It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. We want to return to the big

preservation fight that we covered the other day, playing out right now on the

Upper West Side, over a building that some New Yorker see as a landmark worth saving,

and others see as a crumbling structure that's become impossible to sustain. It's the West Park

Presbyterian Church on 86th Street at Amsterdam. Preservation advocates and artists

have been urging the city to protect it and restore it, but the church's stewards say the

building has been deteriorating for years. The repairs would cost millions, and the congregation

simply doesn't have the money to keep it going. Well, now the church is asking

the Landmarks Preservation Commission for something called a hardship approval, which would allow

it to sell the property, likely leading to demolition and redevelopment. We talked about this on the show

the other day with Peg Breen, President of the New York Landmarks Conservancy,

and Mark Ruffalo, the actor, who are on one side of this. They've been part of the community

effort to save the building. Here's a little bit of what Mark Ruffalo had to say here about the

history of the space. It's a worship space. It's a, it's a, it's a civil rights space. It's, it has this

incredible history. In God's Love We Deliver started there. The anti-nukes movement in New York

state, New York City started there. The first gay marriage was was was done there. Joseph Pap started basically the public theater out of there. The first gay marriage was done there. Joseph Papp started basically the

public theater out of there. It just had this incredible long line of social justice, worship,

and performance. And it's still serving all those things. So Mark Ruffalo on the show there,

we also heard from callers about their connections to the church.

Today, we'll get the case from the other side,

and that is the church itself.

Roger Leif is chair of the West Park Administrative Commission.

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