Mayor Bloomberg & Governor Paterson Visiting Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park Today - View Delivery Of 24 Granite Stones For FDR Memorial Death Box
Image of View From Southpoint Park That Will Be Blocked By FDR Memorial Sculpture Room From the Main Street WIRE
Later this afternoon, New York State Governor David Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will come to Roosevelt Island to welcome the arrival of the Granite Foundation Stones for the FDR Memorial Boondoggle. According to the event's invitation:
... 24 monolithic stones will be barged up the East River to the Park. The stones, 12" x 6" x 6", 36 tons each will be off-loaded by crane onto the site to form the foundation of what architect Louis B. Kahn called the "Room"...Others call it the Death Room Mausoleum.
Here's the invitation for the event.
The Main Street WIRE photo at top of post is of the panoramic view of the East River Waterfront that will forever be lost once the granite "death room" is constructed.
Sad day for Roosevelt Island.
Update 11:40 PM - Roosevelt Island Historical Society President Judy Berdy was there and shares some images from the day.
Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson At Southpoint Park,
The granite stones for the Death Room being delivered,
RIOC Directors Howard Polivy, Jonathan Kalkin and Margie Smith,
and invited guests.
Ms Berdy has more images from the event here.Governor Paterson's Flikr page notes:
Governor Paterson takes part in the ceremony to place the granite foundation stones at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. The Governor signs his name on a placement stone.
The Daily News Daily Politics provides this tidbit about the signing ceremony:
... the officials were asked to sign their names in the cement with nails for the park's foundation stones. However, the ceremony went on so long that by the time they were ready to sign, the cement was practically dry. The odd thing is that I'm told Maloney took the nails along with her when she left.)...The highlight of the day for Mayor Bloomberg had to have been as he was leaving Southpoint Park and stopped by to chat, or more accurately, listen to Riverwalk Bar & Grill owner Alphonso DiCioccio's reminiscing on past encounters as co-owner Sal Hoo looks on in bemusement.
9 comments :
Just horrible that millions are being spent to destroy wonderful open space with a completely inappropriate monument...Glad I will not be there.
Wonderful open space? Hmmm... while I agree that Southpoint Park had its certain charm I am not going to miss it. RI is probably still one of the greenest neighborhoods in all NYC. If I want wilderness I go uptown to where the cloisters are or stick with Central Park. I really like the monument and it's going to be fantastic for Roosevelt Island.
The Park is being constructed in part because the Park board is made up of huge donors to the Democratic Party. (The prez, Sally Minard, was chief fundraiser for Maloney's aborted primary challenge to Gillibrand.) The FERI folks failed to meet their fundraising goals, so Maloney got them $500,000 in federal "stimulus" funds. The construction contract was awarded to a Long Island firm without competitive bidding. (The principal has donated substantial amounts to the Park LLC.) Yet, Maloney's appropriation request states that it will create jobs for her district. It doesn't.
Even if one ignores the Park's design, it is poorly conceived. South Point has to be closed for every major event at the UN--General Assembly, etc. This is because it is too much of a security risk to leave it open. The addition of the "box" will enhance the risk. So, reality is that the Park will be closed and inaccessible for considerable chunks of time. This isn't a change in the status quo; I just don't think it makes sense to spend $45 million dollars building a park that has to be closed whenever the UN has a major event and/or a controversial speaker scheduled.
The Island's transportation "system" is overloaded as it is. Yesterday, someone (RIOC?) was providing transporation between the subway station and the Park. If the Park opens, it will add more bodies to the already overloaded F train and/or the tram. The red bus route will be extended and it will take all of us that much longer to get home. Many folks will drive and I doubt they will all park at Motorgage. They will drive cars down and double park illegally outside of Goldwater. (If the RI bridge has as many closings as it does now, it should be LOTS of fun driving on to the Island.)
We are going to have even more tour buses rumbling down Main Street. I suspect that when Goldwater is closed, the Park folks will demand--and get, since $ talks--a good chunk of its land to build a garage and/or Parking lot for the Park.
If the Park does attract tourists, the toilet facilities which the Trust for Public Land is constructing won't be sufficient. The AVAC system doesn't extend to the Park. Crowds bring refuse. How is it going to be collected? More trucks rumbling down Main Street!
The biggest joke is that RIOC is going to be responsible for maintenance. It does such a wonderful job maintaining the Island now, dosn't it? Is it also going to be responsible for security? Those of us who have lived on the Island a long time know how many capital projects have been poorly maintained. (That little patch of green near the tram was once part of a ballfield constructed at a cost of over $1 million that was closed almost immediately because of falling debris from the bridge. Blackwell House has been "restored" twice. After spending a lot to fix it up in the '70s, the building was neglected.)
I may be wrong, but I think the cormorants and sea gulls will find the tops of those granite blocks a perfect place to nest. If they don't, the pigeons certainly will. The blocks will be covered with guano quickly. The pigeons and the rats from the subway station should find the Park very attractive.
I doubt people will. The FERI folks think that they can plant little leaf linden trees and they will grow to look like the ones in their artists' renderings. It remains to be seen whether little leaf lindens will grow on the Island at all, but as the planting of the cherry trees showed, you can't plan on 100% success.(Somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of all the cherry trees planted died. I see no reason to think the linden trees will all survive.) The winds at Southpoint can be intense, so the trees are not going to grow straight in neat little lines.
Quite seriously, while I dislike the design of the Park, it's the failure to provide any additional transportation and/or any money for maintenance and security that concerns me most.
Thank you to "anonymous" for summarizing all the reasons for NOT proceeding with the memorial.
They have been articulated loudly and clearly in the past but totally disregarded. Unfortunately
"you cannot fight City Hall".
It had to take Anonomous above a lot of time to write that blog entry. Maybe this time next year, it can be written from a laptop or Ipad at Southpoint Park (where there will be WiFi.
Don't be so negative! With all the high-powered people that were there yesterday, I'm sure it will be very nice and well maintained.
I hate this Death Room Mausoleum! Totally agree with Roosevelt Islander. Sad day for Roosevelt Island, indeed.
Every time something new happens here on RI the doomsayers are out and about. And hardly any of what they warned us about actually happen.
Roosevelt Islanders have always been hesitant of change. The south tip always closes due to the UN general assembly and major speakers, whether it is a completed park or not. Get over it already.
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