The Hasidic and Spanish communities of south Williamsburg are often rivals over the neighborhood’s housing stock, but they cooperate when it comes to keeping out a common enemy: gentrifiers.

Evidence of both the competition and the teamwork were on public display this Monday afternoon on South 8th Street between Bedford and Berry.
In the middle of that residential block, developer Michael Zazza has plans to tear down two of the oldest buildings in Williamsburg and put up a 20-story luxury condo in their place. “This is not going to be Jewish,�? complained Ms. Cohen, who lives in an eight-story affordable apartment building down the block.

“It’s going to be a new trend: Yuppies. They’re going to take over the neighborhood.�?

Cohen was joined by over a dozen other orthodox Jews, the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance (4BNA), Queens Councilman Tony Avella, and a few members of the local Spanish community to call on New York City to landmark 118 South 8th Street, an 1840s building which served as a social hall in the 19th century for Democrats, Republicans, Suffragettes, philosophers, healers, and teetotalers alike.
“This building represents the identity of this community,�? argued retired firefighter Serafin Flores. “This is an important symbol which might be destroyed.�?

Rabbi E. Katz quickly jumped in to agree to disagree and to just plain agree. “We have a problem,�? he explained. “Everybody needs housing, but now we are united.�?
The issues dredged up by Zazza’s mammoth proposal have joined together not just the Spanish and the Jews, but also bound them to the preservation crowd and the anti-out of context development crowd, and even, possibly, their city councilman, David Yassky.
Yassky was a last minute no-show at the press conference, but his spokesperson, Evan Thies, indicated the next day that the councilman had never agreed to be present. “We never approved the press release,�? explained Thies.
On the substance of the community’s request, Thies said, “David has reached out to Landmarks [Preservation Commission] to ask them they’re reason for not considering it. Right now we’d like to hear their side of it. We’ve already heard one side. It’s not that he’s for or against it. It’s that Landmarks isn’t talking to us.�?
Yassky could be considered Public Enemy #1 within the preservation community – and especially the Williamsburg preservation community – because he more or less single-handedly prevented the 184 Kent warehouse from being designated a landmark. (The building’s owner did not want to see it designated, and was a major campaign contributor to Yassky, who claimed his decision in that case was based solely on aesthetics.)
In its current dilapidated, scaffold-ed state, Phoenix Hall is not too much to look at, but it represents a long neighborhood history. Zazza wants to knock it and its neighboring structure – the only federal-style building left in Williamsburg – down to put up the 20-story tower. The exact dimensions of the proposed building are still not certain, accroding to Zazza’s lawyer, Ken Fisher, who used to hold Yassky’s seat on the city council.
“We’re still finalizing the plan,�? explained Fisher, “but 20 stories is in the ballpark. This is an as-of-right project. We’ve done an assemblage with neighboring lots that we own which allows us to build that high.�?
On issues of timing, Fisher claims the project has been “in the works for a while,�? and that his office was “shocked�? by the timing of the press conference.

Flores once again agreed. “The Hasidics are being forced to move upstate,�? he observed, “and we are living with our parents, two and even three generations together in one house.�?
“This is ridiculous,�? decried Hannah Bloch, who has been fighting Zazza for months, and indicated that until Monday she had been a “one-person crusade�? against the new building. “They’re putting a tower smack dab in the middle of this narrow street, instead of on the corner or along the waterfront.�?

BDTS