In keeping with our theme today of designating four civic structures as NYC landmarks, we have arrived at the ultimate designation. Following a beach, pool, and firehouse, all special and important civic amenities, we have a school: PS 64. There is no designation more important than this one. Noteworthy for its architecture, it evokes the cityıs early commitment to education. Its architecture alone signals that the education of our children is the highest priority. This public school embodies the history of immigration in the sense that schools like PS 64 were established to deal with the flood of newcomers to America, and our city. The campaign to build schools was a major municipal undertaking and this history is preserved by buildings like PS 64.

And there is huge cultural bonus in PS 64. In recent years, it has served as a community forum for local groups and artists including John Leguizamo and Spike Lee, who kept up the tradition of an extraordinary talented student body that included Joseph Mankowitz, Sam Levene, and arguably its most significant graduate, Yip Harburg.

Last week the commission heard "expert testimony" supporting and opposing designation. Most experts upheld PS 64, but some came forward to belittle the school, its architecture, and its history. One opponent referred to PS 64 as a marginal school whose primary mandate was to drain students of all of their immigrant sensibilities. If you believe this, then luckily the mandate failed.

If they only had a brain. Those are Yip's words, not mine. Recently, I came home to find my sons, eleven and five years old, watching television. They were watching The Wizard of Oz. The policy in our house is when Daddy comes home, Daddy watches what he wants to watch. I sat down, picked up the remote, and even though I personally love the movie and its music, I've seen it 10,000 times and I decided to click to the next channel. "No, Dad!" they yelled. "We want to watch The Wizard of Oz." Of course, I let them watch. Millions of kids had found inspiration in the story and its lyrics. They continue to help young and old find their dreams.

There are bigger names than Yipıs in the world of music writers. We would all consider any school attended by the Gershwins, or Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, to be an instant landmark, a no-brainer. But I do not know of any Gershwin tune, Porter, nor Sondheim tune, that appeals to every age group, ethnic group, racial group, religious group, going on for nearing a century, like the magnificent lyrics of Yip Harburg.

Yip was obviously one of those students who did not have the influences and dreams of his parent's native country removed from his brain. He was learning at PS 64 of a land that offered dreams, and where dreams really could come true. Dreams that extended far beyond Yip's immigrant world or the world of the Lower East Side. He won an Academy Award for "Over the Rainbow." Some years later, he wrote lyrics for another "Rainbow" story, Finianıs Rainbow. The show made it to Broadway and to Hollywood. Its theme was an end to racial bigotry in America, and equality for all Americans. Yip wrote "Brother Can You Spare A Dime," and "April In Paris."

Who has written lyrics more profound and yet so beautiful as Yip Harburg? Yip's music has long transcended his name. And this designation is an appreciation of both the architecture of PS 64, and its social and cultural history. Itıs a no brainer. And only Yip could give it a brain, or a heart, or dream. From Yip to Spike, let us have the brains, the hearts, and the courage, to Do the Right Thing for PS 64.