RESISTANCE

Former PBS Host Joins Fight Against Billionaire’s New York City ‘Vanity’ Project

Bill Moyers told The New York Times the project, if approved, would mean “there’s no hope for this city as a place where everyday people hope and live and die.”

A New York billionaire’s fight to build a glass enclosure on top of his top-floor apartment has met an unlikely opponent: a well-known former journalist and White House press secretary. Longtime PBS host Bill Moyers, 87, has joined with local residents in opposing hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman’s proposal to build a two-story glass pavilion on top of a building that overlooks Central Park. The issue was at the center of a three-hour-long meeting of the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, with opponents arguing that giving a billionaire unprecedented permission to build such an “intrusive” structure may give other ultra-wealthy individuals the opportunity in the future. Moyers argued that the project would also be a slap in the face to ordinary New Yorkers. “I think this undermines the soul of the city at the vanity of one person,” he told The New York Times. “If the commission is going to cave to the glitter of one billionaire, there’s no hope for this city as a place where everyday people hope and live and die.”