Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Skateboarders upset over plan to add synthetic turf to the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park



Word started spreading yesterday that the city plans to cover the multipurpose courts in the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park with synthetic turf, a move that surprised and angered a major user of that space — skateboarders.

In late May, the Parks Department announced that it was planning to spend $28 million to upgrade various parks and playgrounds on the east side ahead of the March 2020 closure of East River Park for stormproofing during the next three-plus years.

Crystal Howard, a spokesperson for the Parks Department, told this to Patch in May:

"Responsive to the community's need for supplemental [recreation] during the forthcoming $1.45B flood protection and park improvement project at East River Park, we have been working to identify opportunities to create and enhance neighborhood Parks spaces and amenities so they are available for community use during the park closure."

It wasn't immediately clear — until yesterday, anyway — that part of the plan included adding the turf to the courts at Avenue A and 10th Street, space used by people playing baseball, softball, hockey, field hockey, lacrosse ... as well as the skateboarders.

CB3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee heard an updated overview on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project during its May 16 meeting. The plan to add turf to this area of the Park was included in slide 17 of the presentation...



The turf plan is currently listed as a "proposed project."

Meanwhile, here's reaction to the turfing news in a post at Quartersnacks yesterday afternoon:

A multi-use, open asphalt area in the East Village is scarce. If the city goes ahead with this approved plan, it would alienate many of the end users of the park, who have called it a home for decades, and built a community around this small patch of sacred asphalt.

Skateboarding has been a part of Tompkins Square Park since the 1980s, when Shut Skateboards would lug over makeshift ramps and throw contests there. Skaters continued to call Tompkins a home ever since. In the years after 9/11, when much of the city was under lockdown and the places we skated in before became closed off for security measures, Tompkins became a hassle-free refuge for the skate community thanks to the nearby ABC and Autumn Skateshops, who would bring ramps to the park, and store them in their stores overnight. We have quite literally shoveled snow out of the way to skate here before.

This isn’t only about skateboarding. A roller hockey league calls Tompkins home on weekends. If you’re trying to teach your son or daughter to ride a bike or any roller sport, you take them to an open asphalt field like this one. And while skateparks have become more abundant in New York City, if someone is learning how to skate, they are definitely not going to a high velocity atmosphere like a skatepark to learn how to ride.

Tompkins is an unshakeable part of our community. Much of the details about the resurfacing remain foggy. Many people have reached out asking how to help convince the city that a synthetic turf field here is a giant mistake.

A petition to "Save Tompkins Square asphalt!" quickly attracted 1,000 signatures yesterday. (Update: As of 7:45 a.m., that number hit 5,400.) You can find it here.

People using #SaveTompkins on Instagram shared their thoughts on the space ...




The Parks Department responded to the various Instagram posts, noting: "We hear you, and understand your concern! The decision to install turf here in 2020 wasn’t made lightly. It is part of neighborhood-wide enhancements being made to provide green space for the community rit large during the reconstruction of East River Park." The Parks rep said that they are working "to setup a meeting to discuss the matter with you directly."

Since the initial posts, there is apparently a meeting set for early next week between reps for the skateboarders and the Parks Department.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am disgusted if this Resiliency plan is actually going through. Is this really happening on the East River? There must be a better way. Why no wall against the FDR side snd waterproofing of electronic issues within?

Anonymous said...

It is not your park. Get over it. The parks belong to the corporations. They want you gone! Freakish pedophiles always welcome, however.

Gojira said...

Signed.

I love (not really) how the Parks Dept thinks that somehow plastic grass, in a park full of the real thing, is somehow an acceptable substitute for Nature's amenities like grass, trees, and wildlife in the East River Park. Here's a hot flash for ya, clueless morons - it's not.

Anonymous said...

Put the money and time into the bathrooms that have been abused and neglected for decades

Anonymous said...

Soon it'd be covered by garbage and human feces.

Anonymous said...

waste money at east river and waste more at tompkins square, know how much that annualy improved dog run has cost?

The resikliency thing id a das joke, no part of hudson has the same BS or brooklyn across the river, it is a trumpian bait and switch to have a new park by the time nycha is privatized and then a few towers will go on S and in the park

DrGecko said...

Saw a fistfight breakout once about synthetic turf. This was at a New York Herpetological Society meeting (that's reptiles and amphibians), and the issue was its suitability as a substrate. People have strong feelings about these things. Maybe we can take a cue from them?

Giovanni said...

Lets face facts; these scruffy looking skateboarders just don't fit the image of the New Improved East Village anymore. What better way to get them out of the area than to install AstroTurf? This is just the city’s way of telling these kids to “Get of my lawn! Go play in traffic!” Using the impending destruction of East River Park as an excuse to install fake grass is just the icing on the cake.

And just think about all the public bathrooms that will be lost when the park is shut down for 3-4 years. Can you imagine how much more stinky the TSP bathrooms will be when that happens?

Anonymous said...

I have no kick against skateboarders, but instead of the them being contained in this area doing their thing, they'll now be all over the park doing their thing. Great. My dog is going to go apeshit. Thanks park department!

noble neolani said...

Agree with Giovanni,
I'll go a step further, the Boys Club building will be a luxury condos sooner or later, get rid of those noisy teens who have bonded with an activity which few young people can find. Perhaps they can tale up polo instead.

Anonymous said...

This is for the baseball teams that are going to be displaced by the epic boondoggle supreme by which I mean the DeBlasio Contractor Graft and Ineffective Pile-of-Dirt Instead of East River Park for 10 Plus Years Act of 2019.

As long as the bro army of field hockey players still get their weekends there is no constituency that might have any weight here. And, in fairness, an enormous by city standards number of amateur baseball and soccer teams are going to be displaced to avoid inconveniencing the sacred FDR drive.

Be curious what the maintenance numbers are regarding turf vs grass. Or turf vs never-swept concrete. No doubt parks is ready to cut those regular checks to some friend-of-DeBlasio.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, I'll be surprised if we have one public green space left after all this "improvement." Every time I hear the city say East River Park is "only" going to be closed 3 1/2 years, I think of the endlessly closed Luther Gulick Park and the promises made around that... Anyway, manage your expectations that any current users of city parks will get our needs heard and met.

Anonymous said...

Boys Club is remaining a building for non profit community organizations.

rubygirl said...

This is not just about skateboarders. This about hockey as well as baseball. This field is used by the local elementary schools for games and there are major hockey tournaments here as well. This is where kids learn how to ride their bikes and skate. The leadership in this park’s department is clueless. Where’s the petition?

Anonymous said...

Rubygirl,

The petition is linked in the post. See the part that reads: You can find it here. (The here is hyperlinked to the survey. Click on the word here in the post to find the petition.)

Anonymous said...

You can skateboard on any street, you can't play team sports on asphalt especially with East River Park closing.

cmarrtyy said...

When the city plans on installing plastic grass when it's totally unnecessary, spends considerable money improving on the dog runs and ignores the condition of the public toilets we have a serious management problem. Where is Ruin-the-EV Rivera? She could stop this nonsense with one call. But... hey... it's ONE PARTY RULE. ONE PARTY RULE.

noble neolani said...

I signed the petition, the paved lot is heavily used which means it does not need to be "improved", please sign the petition.

Anonymous said...

Is there any way to stop this stupid East River thing? It looks like they made up their mind and that's it. Holding meetings to hear the community's grievances and then ignoring them is business as usual for the parks department. How did they get this Robert Moses- like power?

Anonymous said...

Skateboarders own every inch of this neighborhood, they're all over the park, up and down every street and avenue. Not a problem that a small area of Tompkins will become Astroturf to accommodate other users, skateboarders can make circles around it and jump all over the benches with abandon, like they do now. Non issue. Real problem is East River Park demolition.

sophocles said...

What's not to like about the skateboarders in that corner of the park? I've never heard an argument. It's boys and sometimes girls of various stripes having a mellow time improving their skills and enjoying the day.

Anonymous said...

DiBlasio is now showing his true form, disappointingly. I guess the pre-K thing was a feel good scam for his real agenda of totalitarianism (yes, those camera and microphone pods up and down the avenues are TOTALITARIAN) and fascism (meaning putting the State at the service of corporates). Manhattan is not about people, its about transnationalist rentiers getting a piece of the action e.g, Howard Hughes Corporation high rise Bloomberg giveaway). Do you understand why they want to take away our guns? They are coming for your children.

Anonymous said...

The space is great for people — kids especially — just getting comfortable riding a board. You can't expect them to learn on a busy street! I've also seen fathers/mothers/siblings teaching kids how to ride a bicycle here.

There can be a compromise — maybe turf half the space. It's a big lot.

Anonymous said...

There's a skatepark under the Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn Banks, and an entire skatepark of sorts called plazas in the FiDi plus the skatepark in Hudson River Park and the one way up in Riverside Park so these skaters will live.

This astroturfing is nothing more than a way to drive out whoever neoliberal scum de Blase A Hole deems undesirable to his rich patrons.

This is the 2019 version of Giuliani removing the Tompkins Square Park bandshell and replacing it with a volleyball court to get rid of a platform for free speech, protest, and expression in general.