PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dale Cohen, Architect and Neighborhood Resident
2:46:22
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146 sec
Dale Cohen, an architect and neighborhood resident since 2008, testified against the proposed MSK building, questioning its height, environmental impact, and overall necessity. She raised concerns about the building's impact on the neighborhood and argued for a shift in focus from crisis care to preventative healthcare.
- Criticized the 600-foot height as inappropriate for Yorkville
- Questioned the demolition of existing structures and suggested adaptive reuse
- Expressed concerns about construction near a school and increased congestion on York Avenue
- Argued that MSK and similar facilities focus on "sick care" rather than true healthcare
Dale Cohen
2:46:22
Good afternoon.
2:46:23
Thank you for taking my testimony.
2:46:25
My name is Dale Cohen.
2:46:26
I'm trained as an architect, and I both practice in the neighborhood, and I also educate architects.
2:46:32
I've lived in the neighborhood since 2008.
2:46:36
What I'd like to know is what's the average height of the buildings in Yorkville.
2:46:40
It is clearly not 600 feet.
2:46:42
Why does MSK or any other for profit company deserve the right to blow through current zoning?
2:46:49
Are you demolishing existing buildings?
2:46:52
Obviously, yes.
2:46:53
Is this how you are measure and if well, how are you measuring the embodied carbon of the existing structures and what we're losing and what we're gaining?
2:47:02
Is there another way to adaptively reuse the existing structures?
2:47:06
If it is not possible to build safely, then I don't know why the city council has approved this.
2:47:13
You're right next to a school.
2:47:15
This doesn't seem to make much sense to me.
2:47:18
Is it possible to bill instead of the 600 feet up, why not take a possibility to actually take some of these spaces for the surgery spaces and mechanicals into basements and sub basements.
2:47:31
How are you mitigating the already insanely congested York Avenue?
2:47:35
What is obvious to me is that the building of these towers over that these towers tower over the existing infrastructure, which is not appropriate.
2:47:44
While I'm all for beautiful buildings as an architect, the extraordinary height of the proposed building seems better in Midtown and New Yorkville.
2:47:53
Lastly, it seems that both MSK and the city have misplaced their priorities in terms of health of our citizens.
2:48:00
As a city, We need to focus on health care, not crisis care.
2:48:05
Well, some think that early detection is a real tool.
2:48:09
It is sick care.
2:48:10
We need to improve the American diet.
2:48:13
We need to reduce consumption, which is largely connected to the alarming number of young people with cancer, and we need to drastically reduce the pollution of our built environment, which this will seriously contribute to.
2:48:26
I speak as a previous MSK patient.
2:48:29
I was not healed until I began to work with functional and integrated medic medicine doctors.
2:48:35
Honestly, MSK and facilities like MSK are not about health care.
2:48:39
They're about sick care, and we need to refocus our energies.
UNKNOWN
2:48:41
The time is expired.
Dale Cohen
2:48:44
And remove the for profit motive.
2:48:46
I I oppose the height of the new building.
Kevin C. Riley
2:48:48
Thank you, miss Cohen.