Mission & Board

The City Club of New York, founded in 1892, is one of the oldest civic organizations in the City.  From the beginning, its mission has been to promote sound urban policy and to protect the City’s essential character.  That has never been easy.

The natural impulse of big cities is to grow, and to sacrifice any neighborhood or structure, however historic, that stands in the way.  The City Club’s goal is not to halt all progress; rather, it is to push for a future that preserves what is great in the City’s past.

Historic preservation, affordable housing, parks and other open spaces, citizens playing a genuinely meaningful role in the land use process, reform of the legislative and regulatory procedures that allow development that is at odds with the City’s higher purposes — these are our goals.  And our members — architects, engineers, urban planners, zoning lawyers — bring expertise to their consideration of them.

Sometimes we rely on suasion- public testimony, op-eds and letters.  But when those methods don’t work, we are prepared to litigate.  In the last few years, the City Club has filed legal challenges to a number of ill-advised plans.  One, for example, is the Governor’s real estate giveaway to the owners — among them, one of the Governor’s biggest benefactors — of land surrounding Penn Station.  Another is to the City’s rezoning of Governors Island, in violation of a deed that the City itself signed.  

Litigation has never been our preference, but we do not shy away from a fight.  Our mission is to act when the government or private developers propose plans that threaten the integrity of the City we love.