A 1950s Christmas in n an 1850s s hou h house, se, p. 27
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 33
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 13, 2011
CB2 backs park plan; Gay activists still want basement BY ALBERT AMATEAU Community Board 2 (CB2) recently passed a nearly unanimous resolution in support of Rudin Management’s current design for a triangle park across from the former St. Vincent’s Hospital campus. However, a friendly amendment to the November 17 resolution left the door open to a possible redesign of the park to include the underground space beneath part of the triangle for a
community teaching space and an AIDS memorial. The design by MPFP, Rudin’s landscape architects, is based on eliminating the underground space, demolishing an existing materials-handling building that served the former hospital and building a park at sidewalk level on the west side of Seventh Avenue. But more than 50 people, including members of
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Photo courtesy of Groundswell Community Mural Project
Katie Yamasaki and Menshahat Ebron’s 2009 mural “Woman Rise” can be seen at the BRC Women’s Residence in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. For info on how to participate in a Dec. 3 art installation project at the BRC’s 127 W. 25th St. location, see page 17.
Pier 57 certification process to begin soon BY WINNIE McCROY As part of the continuous expansion of the Hudson River Park Trust, architects Youngwoo & Associates will soon submit certification paperwork for a proposed redevelopment of Pier 57. Upon completion, it would create more than 114,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a marina and public parkland. Construction is set to commence in mid-2013. “We are drafting the Environmental Impact Study [EIS] now, and then we will have that certified to enter into the ULURP process, which will probably happen in December,” said Greg Carney, a partner at Youngwoo & Associates. “The certification process takes some time, so it will be about March or April when we get that certification. Then we go into [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] ULURP. There are regulatory time frames for
each step of that process, so it is pretty well-scripted.” Madelyn Wils, President and CEO of Hudson River Park Trust, recently took Chelsea Now on a tour of the parks along the West Side Highway. She said that the park draws an estimated 17 million people per year. “The Hudson River Park is the second largest waterfront park in the entire country. It’s the longest park there is, and it has completely transformed the West Side,” noted Wils. “It’s given families a chance to stay in New York, because they are able to have the activities they need.” Wils said the Park hosted more than 100 free events last summer, which attracted some 150,000 people. Some examples include a two-day skate workshop with Tony Hawk, free concerts, a free Sunday night dance series, the River Flicks series and free classes for yoga, acting and Pilates. There was
even a trapeze school atop Pier 40. For longtime residents to watch the transformation from buckling piers to this beautiful, continuous bypass and piers is amazing, said Wils. She pointed to the redevelopment of Pier 54 and Gansevoort Park — which will feature almost six acres of lawn. One of the big changes planned for the Hudson River Park is the creation of the Pier 57 complex, with an open-air market comprised of shipping containers on the bottom, topped by a public park. “With the transformation of the Meat Market area, you can see now the possibility of transforming the waterfront and what that can do for the community. It bridges the Village, Meat Market and Chelsea, making it a continuous, important strip,” said Wils. She pointed to the popularity of similar open-air markets in London.
Partial city win on porn shop busts BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD In a ruling likely to draw ire in the gay community, a unanimous federal appeals panel, reversing a district court ruling, has granted summary judgment to the City of New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and individual law enforcement defendants, finding that the individuals enjoyed qualified immunity from liability for a gay man’s claims of false arrest and malicious prosecution for prostitution at an adult video store in 2008.
The city was successful in arguing that one arrest could not demonstrate an official policy. Robert Pinter, who was 52 at the time of his arrest, has alleged he was caught up in a sting operation carried out by the NYPD against gay men patronizing stores selling sexually-oriented materials in order to support attempts to close the stores as “public nuisances.” Pinter’s bust and those of
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EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 8
PS11 HOLIDAY MARKET PAGE 14
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