Today's New York Times covers a developing battle over St. Vincent's Hospital's expansion plans:
At a highly anticipated public landmarks hearing on Tuesday, preservationists are expected to battle a controversial development proposal for St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in Greenwich Village.
Opponents fear that the city will sanction the destruction of nine buildings in a historic district and allow the construction of two enormous towers that they say would blight their low-rise neighborhood and undermine the value of landmark protection throughout the city.
But the hospital says that 3,000 people have joined a group supporting its plan, Friends of the New St. Vincent's.
Passions have run so high that the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission has abandoned its 50-seat hearing room in the Municipal Building for a 913-seat hall at the Borough of Manhattan Community College at 199 Chambers Street.
Read more here.