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The area surrounding the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which for years was referred to as Hell's Kitchen, may still be a far cry from heaven's gate, but it's clear that changes are in the offing.
Admittedly, the center, which extends from 34th to 38th streets, between 11th and 12th avenues, has much to do with the area's expected transformation. The site of the convention center itself -- formerly a Penn Central rail yard and, according to a longtime businessman and former neighborhood resident, "a burial ground, where some bodies were found" -- was a major contributor to the decayed landscape.
Hell's Kitchen, which extended from West 40th to 59th Street, from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River, is the modern-day Clinton neighborhood, which, according to residents, stretches to West 34th Street. As an area in which the convention center is located, it's come under close scrutiny from the Manhattan office of the Department of City Planning, which has proposed to rezone and upgrade selected streets and avenues to make them more compatible with the image the city would like to project to convention-goers.
"Across the street from the center, there's a collection of unutilized property that doesn't have the ambiance or image of New York the city would like to show," says Lance Michaels, senior planner of the department.
For the most part, the city is concentrating proposed rezoning around the center -- from 34th to 42nd streets and 10th to 12th avenues. The plan is for the vacant warehouses, garages, towing facilities and parking lots, as well as the desolate streets inhabited by drug dealers and prostitutes, to give way to stores, restaurants, hotels, apartments and office buildings.
These proposals, which constitute recommendations of the staff of the Department of City Planning, will be presented to the City Planning Commission once an environmental impact statement is completed. That should take at least six to eight months, says Mr. Michaels, who expects it to take a year and a half until the planning commission votes on these changes.
Meanwhile, Clinton will continue to enjoy special status as the Special Clinton District, which is divided into about four subdistricts. One of these is the Clinton Preservation District, which runs from about 43rd to 56th...