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June 29, 2009
Slope Armory on Track to Open in September
The long-awaited opening of an athletic center at the Park Slope Armory is set to happen in September, according to Sean Andrews, executive director of the Prospect Park Y. The new, $16 million center that the Y is running was supposed to open early this year, but contractors are still putting the finishing touches on construction. While the centerpiece of the armory's renovation is the overhauled drill floor (above), which will be used primarily for track-and-field purposes, Andrews says the Y wants the facility to be a destination for community recreation. To that end, the armory will be outfitted with what Andrews calls 10 "very large" multi-purpose rooms and the Y will offer programs like mom-and-baby yoga at the center. Andrews says that basic membership will cost $40 a month for adults and, as at other Y's, financial aid will be available. Open houses and tours of the center are supposed to begin soon.
Slope Armory Should be Ready for Action by '09 [Brownstoner] GMAP
Slope Armory Athletic Center Comes Out to Play [Brownstoner]
Closing Bell: Park Slope Armory Lookin' Hot to Trot [Brownstoner]
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Comments
Too bad something like this isn't slated for the Crown heights and Bed Stuy armories.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 29, 2009 11:10 AM
quote:
mom-and-baby yoga
hahah. the picture in my mind is making me laugh.
40 dollars a month? that seems high, no? maybe not. how much do regular gym memberships cost?
i wish this building's use didnt just cater to people who like to exercise, but the community as a whole.
what used to be in this building?
*rob*
Posted by: PitbullNYC at June 29, 2009 11:11 AM
This might be great. Any word from anywhere on other features? B-ball court, weights and all that fun stuff?
Posted by: Johnny at June 29, 2009 11:18 AM
DIBS - exactly what I was thinking. This picture should be used by the CH residents in their fight.
Posted by: dittoburg at June 29, 2009 11:22 AM
$40 a month? - For what?
is there a gym inside with weights and machines and whatnot?
Posted by: gemini10 at June 29, 2009 11:27 AM
Rob, for a long time this was a homeless women's shelter. The back part of the armory, the huge drill room, was used as a movie studio. I went in once when they were filming a Brad Pitt movie. They built a set that looked exactly like a fancy, pre-war Park Avenue penthouse apartment. The "view" was painted on an enormous curtain. It was amazing how convincing the art direction is on big-budget movies.
But the neighbors complained about the movie making, it was disruptive and scores of trucks had to park outside to generate electricity for the lights. The building had nowhere near enough juice. That's what I know. Now it will be open to the community so that's a good thing.
Posted by: sam at June 29, 2009 11:28 AM
I could be mistaken, Sam but I believe the women's shelter still takes up part of the space.
Anyone know...?
Posted by: 11217 at June 29, 2009 11:30 AM
This does frustrate me. While the place looks great, in my opinion, Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights need a facility like this more than Park Slope - yet the 2 armories in those communities are not open and renovated. Makes me wonder how the City decided to renovate this armory as opposed to other ones.
Posted by: MaconStreetMan at June 29, 2009 11:36 AM
The women's shelter is still there, towards the front of the building. It is possible for an enormous building like this to have several uses. I believe there is also a Veteran's group in there as well. The Crown Heights and Bed Stuy armories, of similar size, could also be used in the same manner. It's really criminal that New York City, supposedly the center of the known universe, is so bad at thinking creatively about anything.
Posted by: Montrose Morris at June 29, 2009 11:38 AM
The women's shelter does and will still take up the 8th Ave end
Posted by: jasetheace at June 29, 2009 11:40 AM
The city dangled that carrot in front of us if the community stopped protesting the intake center- however, now they say there is no money for that anyway. So they will screw both the community and the homeless and since this is not a rich community, they really don't give a you know what about giving anything back to the community other than grief.
There is still a shelter in the Park Slope Armory- the track was the city making it more palatable to Park Slopers.
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 11:40 AM
I agree that Park Slope has an overabundance of such things, and it would be a tremendous asset to Crown Heights and Bed Stuy to have their armory used for something similar.
With 6 gyms already (that I can think of off the top of my head) in Park Slope proper, plus ample places to run in Prospect Park, it does seem disappointing that other areas are so in need while Park Slope basks in such excess.
Posted by: 11217 at June 29, 2009 11:42 AM
Both residents & CB-6 made a lot of effort to get this done - it's taken years. Community groups fought many options. It looks as if CH & BedStuy are beginning the same journey, doesn't it?
Posted by: Arkady at June 29, 2009 11:43 AM
I really wish the armories were utilized for their original purpose: housing a military garrison.
Especially in more dangerous neighborhoods, perhaps a standing army could provide real security that the police are unable or unwilling to provide.
Then there is the issue of our declining economy. The probability of serious civil unrest in the near future is much greater than most believe.
Posted by: Polemicist at June 29, 2009 11:47 AM
I am wondering what else they will have there...
Posted by: infinitejester at June 29, 2009 11:47 AM
"The renovated facility will include track and field, basketball, volleyball, tennis, gymnastics, badminton, boxing, fencing, judo, table tennis, tae kwon do, handball, weightlifting, wrestling and aerobics. The renovated facility also retains a women's shelter."
Posted by: 11217 at June 29, 2009 11:50 AM
Gee- and just when I thought we had lost our resident loon, polemicist pops up to take his place. All hale the visionary polemicist (the poster formerly known as pestilence).
A word to the wise, poley (although that would seem to automatically exclude you)- take your meds, they are ever so much more effective than the aluminum foil cap and antenna you're wearing.
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 12:02 PM
arkady- we are but Park Slope started out with a number of advantages that CH and Bed-Stuy don't have- political and financial power. We're working on it but Bloomberg perceives us as a convenient dumping ground (we already have 6x's the number of social service beds as other neighborhoods).
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 12:07 PM
Polemicist, you came out of the woodwork to make that comment? Have you totally lost your mind? In our "more dangerous neighborhoods", this garrison would do what? March through the streets like Storm Troopers - the Nazi kind, perhaps rounding up the usual suspects, or anyone who dares to look them in the face? Maybe they could rush out through the portcullis and stop a loud block party, or intervene in traffic disputes. "Civil unrest" is CAUSED by armies interfering with people's civil rights, and armed bodies of garrisoned soldiers are historically notorious for getting it wrong when out on the streets.
In the past the NYC armory troops were used to break up strikes, or control immigrant groups, and other policing actions that the power elite deemed for the greater good, but were actually anti-immigrant, anti-civil rights, and anti-labor - the kind of thing we hoped to have gotten beyond in our dealings with all of the different peoples, income levels and groups in this city. What does it say for us as a city when we need garrisons of troops in poor neighborhoods? Nothing good. Nothing good at all.
Posted by: Montrose Morris at June 29, 2009 12:09 PM
Montrose- and you expect poley to comprehend this? He would love to see Nazi storm troopers running through the streets of Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy.
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 12:13 PM
I thought Poley's comment was funny!
It was a joke right???
Posted by: Johnny at June 29, 2009 12:18 PM
Yes, I'm pretty sure it was sarcastic.
Posted by: 11217 at June 29, 2009 12:20 PM
Yeah, Montrose. Sturmtruppen! Sieg Heil!
I actually was just trying to test how the brownstoner cast of characters is these days, i.e. their reactionary and illogical statements. I am happy to report that it took not even 30 minutes for you to think "Nazi!"
Good work, this place is as nutty as ever.
Posted by: Polemicist at June 29, 2009 12:23 PM
"Both residents & CB-6 made a lot of effort to get this done - it's taken years."
More like decades. I remember this being talked up back in the 1980s.
Posted by: Sparafucile at June 29, 2009 12:24 PM
The athletic facility's primary users during the day/school year are to be public schools (for P.E. and for team sports -- many of the area's schools, including PS 107 across the street, lack gyms)and youth sports groups. Community access is to be worked in around those users' schedules. The model for this Armory development was the 168th St/Manhattan Armory.
Posted by: 16Street at June 29, 2009 12:29 PM
Pole,
Are you saying your post was entirely in jest, or just that it was an illogical leap from your post to thinking Nazi? Unless all your previous posts are in jest, I've never known you to have much of a sense of humor. There are a bunch of posters who, if they wrote what you did, I would assume they were kidding. With you I'm not so sure.
In any event, I will walk this back from the Nazi comparison. It sounds more like you want a resurrection of the Quartering Acts. Seriously, the idea of routine postings of U.S. troops as an instrument of domestic social control is pretty antithetical to the values we founded our nation upon (and with the 4th coming up this week, to boot). But I take it all back if you can unequivocaly state that your entire post was in jest.
Posted by: slopefarm at June 29, 2009 12:33 PM
good luck with that slopefarm. I have to agree with you based on his previous posting history.
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 12:35 PM
It's true that most people today do not realize that the old armories were built to keep the locals under control much as the Czars and Kings of Old Europe had their armed forces stationed in their capitals to crack heads in case of "peasant uprisings". But as times evolved. the armories served many purposes including support centers for the military fighting in foreign wars. Today they serve as homeless centers and recreation facilities in many neighborhoods. The Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue hosts the famous and prestigious Armory Antiques Show every year as well as other "big tent" activities. Mr Stoner should be looking at one of the armory spaces in our hoods for his "winter flea".
Posted by: sam at June 29, 2009 12:36 PM
Sam- that's a great idea! Would be nice if it was in one of the armories in CH or Bed-Stuy. Don't think that'll happen, sadly- but it would be a great boost on the nabe.
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 12:49 PM
Arkady:
I have to let you know that Crown Heights has been trying to have the armory at Bedford and Atlantic purposed into something that would add to the private market vitality for a looooooooooooooooong time. The last halfway viable attempt for a recreation centerlike the one that is about to be complted at Park Slope was during the Pataki era. It didn't happen because the then Assemblyman Roger Green would not kiss Pataki's proverbial a#$.
As such, the powers that be are now trying to foist the homeless men's intake center. Could it be that the PTB believe that there will not be any consequences for their actions? Do they believe that Crown Heights and Bed Stuy are powerless communities? Why?
Posted by: BrooklynIsHome at June 29, 2009 12:59 PM
Polemicist, I don't bring Nazis up lightly, or at the drop of a hat, but since they are the best example of troops marching through the streets harassing innocent people that I can think of, there you go. Since humor, irony, or even sarcasm are not your strong suits, claiming such after the fact is rather specious. And who appointed you the tester of people's reactions to illogical and ridiculous statements, anyway?
If that makes ME a nut, then so be it.
Posted by: Montrose Morris at June 29, 2009 1:05 PM
Polemicist suggests stationing permanent garrisons in our cities and calls those who question this reactionary! How ironic. When I read P's posts I always get the impression that he thinks it's 1848 and his side has just won. I agree with him though that the Nazi comparison was inappropriate--his thought seems WAY to the right of any kind of fascism.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 29, 2009 1:13 PM
I love how this entire thread was "reverse slope-jacked". The posting was about park slope, but the discussion is all about Crown Heights and Bed-stuy (and Berlin). Take THAT park slope!
Posted by: bkre at June 29, 2009 1:17 PM
Funny, Bob. In all seriousness, I would term pole a corporatist. He wants government to pave a clear path for purely market-limited build-out by developers, opposes any kind of government regulation of property use, yet wants to station the army in our hoods to keep the rabble in line. That, with no overt bigotry, seems like corporatism, to me.
Posted by: slopefarm at June 29, 2009 1:21 PM
slopefarm- I never heard that term before but it fits perfectly. I'm just not sure how many corporatists, however put aluminum foil on their heads or windows :-).
No insult to Park Slope intended- I think its great that they were able to pull this off, but I wonder if the city will now decide to make them the intake center for women for the whole city? Somehow I don't think so.
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 1:30 PM
I think the whole danger of militias peaked in the '90s.
Posted by: infinitejester at June 29, 2009 1:45 PM
bx,
It's a good term but, alas, I've misused it. I was thinking of Italian proto-fascist corporatism, but I even got that wrong as I wiki'd the term. There have been many forms of corporatism over the centuries, but wrong to apply the term to pole. Cheers.
Posted by: slopefarm at June 29, 2009 1:46 PM
I disagree slopefarm. I suspect that P. is much closer to the Carlists than to any sort of fascists or corporatists (who AFAIK were historically very much in favor of government regulation of private property uses, along with all other phases of society).
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 29, 2009 1:46 PM
An Olympic-sized pool would have been nice...
Posted by: jwald at June 29, 2009 1:55 PM
It's comforting to see that in a fast changing world, Polemicist remains batsh*t crazy as always.
Posted by: DitmasSnark at June 29, 2009 2:00 PM
Bob,
See above. I recanted. I simply misremembered the meaning of the term from my college days. It's getting too long ago, now.
Posted by: slopefarm at June 29, 2009 2:02 PM
There is a pool a couple blocks away at the Park Slope YMCA on 9th Street.
Posted by: 11217 at June 29, 2009 2:02 PM
jwald,
Don't get me started on teh pool. Prospect Park Y, who will be running the armory facility, broke ground several years ago on a new and much larger pool than the dinky little basement pool they have now. Go into the CVS parking lot and look next door at teh site. It's coming along swimmingly -- Not.
DS -- there, that's the word I was looking for. I tried to get all theoretical, but I think you've nailed it. I trust you are settling in nicely into your new digs.
Posted by: slopefarm at June 29, 2009 2:05 PM
NOW we agree slopefarm. In another life I was a doctoral candidate in Political Science (who spent years busily NOT writing his dissertation). I'm still very sensitive to the proper use of political labels. IMO "batsh*t crazy" is the most appropriate term to apply to P's political views :-)
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 29, 2009 2:14 PM
I would give Snark of the Day to Snark but it would be like carryig coals to Newscastle :-). Snarky- is that your new handle?
Posted by: bxgrl at June 29, 2009 2:18 PM
bxgrl - Yes, my transition is complete. I slipped out of the Slope last week.
Posted by: DitmasSnark at June 29, 2009 4:56 PM
Great -- let's have gym facilities and small shelters at all the armories throughout the five boroughs, so all neighborhoods can share equally.
I would guess Bloomberg is trying to sweep all the homeless men out of sight by making them all use the Crown Heights location -- because he's up for reelection.
Posted by: mopar at June 29, 2009 5:08 PM
I've got one word for Bloomie: Honduras.
Posted by: DitmasSnark at June 29, 2009 5:28 PM
People have said that Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights may need a facility such as this more than Park Slope does.
After checking the GMAP, it appears this Armory is kind of Sunset Park (and not as far as Bay Ridge). It is south of Greenwood Cemetery -- 47th St.
tybur6 wrote in HOTD at - 1:25 PM, something like:
You're as much in the . . . as 36th Street is "South Park Slope."
Posted by: BklynSoFar at June 29, 2009 6:32 PM
DitmasSnark, welcome to the neighborhood! Maybe I'll see you at Sycamore this evening.
Posted by: sixyearsandcounting at June 29, 2009 6:34 PM
> I trust you are settling in nicely into your new digs.
I am indeed, thanks slopefarm!
> DitmasSnark, welcome to the neighborhood!
Thanks, sixyearsandcounting. I'm digging the neighborhood and loving the new place. I won't be at Sycamore this evening, but have a tipple for me.
Posted by: DitmasSnark at June 29, 2009 10:13 PM
Park Slope Armory gets a multimillion athletic retro fit, complete with mom and baby yoga classes.
The Bed Stuy/Crown Heights Armory gets more homeless men
You know why that is: wealth, class, education, politics, activism, ra... I'm not going to go there. It's not a coincidence, it never is.
Posted by: Crownlfc at June 30, 2009 1:13 AM
a track will be mostly used by schools for much needed space for indoor track practice and meets. kids in prospect park schools can benifit from it just as much as kids from bed stuy. and frankly all will use it. 6 years back when i went to midwood hs we had to shlep all the way to pratt for precious indoor track time. many other schools did likewise. ie. - south shore, boys and girls, erasmus (so stop complaining)
Posted by: messierishome at June 30, 2009 10:02 PM
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