Monday, April 12, 2010

Marty’s Massive Commercial Amphitheater Would Leave Room for Little Else In Asser Levy Park


According to the City's recently released "Request for Expressions of Interest," the proposed $ 64 million, 8,000- seat commercial amphitheater proposed by Borough President Marty Markowitz for Asser Levy Seaside Park will take up at least 3.2 of the park's 7 acres.  The nearest green space with active recreational facilities is one and a half miles away.  For more than a year city officials have said with a straight face that the lawn, elevated  21 feet off the ground, would also be used as a sports field - but that farce has apparently been put to rest. "The elevated lawn isn’t being designed for sports,” a Parks Department spokesperson said. “It will likely be a passive open space for relaxing.”



Brooklyn

Borough President Markowitz’s controversial plan for an amphitheater in a Coney Island park will seize nearly three-quarters of the park’s already insufficient area for active recreation, according to The Brooklyn Paper.


The $64-million concert venue in Asser Levy Seaside Park along Surf Avenue between Ocean Parkway and W. Fifth Street will commandeer the vast majority of the two-football-field-sized main green with a large concrete seating area and a gradually sloping lawn that will rise up to 21 feet.

As a result, the active recreation space in the park — currently about 2-1/2 acres — will shrink to less than one acre.

And park users are not happy.

“The park is going to be destroyed,” nearby resident Tamara Starkopd said. “There’s going to be no place for kids to play.”

The city says that it hasn’t decided exactly what kinds of activities will be permitted on the elevated lawn — intended as a viewing area for outdoor concerts — but sports certainly won’t be one of them.

“The elevated lawn isn’t being designed for sports,” Parks Department spokesperson Phil Abramson said. “It will likely be a passive open space for relaxing.”

That news didn’t go over well with kids who use the field now.

“It’s pretty much the only green space in the area,” added Steven Saperstein who walks his dog Serpico there.

When the field is replaced, the closest similar field will be at Kaiser Park, located on the western end of Coney Island between West 23rd street and Bayview Avenue, about 1-1/2 miles away.

Read More: 

The Brooklyn Paper - April 12, 2010 - By Joe Maniscalco

4 comments:

  1. Of all the cockamamie projects planned for NYC, this one has to top the list This park is loaded with kids, seniors, dog walkers, you name it all of the time. There is nowhere else in the neighborhood where a kid can throw a football, ride a skateboard or just run around on the grass.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is a shame that during a fiscal crisis where the most vulnerable residents of our city are deprived of services and 64 million dollars is being wasted on a quality of life destroying theater that will bring excsssive noise, traffic, pollution to a densely populated neighborhood.

    ReplyDelete
  3. marty is a nut, hear him opposing bike lanes on prospect park west? cracked out

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good for the kids who are speaking out against this boondoggle of a vanity project. Marty it's not only the grown ups now ! Get with the program... Marty .... Your Dream is our Nightmare !

    ReplyDelete