traditional base blend of onions, garlic, cilantro, peppers, tomato paste and a pinch of salt.

At a table next to the entrance, Brooklyn couple Cesar Torres and Matt Saba finished their first meal at the La Taza de Oro. “I like that there are legit old dudes eating here,” joked Torres, 38, a reporter at technology site, Ars Technica. “It’s nice to have this option on Eighth Avenue.”

Torres ordered the Ropa Vieja, a shredded beef dish served with yellow rice and black beans, and Saba had the Bacalao Guisado, salt fish stew served with yellow rice and white beans as well as a coconut pudding he described as “heavenly.” The couple both enjoyed their meals, though Torres admitted he had tasted a better Ropa Vieja at another Puerto Rican restaurant. However, Saba chimed in, “the price is right! This place is affordable.”

Low pricing is an important part of the restaurant’s legacy. “The prices are affordable,” said Maria Montalvo, who has owned and managed La Taza since 1996. “We want to keep the affordability to a certain class of people we are interested in having as our patrons. This neighborhood is changing. But we still have a lot of residents in the area who have lived here many years.”

Robert Chisholm, owner of Chisholm Larsson gallery on Eighth Avenue and West 17 Street, has been visiting La Taza de Oro every Tuesday through Saturday morning for 31 years. Chisholm lives on West 12 Street and walks to the restaurant for a cup of coffee. “We discovered the restaurant right when we opened the gallery,” said the 64-year-old. “They have great coffee; I get the cafe con leche, and I read The New York Times each morning. On Saturdays, I like to spoil myself so I’ll have the western omelette with fries.”

For the last five years, Chisolm has been accompanied by Ann Tynberg, a 94-year-old native New Yorker who lives on West 15 Street. Every morning the two walk from Tynberg’s fourth-floor walk up to La Taza de Oro, where she eats oatmeal and tells stories of her life in the city. Chisholm said it is the only time she gets out of her house because of her osteoporosis. “It’s very much a community,” he said. “We come and we see Dawn, the dog walker, Bonnie and Yolanda—we call her the glamazon because she’s so striking.”

“We’re surrounded by specialty restaurants and we look so different,” said Montalvo, sitting in the basement of her family’s restaurant. “We’re a blast from the past.”

Originally opened in 1947,  La Taza de Oro was sold to Montalvo’s father, Alejandro Vargas, in 1968, and in 1987, he purchased 96 Eighth Avenue, the three-story residential building which includes the restaurant as commercial space. When Vargas wanted to retire in 1996, Montalvo –who lived in Puerto Rico with her husband and five daughters—made the decision to move to New York alone and secure the restaurant. Her family followed months later.

“I always had a feeling that I wanted to come back to New York,” said Montalvo, who was formerly a lawyer in Puerto Rico. “It was a chance—the window opened, and I jumped through it. I told my dad, no, don’t sell. [I] had a feeling my dad would regret it if he sold it.”

After fifteen years of managing and living above La Taza de Oro, Montalvo said she has not regretted the decision. According to her, the neighborhood was once a dangerous area populated by meat packing factories and small companies. During lunchtime, the factory workers and company employees formed long lines outside La Taza.

Over the years, Chelsea’s transformation has changed the restaurant’s customer base, though the old cafeteria feel has remained the same. The evolution of the mid-Manhattan neighborhood has been marked by the erection of luxury high-rise buildings, the arrival of young professionals, the opening of a Whole Foods market and the dwindling presence of mom-and-pop businesses. These changes have had an impact on La Taza de Oro, located just steps away from the new Google building, an eighteen-story establishment the company purchased for $1.9 billion at the end of 2010.

“I wasn’t happy when Google bought the building,” said Montalvo. “111 Eighth Avenue…that building was full of different companies, and they were our customers. Google employees are not our customers because Google takes care of its own people.”

The Google building, owned by Jamestown Properties, housed a number of small data centers with employees who visited La Taza de Oro at lunchtime. Though some of the old customers travel to visit the restaurant from as far away as New Jersey, Montalvo marked the entrance of the billion-dollar tech company as another sign of the neighborhood changing around them. Her hope for the restaurant’s future lies with her daughters, especially, her second-to-last daughter, Alex, who considers taking over ownership of the restaurant when her mother finally decides to retire. Alex, 25, holds a bachelors degree from Syracuse University’s School of Business and currently works for a Japanese trading company in Midtown.

“When she’s here having her breakfast or having her dinner, she unconsciously spots things,” said Montalvo of Alex. “She’s a very important factor for us and so is our [youngest] daughter Elizabeth because they’re tuned in to the operation of the restaurant. I know I can rely on them doing the payroll, paying off providers, checking to see that rules and regulations are complied with.”

Seated in a chair next to her mother, Alex smiled. ”It’s a pride and joy of being here, what, 45 years, my sisters and I always talked about it, hitting those milestones, 60, 65, the pride of three generations,” she said. “We can always, management-wise, put our understanding [of] how young people think…maybe put it more on a social platform.” She called the potential management change “a young twist” that would maintain La Taza de Oro with an increase of advertising and social media promotion.

Talk of the restaurant’s future and the rapid evolution of Chelsea still scares Marila Montalvo, though. The employees of La Taza de Oro have been with her family for decades, many making the business their life. According to Montalvo, a few have retired and promptly returned to the restaurant because “they knew nothing else.” The oldest employee, a waiter everyone simply refers to as “Rigo,” told the family he would die in the restaurant. “I don’t allow anybody to mess with him,” said Montalvo. “And you know, I get complaints…I don’t care. There are customers who come, and they want Rigo…”

Her daughter Alex laughed, “You’ll say ‘Rigo. How are you?’ and he’ll look at you and say, ‘What? Rice and Beans?’ That’s all he knows.”

Rigo, like many of the older staff at La Taza de Oro, are from Montalvo’s home city, Cabo Rojo. Their presence in the restaurant helps to maintain the vibe of classic eateries in that tropical city. As she watches them age, Montalvo admitted she worries.  “They’re very loyal,” she said trying to hold back her tears. “It makes me want to cry because I wish I could do more. My daughter and I play the lottery, and I tell them, if I win, I’ll split my winnings with the restaurant employees.”

Eleventh Avenue at West 33rd Street, looking north toward West Clinton. Photo: Jim Henderson, Wikimedia Commons.

The swank, 19-story Ink48 hotel and the sprawling construction site of Gotham West, a 1240-unit residential complex anchored by a 31-story tower, are becoming landmarks in rapidly changing West Clinton. But a proposed rezoning of the neighborhood seeks to restrict such soaring developments and increase the number of affordable housing units.

Since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in 2002, the Department of City Planning has rezoned 118 neighborhoods, a massive undertaking of over 10,500 blocks, across the five boroughs. Controversial upzonings, like Hudson Yards and the pending Midtown East rezoning, have dominated media coverage, but less controversial rezonings, like the 2011 West Clinton Rezoning, also represent an integral part of the mayor’s development legacy and play an important role in determining who gets to live where.

The 2011 West Clinton rezoning ordinance was drawn to promote development in the area west of Tenth Avenue, between 43^rd and 55^th streets. The proposal encouraged residential development between Tenth and Eleventh avenues and new manufacturing-compatible uses west of Eleventh Avenue. While these changes seem pro-developer, the ordinance introduced three restrictions on new developments in the area: the institution of height limits, a ban on hotels, and the expansion of a special zone with strong anti-harassment and anti-demolition provisions westward to Eleventh Avenue.

The rezoning’s most striking feature is its imposition of height limits in the area for the first time. Mitchell Korbey, a partner at Herrick, Feinstein LLP and the chair of the firm’s Land Use & Environmental Group, declined to call it a downsizing, though, but instead called it a move that “jibes with the neighborhood.”

Before the West Clinton rezoning, the zoning map of the area west of Tenth Avenue between 43^rd and 55^th streets was a hodgepodge of residential, commercial, and manufacturing zones. On most side streets between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, the Tenth Avenue end of the block was zoned residential, while the Eleventh Avenue end was zoned manufacturing.

Over the years, as the neighborhood gentrified and residential development pushed westward, the zoning map grew increasingly complex, as developers requested lot-specific zoning changes throughout the area. Plots zoned for manufacturing between Tenth and Eleventh avenues began to be individually rezoned for new commercial and residential developments. At the same time, west of Eleventh Avenue, developers began to build more manufacturing-compatible structures like hotels, offices, and utility facilities.

Before the rezoning, the Gotham Organization successfully lobbied the city to rezone their property on Eleventh Avenue between 44^th and 45^th streets to “R10,” the residential zoning allowing the highest density development. With that victory, the organization started construction on Gotham West, a 1240-unit residential complex. With manufacturing zoning, “M1-5,” Horizen Global built Ink 48, a 19-story luxury hotel on the west side of Eleventh Avenue. Neither development would be allowed under new zoning.

Recognizing gentrification trends in 2006, the city planning department and community board began discussing zoning changes, and in 2011, they jointly proposed the West Clinton rezoning ordinance, which sought to zone all the side streets between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, as well as the east side of Eleventh Avenue, as residential, and capped building heights at 12 stories. Areas west of Eleventh Avenue were rezoned “M2-4,” which allowed for higher density commercial and manufacturing developments but banned hotels.

“This will help prevent the neighborhood from becoming overdeveloped and poorly planned with few relevant amenities, or mechanisms for affordable and inclusionary housing,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, in April 2011.

Korbey applauded the ways in which the rezoning altered the landscape on both sides of Eleventh Avenue.

“The east side of Eleventh Avenue is more like the blocks between Tenth and Eleventh avenues,” Korbey said. “This rezoning ensures appropriate growth on the east side of Eleventh Avenue by…not allowing for more than 12 stories.”

“How the city rezoned the west side of Eleventh area shows that they recognize that the city still needs an area for warehouses and other commercial uses,” he said.

Korbey isn’t worried that the new restrictions will scare off developers. “This area will still be attractive to developers and now the development will easily mix with existing buildings,” he said.

Aaron Gavios, executive vice president and general partner of Square Foot Realty, agreed. “Big developers always seem to get some kind of waiver, look at Archstone on 52^nd [Street],” said Gavios, referring to the Archstone Clinton, the expansive two block, 23-story commercial and luxury rental complex on Tenth Avenue between 51^st and 53^rd streets.

“Eleventh Avenue is becoming the new Tenth Avenue,” he said. “It’s still easier to operate a business on Tenth, but Eleventh is up and coming.”

Melissa Pianko, executive vice president of development for Gotham, is also optimistic about the neighborhood. “Eleventh Avenue has a lot going for it,” she said. “It makes sense that the city rezoned it residential.”

While most developers praised the rezoning, housing advocates expressed some reservations. Anti-harassment protections, which can impose steep penalties on landlords with a record of tenant harassment, have won favor with residents since they were established under the Special Clinton District in 1972, but the West Clinton rezoning did not extend these protections throughout the area now zoned for increased residential development.

Bob Kalin, a tenant organizer at the non-profit Housing Conservation Coordinators, generally lauded the rezoning. But he called for the expansion of the Special Clinton District westward as well as stronger affordable housing provisions. When asked why the expansion is needed in areas largely made of manufacturing and commercial buildings, Kalin said, “there are a couple hundred tenants scattered throughout the area.”

“We know of tenants at 600 West 52^nd Street [at Twelfth Avenue] that have complained that the landlords have been actively trying to push them out,” he said.

Kalin, however, is hopeful. “[City Council Speaker Christine] Quinn has promised to get the anti-harassment and demolition provisions back into the ordinance,” he said.

The West Clinton rezoning promotes affordable housing by allowing developers to build higher density buildings if 20 percent of the building’s units are affordably priced. But unlike other agreements, these units do not have to be located onsite, which means that the affordable housing can be built elsewhere in the city.

Kalin also pointed to potential issues with the fact that the provisions of the Special Clinton District only cover residential tenants. “A building on 49^th and Tenth was demolished and we got all these calls asking what happened,” he said, “we found out it was a purely commercial building so they can just demolish it.”

Gust Hookanson, owner of The American Retro Bar & Grill, is not concerned about his small business being pushed out of the neighborhood. “We haven’t gotten any pressure from our landlord,” said Hookanson, who is excited about the future of Eleventh Avenue. “This used to be no man’s land, like Tenth Avenue used to be no man’s land but now it’s filling up with restaurants.” He continued, “We have seen a steady increase in traffic in the last two years since we have been here.”

“Rents are definitely going up but you pay for more passerby traffic,” he said.

Jimmy Athanasopoulos, part owner of the storied Market Diner, which has sat on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and West 43^rd Street since 1962, shared Hookanson’s outlook on the neighborhood.  Market Diner closed in 2006 and was purchased in 2008 by a group that included Athanasopoulos. Athanasopoulos says he was attracted to the neighborhood by its potential for residential growth.

“We’ve seen a little increase in business, “ he said. “We’re really waiting for [Gotham West] to open. Most of our business comes from residents. We are waiting for more residents to move in.”

Gavios, whose firm specializes in the retail rental market on Midtown’s west side, is confident about the future of the retail rental market in West Clinton.

“We have done more deals on that part of Eleventh Avenue,” said Gavios. “But I can’t say if that is due to an improved economy or the rezoning. The rezoning will have long-term effects. More residential development pushes up retail prices.”

“We have seen some important businesses move to the area like Ogilvy & Mather and Ink Hotel,” said Gavios. “That is leading small business to Eleventh Avenue because of the increase in foot traffic.”

Gavios estimated that a retail outlet on Tenth Avenue still goes for about 40 percent more than its Eleventh Avenue counterparts — but more transportation options are the key to a more robust future. “The 7 train extension is going to be huge for the far west side,” he said, “more important than any rezoning.”

The Department of City Planning refused multiple requests for comment.

The neighborhood’s headed for a renaissance or for high-end homogenization — depending on whom you ask. Here’s a glimpse of what was, from the Collection of The New York Historical Society, and what’s coming, from Midtown Gazette photographers. Following the slideshow, data to show exactly how Midtown West has changed.

Crime Rates 1990 – 2011

Midtown Business As Percentage of Manhattan

Midtown Demographic Profile: Ethnic Composition

One57, which is being developed by Extell Development, will be Manhattan’s tallest residential tower when construction finishes in 2013. Photo: Anna Cooperberg.

Over the next few years, West 57th Street is poised to change in a big way.

Manhattan’s tallest and most expensive residential building, the 90-story One57, at 157 W. 57th Street, is slated to open in 2013. Just one block away, the same developer, Extell, just filed permits to develop an 88-story building, though no specific opening date has been released. And Nordstrom, the Seattle-based department store chain, plans to open its first NYC flagship at the base of that building.

One57 is already making waves, and not just because of the crane boom atop the building that dangled for days after Hurricane Sandy. Residences currently on the market in the building are priced from $16.75 million to $53 million for a full-floor unit, and a high-end Park Hyatt hotel will also call the building home. Some 60 percent of the 92 condominiums are in contract, according to Anna LaPorte, a spokeswoman for Extell, including two penthouse duplexes priced at $115 million, spurring the building’s nickname “the billionaires club.”

For these prices, amenities surpass the standard doorman, gym, and indoor pool. One57 will have a screening and performance room, a library with a pool table and a 24-foot-long aquarium, and for those who wish for more privacy, a “discreet” entrance into the building on 58th Street, according to the building’s website.

Realtors said that the luxury building will change the block. “I think it … only will enhance the neighborhood,” said Elizabeth Sample, a realtor at Sotheby’s International Realty who has made two deals in the building. “[It is] moving the residential area further west.” She said the building has already gone through 11 price increases – for example, she sold one 4,500 square foot apartment for $32.5 million, and the price has increased to about $33.4 million since the purchaser signed.

But others fear that One57 will hurt the neighborhood by reducing the future market for affordable housing, increasing traffic and congestion, and causing small businesses to suffer.

A block away from the One57 site, Studio 57 Fine Arts, a small art and framing store, is going out of business after six years. Manager Jack Monastero said that he’s closing shop because his rent doubled. Monastero is still looking for another space to which he can move the store, but would like to stay in the neighborhood.

“In another five years it’s going to be great, but right now, we need to survive,” he said of the neighborhood. “It’s great … for the upper class,” he says of One57, “but for the middle class, it’s not great at all.”

Lisa Holland-Davis, a senior vice president at Halstead Property, said that One57 prices will drive up prices in the surrounding area and bring in wealthier buyers. “Property owners [are] buying in this neighborhood because, generally speaking, they have the finances,” she said. Both Holland-Davis and Sample cite the Time Warner Center at 59th Street and Broadway, which opened in 2004 and contains the Mandarin Oriental hotel and high-end apartments, as establishing a luxury residential market in the neighborhood.

Holland-Davis said that even one-bedroom condominiums start in the millions. Renting won’t save much cash, either. “In the new buildings, the sky is the limit for renters,” she said, noting that a one-bedroom apartment with nice views in the area can rent for at least $4,000 a month, while a two-bedroom with nice views will rent for $8,500 to $10,000. The rents are variable based on apartment size, views, and whether the apartment is a condo or a co-op.

Indeed, on real-estate website Trulia’s heat map for New York listing prices for this week, the average listing price for 57th street between Eighth Avenue and Fifth Avenue is $2.37 million and up. Holland-Davis said that prices can be expected to spike in early January, when demand rises because that’s when hefty Wall Street bonuses are rewarded.

Gentrification and price increases in the neighborhood are part of a Manhattan-wide trend that will affect the market for affordable housing, according to Bob Kalin, the tenant organizer for Housing Conservation Coordinators, a non-profit organization that preserves affordable housing in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea. “As the billionaires’ buildings get built, it just changes the neighborhood around it,” he said. “It disinclines the city to build affordable housing because it [expensive buildings] raises the tax base.”

Some area residents and workers are worried about other things that One57 may bring, besides higher prices and some very well-heeled neighbors. “I think it’s going to bring traffic,” said Anthony Butista, a doorman at The Briarcliffe, as he helped to decorate the lobby Christmas tree.

“It’s going to bring us trouble with our residents in terms of getting taxis,” Butista said.

The Briarcliffe is right next door to One57’s construction zone. Doorman Alex Beriguett, who has worked at the Briarcliffe for 13 years, said that he is not happy about the building going up.

“Small businesses are going to suffer,” he said. “[It’s] going to hurt people who have helped the community.”

The main branch of the New York Public Library will soon undergo renovations to incorporate a circulation library into what is now mainly a research library. Photo: Morgan M. Davis.

A few feet back from the noise and chaos of Midtown Manhattan, the New York Public Library (NYPL) Stephen A. Schwarzman building dominates a city block.  The iconic building, guarded for over a century by its imperial lions, stands as an intellectual haven amid the city’s holiday shopping craze.  As tourists mount the stone steps and pose for photos, local students and scholars hurry past to grab a space at one of the many long wood tables that line the study rooms on the third floor.

“I want to go somewhere that has a story to tell,” said Didem Civginoglu, a 34-year-old student from Istanbul.  “I don’t want to stay at home and I don’t want to stay at a café with too much music.  If I want to go to a library I want to go to a good one.”

The main branch of the NYPL functions mainly as a research library, but also as a study space, circulating children’s library, and public computer center; it is also a city historic landmark, rentable space, and home to historic exhibitions.  The building, which shares the block with Bryant Park, attracts almost 2 million visitors annually.

Next year the main branch building will begin a five-year renovation project, with final design plans scheduled to be unveiled to the public December 19.  These interior changes, part of the city’s long-range Central Library Plan to update library buildings and redistribute resources, will open up more of the building to the public.  The library’s 42^nd Street main branch building, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and recently underwent a façade restoration, will incorporate a circulation library from the collections of the to-be-closed Mid-Manhattan Library and the Science, Industry and Business Library.  While the building has long been used as a research library and study space for local academics and students, library officials hope to make the main branch more accessible to general community users as well.

“Many New Yorkers have told us they look at our 42nd Street building as a ‘museum’ or something inaccessible to them,” said Angela Montefinise, NYPL Director of Public Relations and Marketing.  “This building was meant to be ‘The People’s Palace,’ and this will restore us to that original mission.”

The plans to reinvent the library’s interior have been met with much controversy.  In a 2011 article in The Nation, NYPL president Anthony Marx said that the renovations would “replace books with people,” words that ignited a firestorm of controversy as scholars protested that the library would become just an oversized Starbucks.  The main branch did, in fact, add a New York City based ‘wichcraft cart to its lobby in March, offering visitors coffee, sandwiches and treats before they mount the winding stairs to the reading rooms.

While the most vocal opponents of the renovations have been academics using the library for research purposes, many of the average library users are  people in the neighborhood looking for a place to study or read with mixed understandings of how the construction will impact them.  “There’s no space in New York that’s quite like it,” said Kate Arline, a 32-year-old economics student who regularly uses the library as a study space.  “It’s inspiring.”

“Noise distracts me, so this is a good place to stay focused,” said Jared Jimenez, a 23-year-old theology student.  Instead of sitting in a coffee shop to wait for friends, Jimenez opts for the “tranquility” of the library to read his book.

The extensive plans for the Schwarzman building will include the return of a public circulation library, a service that was originally offered in the building when it opened in 1911.  The new circulation library will incorporate all of the books and services now offered at the Mid-Manhattan Library on 40^th Street and Fifth Avenue and the Science, Industry and Business Library on 34^th Street.  Those libraries will be permanently closed upon completion of construction, saving the NYPL $15 million per year.

In order to incorporate the demand for space without altering the preserved building, the library is forced to grow underground, pushing its rows of books below Bryant Park.  The future circulation library will replace what are now outdated book shelves storing research material on the west side of the library – but after original plans to move many of the research books to storage in New Jersey were met with uproar, trustees altered their original plan to instead move the stacks under Bryant Park. An $8 million donation from a trustee will allow for the basement stacks to be updated and expanded, giving the library room for another 1.5 million books.  Any materials not stored in this area will be available for researchers either digitally or within 24 hours.

While visitors and residents in the area near Times Square sit outside the library to eat their lunches or read a book, many haven’t been inside the building.  Victoria White, a 17-year-old from Long Island, spent her Saturday sitting outside the library sketching drawings of the stone lions.  While the library’s outdoor area with lunch tables and chairs is “good to have in a crazy area,” she said, the inside of the research library has little appeal to her.  She’s been inside the library just once, for about five minutes.

Nearby, 17-year-old Jaroly Sanchez, a Fashion Institute of Technology student, sat with her headphones in her ears, clicking away on her smartphone while she waited for friends to work on a photo shoot.  While the library “looks interesting,” she’s never had time to go inside, she said.

“As of now the main library functions somewhat differently than a traditional branch,” said Montefinise.  “Under this new plan, we will be able to seamlessly enhance the research functions and the offerings for tourists while preserving our historic spaces and bringing in a community library. New Yorkers deserve to use this renowned landmark, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

For New York residents like 22-year-old Aaron Riesebeck, who has been inside the library once, the library’s plan to become more community friendly is appealing.  “Until I started coming down to Bryant Park I didn’t even realize there was a library here,” said Riesebeck.  “[The circulation library] would probably help more people like me realize it’s down here.”

The library will also feature a new teen center and an expansion of the existing children’s library, which was added in 2008.  Currently tucked into a downstairs corner, a brightly-colored room fitted with child-sized chairs and tables and decorated with the animal characters from popular books serves as a tiny oasis for the city’s youngest readers.  The children’s center houses a small circulation library and hosts a variety of activities, like toddler story time and family read aloud, for kids up to age 12.

Bea Murphy travels two subway stops with her five-year-old daughter almost every week to listen to pre-school story time and check out books and DVDs. “Instead of buying a whole library’s worth of books,” Murphy said, the two can borrow new books each week, and attend the library’s age appropriate programs.  “It’s kind of cool to borrow books,” said Murphy.  “It’s a sense of community … It teaches the children responsibility.”

The library’s modification of space for circulating books will not cut into current research and study space, and will be kept separate from the research side of the building.  The much loved Rose Main Reading Room will not be changed at all, and researchers will be given increased quiet spaces.  In addition, the updated library will be open 12 hours on most days, as opposed to the eight hours it is open on most days now.

Despite the controversy over the changes, the NYPL is optimistic about the response to the announcement of the plans next week, Montefinise said.

“[The library] does reflect the city itself,” said Rebecca Wrobel, a 24-year-old library visitor.  “There’s a life and warmth in there.”

Entrance to Holy Cross School, a Catholic school on 43rd Street considered for closure in June. Photo: Emmanuel Felton.

On a chilly late autumn afternoon, parents congregated outside of Holy Cross School, a Roman Catholic school on 43^rd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. While waiting for their children to emerge from behind the school’s heavy wooden doors, they discussed the school closure notices they had received in the mail earlier that week.

“It’s a good school,” said Adriana Velez, mother of two Holy Cross students, a son in Pre-K and a daughter in eighth grade, and one graduate. “I don’t know why they want to close it.”

While many parents seemed dazed by the news, this was not the first time that Holy Cross parents had received such a notice. Last year, the Archdiocese of New York sent a similar letter notifying them that the archdiocese was considering shuttering their school, but many of the parents discussing the new notice had been under the impression that they had convinced the archdiocese that Holy Cross was worth saving.

Holy Cross is one of 27 Catholic schools considered for closure this year, affecting  5,053 students representing 10 percent of the archdiocese’s total enrollment.  The archdiocese – which runs 189 schools in Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, and in several suburban counties north and west of the city – has closed 46 schools since 2006, citing “budget constraints and an ongoing reorganization” as primary reasons for the closures. Abraham Lackman, founder of Praxis Insights, an Education and Government consulting firm, estimated that New York State Catholic school enrollment declined by 35 percent from 2000 to 2010. The same trend has been seen across the country, with inner-city Catholic elementary schools hit particularly hard.

If this year’s closure process follows last year’s, not all of the notified schools will close. Members of the schools’ community have the chance to convince archdiocese officials that their school should be saved before final decisions are made in January. Last year, four of the 32 schools up for closure were saved from the chopping block.

Velez’s relationship with Holy Cross started in 2004 when she transferred her daughter, who is now a freshman at a downtown public school, from her zoned public school in Queens. Velez felt that her daughter wasn’t getting a quality education at her public school. “She wasn’t learning enough there,” she said.

The Velezs are a Catholic school’s target audience; dissatisfied with public schools, looking for a reasonably-priced solution. Holy Cross’s website implores perspective parents to “take charge of your child’s education.” It continues,  “Your zoned school is not your only option.  Located just steps away from your home or workplace, Holy Cross offers you a peace of mind that your child is nearby learning in a safe and secure environment.”

The Velez’s commute from Queens is nearly 40 minutes each way, but Velez is confident about her choice. “The education here is worth it,” she said. When asked if the tuition is a burden, she acknowledged that at times it has been, but repeated, “the education here is worth it.”

Catholic schools face a unique challenge: staying affordable while being ineligible for government funding.  In 2008, the Archdiocese reported that two-thirds of the student body at its New York City schools lived in poverty, and more than 90 percent were minorities.

Compared to the private school competition, Holy Cross’s tuition is pocket change. With all fees included, tuition for one child at the school is $4,315 per year and can be paid in 12 monthly installments of about $360. There is also a discount for families who enroll multiple students; tuition and fees per child for three children comes to approximately $215 per month.

Lackman estimated that 37% of the decline in New York State Catholic school enrollment could be explained by the proliferation of free charter schools in the last decade. In fact, Velez – the avid planner, who unlike the other parents we spoke to that afternoon, already had a firm backup plan– planned to send her two children still at Holy Cross to a new charter school near her home if the school closes.

In light of competition from charter schools, archdiocese officials have been calling  for a “level playing field,” advocating  a $1,000 state tax credit  for families sending children to private schools. This proposal will find friends in Albany in the coming session, where a block of  legislators, mostly Republicans but also Brooklyn Democrat Simcha Felder, have expressed support for such measures.

Neither Holy Cross staff nor the archdiocese responded to requests for comment.

A man walks into El Ranchito Del Agave, a Mexican restaurant on Ninth Avenue, one of many local restaurants in Community Board 4. Photo: Qi Chen.

Steve Hoover, manager of the Market Café on Ninth Avenue and West 37th Street, always thought that spending $25 on a job ad on Craigslist was ineffective. He also spent money on Village Voice job listings, and watched as they got pushed further down with each update.

The CB4 jobs website is a part of the Community Jobs Project, an initiative started by the Budget Task Force in April 2012 to help reduce unemployment in the neighborhood. Raul Larios, the leader of the Budget Task Force, presented the designs for the job website at the community board general meeting on Nov. 7. The website will be based on the CB4 homepage, under the “Job Opportunities” link.

A mock website is currently available for view. By mid-December, CB4 hopes to launch the website with local job openings from all over Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, making it a support system for residents and a focus for local job fairs.

“We want to make the website a middleman in terms of reaching out to employers,” said Larios. Employers can list their job openings for free on the community website, instead of using paid services like Monster.com. Interested employers will provide CB4 with either a hyperlink to their job posting website or a PDF document outlining the job, which would then be uploaded on to the jobs webpage.

“I will definitely use it,” said Jakrapop Panurach, manager of Thai Select on Ninth Avenue. The restaurant uses its website to display pictures of dishes from their menu, but not for  job listings.

“A job site would be very useful,” said Panurach. He is in charge of handling walk-in applications, and felt that individual requests by email were bothersome.

Currently, jobless residents have a tough time finding work on the internet. Out of a sample of 23 non-chain businesses between West 32nd Street and West 38th Street, only eight had private websites, and none of them had a “job opening” or “career opportunities” page.

A job ad on the window of El Rancito Del Agave. Restaurants in CB4 don’t often use technology to find new employees. Photo: Qi Chen.

Instead of posting online, some restaurants continue to use employment agencies. George Papas, the manager of Skylight Diner on West 34th Street, said that he used Times Square Employment Agency for worker replacements, both long-term and short-term. The diner pays nothing to the agency; instead, the workers pay a fee.

In case of emergencies, if an employee could not come to work, Papas would call the agency in the morning for on-call workers to fill the job.

During Hurricane Sandy, employees who lived in New Jersey had to carpool in groups of six to come into Manhattan. Papas acknowledged the advantages to hiring in the neighborhood, and said that he will use the CB4 website once it is launched.

“Even if they have to walk 15 blocks, they could do it,” he said.

Larios and the community board planned to get businesses involved in the jobs website through their liquor license renewals, which read, “Will you inform the Community Board office of your job openings and/or provide a hyperlink to your jobs webpage?”

Once the license is approved by CB4, the clause will become legally binding. The details regarding how many new hires, and when the hiring would occur, would then be negotiated verbally between CB4 and the business owner.

As part of the Chelsea Market’s application for expansion, Community Board 4 added a lengthy condition related to job openings on the website, which reads, “The applicant agrees to place a link to its job openings on the CB4 website, to hold periodic job fairs in coordination with CB4, and to work with its current and future tenants on a best efforts basis to identify and hire employees from within Community Board 4.”

CB4 is currently processing two liquor license applications in which the employers have agreed to post job openings on the new website. Once the applications are approved at the next general board meeting on Dec. 5, the businesses will be contacted regarding their postings.

By the end of 2013, Larios’s team hopes to have thousands of visitors to the job website each month. News of the website’s launch will be announced to various neighborhood associations and public housing authorities in CB4 through flyers, and unemployed residents in public housing developments will be one of the target audiences.

Although employers are urged to hire local residents, Hoover said experience remains the most important factor when considering hiring new employees.

“I would only give preference to the best candidate, so no priority to locals… But typically the applicants are local residents,” he said.