Saturday, November 19, 2011

About the First Street Green Cultural Park


Now that the BMW Guggenheim Lab has moved on to confront comfort in Berlin, what's happening to the lot? Gothamist got the scoop yesterday from the volunteers at First Street Green:

The lot-turned-park will host dance, sculpture, painting, readings, music, performance, film, and annual competitions to build temporary canopies to house all of those things.

There's a kick-off party on Dec. 10 ... as Gothamist noted, First Street Green will unveil a "wishing wall" ... where you can suggest ideas for the space. (And preferably ones that don't involve liquor licenses ...)

Bobby Williams took the photos here yesterday... workers are putting in a new gate and what not.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

They said that they were going to put back the tree. They promised, and it's not a park. As far as i can see it's going to be the same as when the think tank was there.

First street Green has been in cahutes with the new Museum and their Festival of ideas as well as with the Guggenhiem/BMW all along.

This is not a park. This is a real crock! This is all part of the master plan to turn our public spaces into pop-ups. The New Museum is supposed to do a pop-up in the space right next to the New-Mu. Now they are calling them canopies.

Wicked!!!!

One of the cherries on top of this cake was how the guy from the Guggenhiem is said to be part of some kind of anti-squat for profit in Europe.

I also like the way Lyn Pentecost had some criticism and then went and sold her shit there. Bullshit! I also liked all of the information that came out about her.

This is not the direction we should be going towards.

Fuck First street Green. We need 100% affordable housing now. No Compromises.

Rocky Raccoon said...

Rocky smells a rat and not the dead ones under the stones left behind by BMW, but instead the ones with corporate dollars and logos about to slap them on the canopies. Then to go along with the canopies people will want food and the rats arrive again with their artisinal goodies from everywere but the LES. With so many rats in TSP it would be nice to have a rat-free park, just a park with a trees, flowers, fresh air, some benches, a water fountain and some of those new cool rat-proof solar powered trash compactor jammies. I thought the idea was that BMW was going to leave for good and leave the LES with a park, now it sounds like the big rats in City Hall want another place to hang advertisements and corporate sponsorships in the name of culture. Can't we just get a park and stop selling the soul of the LES over and over and over again.

Lyn Pentecost said...

Guilty as charged on the 'cookie-gate' accusation. The Girls Club,(after much negotiating for that opportunity) did sell cookies to the Gugg/BMW Lab on two occasions. Our Bake Shop made $2000 which, after materials costs, immediately went into payroll for the moms and girls who work there. Affordable housing is great, but we also need jobs for the people who live in them.

Uncle Waltie said...

Cultural Institutions my foot. It's like when the Cooper Square Hotel (as it was named then) hired a crane to have somebody put "graffiti" on the southern wall of its boutique hotel ($300 a night) on East 5th and the Bowery.

Anonymous said...

This is from an older post on May 12th.

"Anonymous said...
Thanks to a resident next door to the lot, the Parks Department Commissioner has promised to replace the tree once the Guggenheim leaves."

The BMW/Guggenheim Lab has done nothing for the community and this is no different now. If First Street Green wants to run a museum then they should do it inside. The taking over of public spaces is a tactic perpetrated by the Bloomberg Administration to disrupt communities through violation. Indoor/outdoor pop-ups and canopies are wide open for tourists and the b&t crowd to infiltrate the hood.

Anonymous said...

The 50/50 model for housing is a crock. 50% for upper income, and the other 50% gets divided such that only a very small percetage is actually for low income people.

If First street Green really wants to do something then put up low income artists housing. You have to understand that most artists fall into a low income category. Many of our greats do not, and never have had a dime to their name.

Avalon Bay is the biggest failure of our time. We can not keep going in this direction. SPURA is a joke and I am so surprised that The Cooper Square Committee supports it.

Anonymous said...

There is absolutely no information on the First Street Green website? And when they say "build temporary canopies" do they mean for this space?, or for here and other areas in the neighborhood that they, the New Museum and the Bloomberg Administration have
set their sights many years ago?

Anonymous said...

A park would be cool, just a park, no entertainment other than the people in the park themselves. Decent housing that people can afford would even be better. Sounds like they have it all figured out that and have for some time and the whole lab thing was so the City could get their hands back on the land - land which they abondoned.

glamma said...

FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE COPORATIZATION OF NEW YORK AND ESPECIALLY THE EAST VILLAGE! This cr@p does not build communities, it DESTROYS them, this is just another glorified tourist attraction designed to get more yahoos swarming like flies to our beloved neighborhood. Enough is enough! Bloomberg stop f*cking raping us!!

nygrump said...

Its corporate elitist "art", what do you expect? And kudos to the Girl's Club that they got a piece of it...something good trickled down to the locals.

These event exits as cultural pats on the fanny to the controller class to help them pretend them that they are elite and cutting edge and one of the maniacs putting senior citizens on the street.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand. Is this what the Community Board Approved?

The Community Board needs to step in and say NO!

Also I love you nygrump but have you read all of the posts on this. There's some interesting information about Lyn Pentecost.

I am going to try and find the Community Board minutes regarding the resolution for this public space. If they have to go back to the Community Board then we will all have an opportunity to show up and oppose it.

Keep it a park,just a park and replace the tree like promised.

Anonymous said...

This is from the January, 2011 CB3 minutes

"Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, Landmarks, & Waterfront Committee 
1.Art installation and programming at 33 E 1st St and First Park by the Guggenheim 
Museum 
VOTE:  WHEREAS, the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation (the "Guggenheim") has proposed
 temporary structures for various cultural programs (the "Project") for 33 East 1st Street 
that will bring together ambitious thinkers and become a public place for research, experimentation, and the sharing of ideas about major issues affecting urban life; and WHEREAS, the site preparation would begin on or about April 1, 2011, the Project would be 
operational free of charge from early August to midOctober 2011 and the deconstruction of the Project would end in midNovember 2011; nowTHEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Manhattan Community Board 3 supports the Project and will work with the Guggenheim to facilitate its success." 


These are the committee members for Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, Landmarks, & Waterfront :

Thomas Yu, Chair
David Adams
Flora Ferng
Jan Hanvik
Anne K. Johnson
Ricky Leung
Thomas Parker
Carolyn Ratcliffe
Lois M. Reagan
Janet Riesel
Nancy Sparrow-Bartow
Jack Waters