Re-zoning fight leads to accusations of racism

1971

North Riverdale shaped

North Riverdale retains its bucolic character — with tree-lined streets and lowrise private homes — after a two-year-long fight to have the area north of Fieldston between Broadway and Riverdale Avenue rezoned to prevent apartment-house construction. The community board’s efforts to convince the New York City Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate to protect the area from overdevelopment were part of a pattern of activism that has continued to the present day. But it was complicated by the inclusion of a large undeveloped tract known as Faraday Woods in the down-zoning plan.

Advocates for minority housing charged that the zoning plan was designed to exclude people of color from the neighborhood, since Mayor John V. Lindsay’s administration had announced it would partner with the Association for Middle Income Housing to build high-rise homes for lower-income families at Faraday Woods.

At the last minute, City Hall scuttled a zoning compromise that would have reduced the size of any new development on the site. A bitter tug-of-war took place for most of the year until a surprise announcement by local architect Robert Weinberg, the owner of the property, announced that he was revoking AMIH’S option to buy. He later stunned the community by announcing he had sold the property to the Soviet Union for construction of a high-rise residence for its United Nations diplomats.

A different kind of protest also made headlines in 1971.

The year before, the Women’s Strike for Equality highlighted a new militancy among women fed up with second-class citizenship. Almost a year later, the movement officially came to Riverdale when the National Organization for Women established a Northwest Bronx chapter and began meeting at Riverdale Neighborhood House. Reporter Lindalee Messiano quoted the “overwhelmingly negative” responses of many a local man in the street. Comments ranged from “they’re a group of women who wish they were men” to “a good affair would straighten them out.”