Source: New York Post
A bipartisan majority of NYC Council members is demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani seize privately owned property in order to save a piece of Manhattan history tied to the Underground Railroad, The Post has learned. Councilman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) fired off a letter Tuesday to Mamdani signed by 31 other members urging the mayor to work with the Council to use the city’s eminent domain powers to block a proposal to build a 100-foot-high commercial building next door to the Merchant’s House Museum in NoHo, where a secret passageway used to smuggle slaves to freedom was discovered in February. Experts say construction of the planned building will cause irreparable damage to the adjacent city-owned, three-and-a-half-story site—which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the earliest known location of Underground Railroad activity in NYC.
