Council Member Wilson remarks on Flatiron NoMad concession opportunity

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our applicant today.

I'm excited to hear this major concession for a big part of my district in the Flatiron.

As the Chair mentioned, this is a really great opportunity to continue how we are re-envisioning this corridor and offers a great opportunity to how we're thinking about how we're using public space.

And we have a really great partner in the Business Improvement District here.

And it's going to be, in my view, if done correctly, and I think we're on the way to doing that, an opportunity for us to really think about how we are leveraging

public space as well as how it integrates with the commercial use, which in many ways lifts up the neighborhood.

It makes for a lively and safer street.

But it also gives us an opportunity to think about how we're using public space, too, for things like our waste removal and who gets to use the public realm and for what purposes.

But I think we're working really hard to strike a strong balance here that is reasonable, that gives everybody the tools that they need to make sure that this continues to be a world-class public space and how it's going to further integrate into the capital redesign of this corridor.

So I...

look forward to this hearing and I'm looking forward to continuing to advance what I think is going to be a significant and positive change for this corridor.

I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Epstein, who held down the fort while there was no council member for a few months.

And I also want to thank

DOT for their partnership and our land use team, particularly Dana and Chelsea for all of the work that they have done on this.

And also the bid who I have been great stewards of this part of town.

And I know we'll continue to do that once we get this over the finish line.

So thank you all very much for being here.

And I'm looking forward to the hearing today.