The doors to Asphalt Green in Battery Park City may finally open due to the actions of the BPCA.
Editorial
Lower Manhattan residents sighed in relief Tuesday after a year of holding their collective breath over the uncertainty of when—or if—Asphalt Green would open.
Dennis Mehiel, the chairman and CEO of the Battery Park City Authority, announced at the Authority’s October 23 board meeting that he and Asphalt Green leadership had reached a tentative agreement on a renegotiated contract. The board unanimously approved the outline, “empowering staff” to finalize the agreement.
The new target date for Asphalt Green to open the multipurpose community center on North End Avenue is December 1. (Click here for more details.)
“At the end of the day, having a qualified, experienced operator of that center to deliver that service to the community and to get it open in weeks, not months, in weeks, is absolutely essential,” Mehiel said.
We agree. The residents of Lower Manhattan have waited—first patiently, then anxiously, then angrily—for Asphalt Green to open, which was originally to begin its operations in November 2011. But then came the delays. And the confusion. Months passed and the center remained closed.
The community demanded answers, but they received silence. They demanded expedience, but they received lethargy. They demanded respect, but they received patronizing platitudes. (In a September 4 Community Board 1 BPC committee meeting, a BPCA representative irked residents by monotonously and almost apathetically stating that the Authority “understand[s] that the community is anxious. … There’s an urgency on our part.”)
With rumors abounding and answers yet to be found, it seemed as if the community’s frustration would continue indefinitely.
But a month later, BPCA President Gayle Horwitz resigned, and Mehiel, the new chairman (he took over for William Thompson, Jr., in June), was now also running the presidency. Then a few weeks later came his announcement: Asphalt Green may open as soon as the winter season. His actions were applauded at the community board’s full meeting that same day.
With this announcement, DOWNTOWN Magazine is hopeful that the ever-contentious relationship between BPCA and residents can soon be repaired.
At the meeting earlier this week, the chairman calmly and articulately detailed the Authority’s reasons for delaying the center’s opening. In the process, he confirmed the rumors the Authority had long denied, that Horwitz (and ultimately Mehiel as well) did, in fact, disapprove of the contract with Asphalt Green, which was crafted under her predecessor James Cavanaugh.
That Horwitz disagreed with the terms of a contract signed by the previous administration is fair enough. But that they refused to disclose their displeasure to the public is unacceptable. We thank and applaud Mehiel for distancing himself from the obfuscation and reticence that defined Horwitz’s administration—and, in truth, the one before hers—as well as his speed in finding a new president, Demetrios A. Boutris, to handle the day-to-day operations of the BPCA
Both residents and New York officials have also gone on the record stating their pleasure with the work he has done so far. And even Asphalt Green broke its usual silence to suggest that it is happy with the progress under Mehiel.
“Asphalt Green is pleased with the recent positive steps taken with the Battery Park City Authority,” Asphalt Green’s Marketing Director Christina Klapper told DOWNTOWN Magazine.
There is still much work to be done, however. The community center is still not open. Mehiel may have assured residents that it will be open in a matter of weeks, but we have heard such promises of progress before. The Authority has a long history of nefarious deeds. The deteriorated trust between it and the community will take time to repair. So our enthusiasm will remain tempered, our faith in the Authority minimal, until children splash and flail in the pool during swimming lessons and twenty-somethings contort their bodies in yoga class.
Mehiel’s negotiations with Asphalt Green have earned him a measure of goodwill—but only a bit. Any further setbacks to the opening of Asphalt Green’s BPC location could send his good deeds crashing down around him.
We still wait to see whether Asphalt Green will be ready by December 1, and we will remain wary of the long-term transparency of the BPCA. But for this week, Mehiel has served the taxpayers well. For this week, he and the Authority deserve praise. For this week, have hope.