When Simeon Bankoff, the director of the Historic Districts Council, asked the District 1 Council candidates what they intended to do about the garish billboards popping up around Lower Manhattan, he did not expect a fracas to ensue. But Pete Gleason, one of the candidates looking to unseat Alan Gerson, grabbed the microphone and all but accused Gerson of ignoring the unsightly signs because he had received campaign contributions from billboard owners and advertisers.

In response, Gerson slammed his hand down on the table, sighed loudly and shot an exasperated look at his staffers.
“I wasn’t making any accusations about any of the candidates. But from Mr. Gerson’s body language and reaction I was able to draw my own conclusions,” Gleason said after the event.
The minor flare-up occurred at a forum sponsored by the League of Preservation Voters, a new umbrella organization of community groups that is trying to make the look and feel of the city’s neighborhoods front and center this campaign season.

The LPV has sponsored three forums so far, and has two more in the closing days of the campaign in Brooklyn and Jackson Heights.

That level of activity was a conscious reaction to frustration, Bankoff explained

“Unfortunately, preservation issues have never risen to be key issues in almost any election in city history,” he said.

Preservationists have taken a beating the last several years as the city’s real estate boom has grinded to dust several historic buildings and neighborhoods. Even some buildings initially approved for designation, like the Austin, Nichols & Company Warehouse in Williamsburg, have been denied landmark status for the sake of rezoning and commercial development.

The Council is only one part of the effort to landmark buildings, and often rubber stamps decisions already reached by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Nonetheless, the focus on Council elections make sense, said Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and a co-host of the events in Council districts 1, 2 and 3.

“Making sure preservation issues and development are understood and considered by potential Council members is incredibly important to us,” Berman said. “We interact with them and their decisions on a daily basis, we’ve seen some progress but also enormous frustration.”