Chelsea Piers
Events for May 19, 2006
Then Spitzer will kick off the Manhattan Cup at Chelsea Piers.
The Mayor's Cup Golf Tournament will be at Split Rock Golf Course in the Bronx.
Wesley Clark delivers the commencement speech at Wagner College, while Sen. John McCain's speaks at the New School.
Chuck Schumer speaks at the Purchase College commencement.
—Nicole BrydsonFriday-Morning Roundup
Chelsea Piers jefe maximo, George Bush friend and "Pioneer" Roland Betts has quit the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Shopping and rememberin'. There's money for the memorial, and there's plans for 200,000 square feet of retail down downtown way. (We had it here and here yesterday [sounds of tooting one's own horn].)The Post calls 2 Columbus Circle an "eyesore" and celebrates that it was finally sold yesterday to the Museum of Arts and Design for $17 million, clearing the way for its renovation and the mallification of Columbus Circle. read more »
The Daily News reports on a new Bayside, Queens, development that can't handle the rain. According to various people, it's so poorly constructed that its retaining wall nearly collapsed in the last downpour.
-Matthew GraceChelsea Piers Sinking
Federico Pignatelli, C.E.O. of Pier 59 Studios, which is part of the Chelsea Piers complex, showed up at Community Board 4's meeting last night to appeal for help from the board to prevent what he says is a dire situation at the popular sports and entertainment complex.
According to Mr. Pignatelli, the foundation of Chelsea Piers, which is a concrete platform affixed to wooden pylons in the bed of the Hudson River, is degrading at an alarming rate. Mr. Pignatelli, who said the foundation is in "dire need of care" and "rotting form the inside out," told the board that he had approached the management of Chelsea Piers, which leases out the property from the Hudson River Park Trust, with his concerns, only to be told that maintenance of the foundation was the responsibility of the HRPT. Likewise, when he approached the HRPT, he was told it was Chelsea Piers' responsibility.
The community board referred the matter to its waterfront committee. It'll most likely be taken up at the next committee meeting , and, depending on the outcome of that meeting, the board will take some action next month.
Calls made to Chelsea Piers and the Hudson River Park Trust were not immediately returned. Spokespeople for both organizations are on holiday. read more »
Pictured is Chelsea Piers co-founder Roland Betts, with college buddy George W. Bush. If he's quicker to the mark than his fellow alumnus was with Hurricane Katrina, he just might sort out the bureaucratic labyrinth before the piers sink beneath the water.
Update: Chelse Piers e-mailed us the following statement after the original post was published: "The Chelsea Piers are in excellent structural condition. Since Chelsea Piers Management leased the Piers in 1994, regular substructural engineering surveys have been conducted by Chelsea Piers, the NYS Department of Transportation and the Hudson River Park Trust. Routine repairs, as directed by the structural engineers, are performed as required to keep the Piers in structurally sound condition." - Matthew GraceHeroes
It started as an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, but a campaign by some 9/11 families to push the International Freedom Center off Ground Zero has gained such momentum that the museum is now pushing back. In the type of letter meant to head off official recriminations, center co-founder Tom Bernstein, of Chelsea Piers fame, and board member Paula Berry, whose husband died in the attacks, promise to include stories about the victims into the museum's "Freedom Walk."
The Daily News editorial board was convinced, and it now joins The New York Times and Newsday in backing the museum.
The Post, of course, is holding out.
It seems the connection between the Trade Center attacks and freedom is something we need explained to us again and again, because it doesn't come naturally to us. Mr. Bernstein, in an interview with the Observer in May, said of 9/11 and the subsequent Bush administration's actions, "Some people think that it was an attack on freedom. Other people think that because of the attack, their freedom was challenged." Today, he told The Real Estate, "I think that 9/11 was an attack on freedom. Freedom is the antidote to terror and to tyranny and it always has been and it always will be." read more »
We are still having a hard time seeing how Sept. 11 victims fit in among freedom fighters like Moses and Nelson Mandela. Wasn't part of the atrocity the fact that we were just going about our daily business? The museum's exhibit is meant to make those connections clearer—-if the governor doesn't stop it first.
--Matthew Schuerman
