Results tagged “eastriverpark”

                  

The Wiliamsburg Pool Parties will wrap up next Sunday with Grizzly Bear and Beach House, but in many ways yesterday's blowout with Girl Talk felt like the real explosive climax to the summer. Fifteen minutes before Girl Talk went on, the line to get in stood still from the entrance at N 8th Street and ran well past the corner of N 11th. Parks officers seemed constantly on the run throughout the set as the hordes of people shut out of the fun became unruly and threatened to push through or turn over port-a-potties. One reader left a report of a chaotic scene from the front gates where allegedly hundreds of people cut the line and were allowed in by security just as the set was getting under way.

Last year as the the McCarren Park Pool parties were coming to an end forever (not forever), we talked to JellyNYC organizer Sarah Hooper about where they might revive their series this summer. At the time she told us that they were working closely with the Open Space Alliance, Parks Department and Marty Markowitz’s office to find a new space, but no matter what, the show will remain free and they'll always have a Slip n' Slide. Well, it's all happening people.

East River Park, which hosted some gnarly snowboarders last week, was to become a winter wonderland for locals, with the excess snow creating hills primed for winter sports. Since that all melted thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, the Parks Department has just announced that from February 16th to 22nd (noon to 6 p.m.) there will be a "Vacation Skate Station" in its place. Leave your ice skates at home though, this is for skateboarding only. The week will include skateboarding programs for all levels, professional demonstrations, free skateboard rentals, ramps, raffles and giveaways, all as the East Side High School's DJ provide the tunes. Update: The Parks Dept. has now canceled the event—apparently Red Bull, who is organizing it, feels the weather will be bad this weekend.

Remember that big 'ol winter park that was opening to the public alongside the East River next week? There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is the weather is warming up! The bad news is it melted the park. The press release we received states: "The East River Snow Park is cancelled for Winter Break on Monday, February 16 through Sunday, February 22. Spring came early and unseasonably warm temperatures mean no snow, but stay tuned for more opportunities for winter fun." This is just like when Frosty melted, but Chuck did predict an early Spring.

       

Last night the big Red Bull snowboarding event finally took place at East River Park, with around 20,000 fans sticking it out in bone-chilling weather. 16 riders were lucky enough to drop in from a nine-story structure, but only one took home the 1st prize of $50K: New Jersey’s own Shayne Pospisi. Finland’s Torstein Horgmo took 2nd place, with 3rd going to New Hampshire’s own Scotty Lago and Terje Haakonsen of Norway taking home Best Trick honors for "dropping into the 90-foot tall ramp with his back foot unstrapped from the binding, pulling off a one-footed method air as he kicked his rear foot out." Anthrax brought the rock to the event, playing a few songs along with Brooklyn’s Black Gold and Valient Thorr...and according to Anthrax's Scott Ian, Chuck D also performed with them. Here's some video of the boarders:

       

That huge ramp in East River Park is finally being put into use. Tonight, 16 professional snowboarders including Shaun White, Pat Moore, and Travis Rice will head down the 9-story ramp before launching into the air onto a "double-sided pyramid landing" in the Red Bull Snowscrapers competition. The snowboarders are competing for a piece of a $100,000 purse. In addition to White, who is coming off 2009 X Games golds in Slopestyle and Superpipe, and other snowboarders, Anthrax is scheduled to perform during tonight's competition.

Snowboarding in Manhattan? Whatever! It's really happening though (it's actually happened before), thanks to the caffeine-pushers at Red Bull who will debut their "Snowscrapers" on the banks of the East RIver next month.

Looks like the little park that could...couldn't. The Williamsburg waterfront park, dubbed East River Park, opened just last year, but now the NY Post is saying it "will be shut for the winter as part of Gov. Paterson's sweeping budget cuts." While the closure will only be from January to March (clearly not the time to be sitting on the waterfront anyway), the NYC Park Advocates group noted, "Closing a park is unheard of in modern times." Perhaps when it makes its triumphant comeback it will have better landscaping, allow pets and extend hours (currently it's opened from 10 a.m. to dusk).

The $150 million reconstruction project on the two mile esplanade between East River park and Battery Park was supposed to be done last year, but you know the drill. Two thirds of the promenade still have a long way to go, and last year the state Department of Environmental Conservation fined the city and contractor Pile Foundation Construction Company $200,000 because workers were allowing the shoreline to erode into the water. Now a DEC spokesman says the company hasn't fixed the problem and the agency wants to revoke the work permit. When asked by the Villager when the project is now expected to be completed, the foreman laughed and said he didn’t know: "New York City isn’t exactly the fastest people in the world."

Robert Moses’ legacy may be getting tweaked if organizers of three upcoming exhibitions have their way.

The NY Sun has a great article about a few of NYC's open performances spaces by critic Francis Morrone. Most people love outdoor venues unconditionally, but the article is thought-provoking in terms of how these spaces should work with their environments. Various bandshells are mentioned, such as Seuffert Bandshell in Queens and the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, but one Central Park institution gets a serious dressing-down.

The problem with many of our city's outdoor performance venues is that they've been dumped into inappropriate settings — and have been designed with little or no sensitivity to those settings. A prime example is the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, which is home to "Shakespeare in the Park." Originally, this series was begun by Joseph Papp, not in Central Park, but in East River Park on the Lower East Side. Like Naumburg, the book publisher George T. Delacorte thought he was doing something good for the city he loved when he made a series of benefactions to Central Park: the Delacorte Clock, the Alice in Wonderland sculpture, and the Delacorte Theater. Fine though each of these is individually, none has anything to do with the park. The theater was built in 1962, and was intended to be temporary, but instead was renovated in 1976. It is unfortunately infelicitous in its setting. Who thought that a modern theater could play nice with Vaux's enchanting Belvedere Castle? No one thought about that.The park was viewed as a big empty place just crying to have things like bandshells and theaters dumped in it. That such things are popular cannot be denied. A city, after all, gets what it deserves.

After last night's crazy Critical Mass where two cops were hurt, the Idiotarod meeting place was moved from Willamsburg to Fort Greene Park (at the monument) at 2:30PM Everyone was alerted by text message. Looks like fears about the police trying to spoil the fun of pushing shopping carts while elaborately costumed were founded.

Lower Manhattan residents became upset when the Parks Department startd to take away 100 trees from East River Park near the Williamsburg Bridge. The NY Post reveals that the Parks Department will actually be replacing the trees with over 200 new ones. The old trees were taken down because they were sickly since they were "planted in dirt that sits atop a concrete bulkhead." You can't make this stuff up. Nice planning, whomever planted the trees back in the day! And it seems the lowest parts of the East River Park, near the South Street Seaport, will be made over someday.

Randy Kim, NBA.com

Are you tired of waiting around for festival season to officially begin? I mean, we've got a whole month to wait for the Siren Fest. So why not get over to the East River Park Amphitheater this weekend for some free music. The lineup this Saturday is as follows:

Riverside Park