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Seen & Heard: Are You the Deep Throat of the Asphalt Green Stalemate?
••• North End Grill has bar seating outside. (By “bar seating” I mean you can only order from the bar menu.) It may have been there a while—I hadn’t walked by in some time. Blue Smoke has sidewalk seating, too.
••• “Elementary” is filming around W. Broadway and Murray on Monday. From Wikipedia: “‘Elementary’ is […] scheduled to premiere on CBS on September 27, 2012. It presents a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes detective stories set in the United States. It stars Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson.” Kind of wish it was the other way around. Also: An HBO show called “Zero Hour” (see flyer at right) is filming the same day around Duane/Hudson/W. Broadway area. Anthony Edwards is in “a breathless race against the clock to find his wife and save humanity.” See, his wife owns an antique clock shop, and she gets abducted, but inside one of the clocks is a treasure map, “and what it leads to could be cataclysmic.”
••• Oops: I wrote that SW Dental was moving into 108 Duane, but last night I was walking up Broadway when a certain sexy flosser caught my eye. It’s BW Dental.
••• From the LMCCC: “The new 12-story condominium building at 37 Warren Street is now in the final months of construction.” Also: “On Monday, August 20th, cobblestone roadway restoration on Franklin Street will begin between Hudson and Greenwich Streets. The roadway is within the Tribeca historic district, and the city Department of Design and Construction contractor will fully close the street during the curb-to-curb operation. Parking will be suspended, and garbage pickup will be relocated to nearby corners.”
••• This came in last night: “I am a 20+ year Tribeca resident. Your site has become something of a community gathering place—I believe perfect to address the Asphalt Green situation. What we (and when I say ‘we’ I literally mean hundreds of people I have spoken with) need is a clear and UNBIASED timeline/account of what has transpired and what is currently going on between the BPCA and Asphalt Green. I’m sure nobody is 100% right or 100% wrong. But NO ONE I have spoken with has a clue to what the hell is going on!!! I wouldn’t have the first clue of who to approach/complain to/knock on the door of/write a letter to, etc. But the whole situation just feels so dirty. What we need to do is shine a light on those responsible and hold them accountable.” I agree wholeheartedly, with one proviso: What we really need is someone from the inside—a Deep Throat, as it were—to tell us what’s going on. Once we know who’s stopping the facility from opening, we can find out to whom they’re accountable, and proceed accordingly. So I’ll say it again: All tips are anonymous. You can email me at tribecacitizen@gmail.com, call or text me at 917-209-6473, leave me a note at Torly Kid (no relation—they’re just nice enough to accept mail for me), or meet me by the mailbox at Warren and W. Broadway. (Wait, scratch that last option.)
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The Downtown Community Center must realize they made a big mistake with their pool. It is simply too small. And has limited hours (a fixable problem.) Sill, it is probably their biggest draw. With the Stuy Community Center pool closed for a year, DCC is the only game in town (BMCC has a pool but it doesn’t seem to attract too many families).
Asphalt Green’s pool is much bigger and will most likely have better hours. Throw in the fact they will have a full gym and other facilities included in the membership fee (although AG is more expensive, neither are cheap) and it’s not hard to imagine significant defection from the DCC membership to AG.
What percentage of DCC’s membership is from Battery Park City? Why would they cross the road for inferior facilities once AG opens?
It’s not difficult to see who has the motivation to keep AG closed.
Totally agree with above response. My strong suspicion is that Manhattan Youth/DCC and those aligned with them have some role (small or large) in the attempt to stonewall and delay Asphalt Green’s opening. The objective is probably to get Asphalt Green to throw in the towel and then take over the space themselves and/or kill a potential competitor.
Manhattan Youth/DCC’s leaders have gone on the record in Downtown Express questioning whether Downtown can support two community organizations saying, “There has to be some restraint imposed on them.” They have walked the tightrope in public (i.e., not calling outright to end Asphalt Green, but rather trying to gain support to redirect it primary mission towards young adults), but one has to ask themselves who is better off if Asphalt Green doesn’t open. For example, when Summer 2012 came upon us, Asphalt Green’s camps were cancelled. To whose benefit? Downtown Day Camp and Manhattan Youth. Was the community better off? No.
If Manhattan Youth/DCC gets their way through underhanded, behind-the-scenes, backroom politicking we will not be better off. In fact, we will be worse off because Manhattan Youth/DCC will continue to rest on its laurels and offer middling services (see Downtown Day Camp) in what is a growing and thriving part of Manhattan.
It is very troubling that Asphalt Green has not opened yet. It is even more outrageous that those who could provide rationale explanations have provided little to no information and basically stonewalled those looking for answers. I challenge Manhattan Youth/DCC and its leaders to publicly state and commit that they are not involved in any way trying to block the opening of Asphalt Green. Alternatively, if they don’t want the center, MAN up and admit it.
The swimming pool at BMCC has just undergone some renovations and caters to a great many local families.
I know that BPC residents are upset about the delays. But they are not the only ones. They will be hiring a lot of people to fill positions at Asphalt Green. Whoever is delaying the opening is acting in a way that is remarkably bad for the entire city considering the state of the economy. This is a chance for real and positive job creation.
Whatever is going on, the city council and the mayor should step in and get New Yorkers working. Even if it’s not their “fault,” their inaction is bad for the people who live in the neighborhood, bad for the future employees and bad for the children who will not be participating in great programs like waterproofing (http://www.asphaltgreen.org/c-2151-Waterproofing.aspx%22%3E)