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May 4, 2014- By Steven E. Greer
There was yet another charity walk allowed to take place today, clogging the Battery Park City streets with screaming and cheering people. The event today was the “Walk MS“. It was either a two or a four-mile course, starting at Pier 26, then winding down the Hudson River esplanade to the lower tip of Manhattan.
For unknown reasons, the local planners who allow these events, such as the Community Board 1, seem to not realize that an ideal structure exists for these bikes and walks. The “Pataki Highway” that runs along the West Side Highway is wider than the esplanade, and removed from the community more. Nevertheless, this MS Walk, and most others, bypassed the Pataki Highway altogether.
As a result of the poor planning, in the video you can see a loud group of well-intentioned people hooting and hollering down Battery Place, congesting the pedestrian sidewalk, disturbing the peace.
However, not all of the participants were nice. At the 15-second mark, you can see a motorcycle-gang-jacket-wearing man block a yellow and cab and threaten the cabby, all right in front of PS-276 (see comments below).
What do the residents of BPC get out of all of these events? Why is BPC the only place in Manhattan that allows this type of event? If the appointed leaders of the Battery Park City Authority actually lived in BPC, woudl this all be much different?
Please post your comments.
Thanks for bringing this up…as it will be brought up at the next BPC Committee meeting on Tuesday at the Library at 6pm.
Agreed – PATAKISTAN – the little used wide memorial walk from the Statue to the WTC that our former Governor conceded to after the neighborhood protested and defeated his overpriced burial of West Street would be the perfect place for a walk. It was cut off again by neighborhood protest, saving tire swing park.
The never ending walk of charities, although great potential money raisers for good causes, should not wake or disturb the community. The questions coming up in the next CB1 meeting will be:
(1) Are the charities giving back to the community for maintenance (i.e. a fee for usage)?
(2) Can we choose a better route?
(3) Are the charities being vetted through such vehicles as charity navigator?
Tribeca is a mess with these people too
Just asking — who protested against burying West Street? Seems to me like it would have been great to eliminate the traffic noise, connect BPC with Tribeca and create a more pedestrian friendly NYC, despite Robert Moses ideals from 60 years ago . . . not sure why any “resident” would oppose it . . .
I happen to be walking by at the very moment you recorded this. At the :15 second mark of the video, you can see a guy standing in front of the taxi gesturing. He was screaming profanities at the cab driver, telling him not to move an f****ing inch. Then he skips away laughing as his buddies laughed with him. He and his buddy’s all had motorcycle gang jackets on. Can’t remember the name of the gang, but I remember it was obnoxiously named, as most of them are.
The people who protested the burying of West Street included the usual suspects — the self appointed “community leaders” including current head of Hudson River Park.
Contact the charities, too! The last thing the MS Society (a good cause, by the way) wants is to lose potential donors. They don’t know the neighborhood… they get assigned the route by the city.
Here’s their contact info:
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
New York City – Southern New York Chapter
Main numbers:
212-463-7787 (New York City office)
914-694-1654 (White Plains office)
Email:
info@msnyc.org
Media inquiries? Call Liz Samurovich at 212-453-3209 or e-mail liz.samurovich@nmss.org
hjjames —
Thanks for the update. Based on those concerns, which seem like huge “scare tactics” at best, it is a shame that some interest some where was able to sink this and we are now stuck forever with a highly dangerous four lane highway that kids have to cross to go to school, which clogs our air with exhaust and generally kills BPC’s chance of ever being connected to the rest of Downtown based on the WTC plans. The opportunity will never come back and someday we will look back at this chance and just shake our heads. Bummer.