DEVELOPMENT
-Nets Arena in Brooklyn?
-New Stadium for Yankees?
-New Stadium for Mets?
For the last three years, Michael Bloomberg made the city's 2012 Olympic bid and a proposed stadium on the West Side of Manhattan a major part of his administration's agenda. All of the Democratic candidates for mayor opposed the stadium. But when leaders in Albany rejected the stadium and New York did not get the Olympic bid, the plan died.
But there are others projects that have not generated the same amount of controversy.
In downtown Brooklyn, developer Bruce Ratner has proposed a 21-acre, $3.5 billion project which will include a Frank Gehry designed basketball arena for the Brooklyn Nets. The plan also calls for housing as well as commercial and retail space. The developer recently signed a "community benefits agreement" with neighborhood representatives that promises that 50 percent of the 4,500 rental units will go to low and middle-income residents, with 10 percent of these set aside for seniors. It also sets aside 35 percent of the jobs for minority workers and another 10 percent for women.
The New York Yankees and the New York Mets have also proposed building new stadiums. Although the stadiums will be paid for by the teams, taxpayers will have to pay for various "infrastructure improvements" to make them usable.
At Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the city will provide $135 million and the state will pay $70 million for parking garages along 164th Street and for some road work.
At the Mets stadium in Queens, the city will contribute a total of $105 million to cover infrastructure and planning for the baseball stadium, and the state will pay $75 million to cover infrastructure improvements.
Fernando Ferrer said he supports the Atlantic Yards project that would build an arena for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, because it also includes affordable housing and a commitment to give jobs to local residents.
"I happen to like 50 percent affordable housing," Ferrer said at a recent forum. "I happen to like the idea of a "community benefits agreement" that if this mayor were serious about in this entire city, with the stroke of a pen we'd bring down unemployment."
However, Ferrer said he is troubled by the "the lack of a public process" and fears that the MTA will not get fair market value for the land.
Ferrer has not offered a clear opinion on the stadium for the Yankees. (His campaign has not responded to a request for a position.) Although Ferrer has said that the current stadium should be preserved as a historic landmark. "I've never believed they should leave that stadium," Ferrer said. "It's a perfectly fine place to watch a baseball game."
When the proposed Mets stadium was unveiled as part of a revamped Olympic plan, Ferrer said he supported it.
In a recent interview, he said he would support a Queen's stadium of the New York Jets, but not at taxpayer expense.
"I think it's a good idea. I'd commit a lot of my time persuading them to come here, but I wouldn't commit a city dollar," Ferrer told the Times Ledger. "If there are legitimate infrastructural improvements - for example, roadways - those are things that legitimately need improving. But if you want me to pay for part of a stadium, I wouldn't do it even for my beloved Yankees."
C. Virginia Fields says she supports the Atlantic Yards project that would build an arena for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team because it also includes affordable housing and a commitment to give jobs to local residents.
"Because so many of the benefits are related to what I believe in, and what I have fought for, and what I like to see moving forward with these large scale developments, I too have supported the project," Fields said at a recent forum.
Fields has not offered a clear statement on the stadiums for the Yankees. (Her campaign has not responded to a request for a position.)
When the proposed Mets stadium was unveiled as part of a revamped Olympic plan, Fields said he supported it.
Gifford Miller supports the Atlantic Yards project that would build an arena for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.
"I think it would be great if we could bring the Nets here," Miller said at a recent forum.
Miller also touts the affordable housing and jobs that the plan is supposed to create and called on the MTA "to get the best price that it can" for the rail yards.
Miller also supports the new stadiums for the Yankees and the Mets.
Anthony Weiner supports the Atlantic Yards project that would build an arena for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. Like other officials, he is concerned about the process and he sent a letter to MTA Chair Peter Kalikow calling for greater transparency in the bid process that will sell the yards to developers.
"I support the Ratner plan," Weiner said. "But these steps would give all parties involved the time and information to make sure we get the absolute best deal and that all voices are heard."
Weiner has not offered a clear opinion on the Yankee stadium. (His campaign has not responded to a request for a position.)
Weiner suggested that the city make a bid for the 2016 Olympics, with the stadium in Queens as a centerpiece.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been an outspoken proponent of the Atlantic Yards project that would build an arena for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. The plan also calls for housing and new commercial and retail space.
""The $3.5 billion project will create 8,500 permanent new jobs, 4,500 mixed-income apartments, substantial new commercial, retail, open space and host the first major league sports team to play in Brooklyn since the Dodgers," said Bloomberg.
Bloomberg also supports the proposal for a new Yankee stadium in the Bronx and a new Mets stadium in Queens.
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In the climactic Battle of the Bands in Jack Black's 2003 movie "School of Rock," a band of fifth grade preppies out rocks the older, better-known competition. But the preteen rock group was not the only underdog in that scene. The theater where the battle took place - the St. George on Staten Island - also faced long odds and, for now, seems to have overcome them.
Once an ornate showcase, the St. George had fallen into disrepair by the time "School of Rock" was filmed. Efforts to revive it as a roller rink and nightclub had proved unsuccessful and so, while never officially shut down, the theater remained largely vacant and unused.
Today, the St. George has been restored to much of its former glory - without the benefit of landmark status or government money. The revival of the St. George Theater is largely the work of one family that set out to save it and create a showcase on Staten Island.
The story of the St. George is the story of what a few individuals can do. But the theater also provides evidence that buildings without landmark status can be saved. The St. George Theater is among many notable buildings - various houses of worship and the New Victory Theater are among the others -- that have been preserved without receiving landmark status. Meanwhile some landmarked buildings, such as the Bronx Courthouse, stand vacant and in danger of deterioration, and the landmarked smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island remains a ruin.
The St. George Theater opened in the St. George section of Staten Island, a short walk from the ferry terminal, on December 4, 1929. Designed by Eugene DeRosa, with the assistance of Staten Island architect James Whitford, its exterior was nothing particularly remarkable. But, inside the building offered an array of lavish and ornate detailing, much of it with a Spanish flavor -- faux wrought iron balconies, heavy chandeliers and painting of bullfighters and villas. The 3,000-seat theater also offered some amenities that were notable for its time, including much unobstructed seating, a $25,000 Wurlitzer organ, and an advanced heating and cooling system.
The theater thrived as a setting for live performances until the 1950s. Then it served as a movie theater until the 1970s. Various attempts were made to convert it to other uses - the orchestra pit was filled for its brief incarnation as a roller rink - but, except for the "School of Rock" filming, the theater remained largely shut down for 25 years.
In 2001, then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani proposed using city money to help turn the theater into a cultural center. But according to the St. George Theater's Web site, the plans were derailed by the September 11, 2001 attacks. Those who valued the theater worried that it might be demolished, and in 2002 preservationists launched a drive to save it. But that effort faltered.
Then Rosemary Cappozalo entered the picture. A dance teacher known on the island as Mrs. Rosemary, Cappozalo and her daughters, Doreen Cugno and Luanne Sorentino, set out to save the St. George. They persuaded the theaters owners to transfer the lease to their non-profit group, the Richmond Dance Ensemble (the owner got a tax deduction) -- and began making renovations. The ensemble remains the legal owner and operator of the theater.
The St. George posed a real challenge. "It hadn't enjoyed a good life in 30 years," Cappozalo said. "When we came in, the ceilings in the bathroom were on the floor with water coming in…Some of the holes in the wall were larger than our own bodies." Broken cinder blocks littered the floor, the plaster was broken, the skylight above the stage was beyond repair.
Cappozalo began by fixing the roof, then continued from there, doing the necessary things first. The seats have been replaced or reupholstered and the stage features a new $70,000 fiberglass curtain. She sewed curtains for the bathrooms and dressing rooms and has arranged artificial flowers. Much of the plaster has been restored, though the rotunda still needs work. "We did try to restore and not modernize," Cappozalo said.
The detail work is astounding. Virtually no surface in the theater is without decoration. Fancy plaster medallions adorn some ceilings, while more plaster -- borders, swirls and relief work of all types -- frames paintings and bedecks balconies. Much of this needed to be fixed and painted. A dispute with the city over fire regulations further complicated the renovation.
So far, Cappozalo has paid for most of the renovation herself, using hundreds of thousands of dollars of her life saving from 41 years as a dance teacher on Staten Island. She will not linger on the question of why she took on the project. She knew the theater from her years in dance in Staten Island and developed an appreciation for it. "There are so few theaters across the country like this," Cappozalo said. If no one had stepped in to save it, she said, "it would be destroyed or become a mini-mall."
Cappozalo has sought donations for the theater from individuals and foundations. But her main focus is to stage shows and rent out the space both to bring people into the theater and to raise money for future work. In her restoration she focused first on work that had to be done so the theater could open and function. "We had to get this place to feed itself," she said.
Since the theater officially reopened last December, a number of shows have appeared there, including plays for children, "Beatlemania," a concert by comedian Howie Mandel, and a Christmas show similar to the one at Radio City. Later this year, the theater will be the scene for a Golden Oldies show, performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater II and another Christmas extravaganza.
With any money that comes in, much remains to be done, Cappozalo said, including repairs in the basement, a restoration of the marquee and more plaster work.
Cappozalo has not applied for landmark status for the building and says she does not want it. If the building were landmarked, she says, any renovation would take too long, making it difficult for her to generate the income she says she needs to keep the theater going.
Some critics might say that, in going this route, Cappozalo has had to cut corners - to change the building more than purists would like. For example, restoring the 1929 pipe organ would take years, she said. And so the theater uses a very large electric organ instead.
But her efforts have generally met with enthusiastic praise, and she has received a number of awards for the project.
Some worry that, without landmark status, the theater will survive only as long as Cappozalo and her daughters have the money, the energy and the will to keep it going. These fears are fueled by efforts to develop St. George, an area that had fallen on rough times but which Cappozalo says is "up and coming." The Staten Island Yankees minor league baseball stadium is nearby, luxury housing is planned for the area and a Chamber of Commerce Web site announces, "Remember Park Slope, Hoboken and Williamsburg? Downtown Staten Island is next."
On a Web page about the theater a reader wrote in, "You guys better get this theatre its landmarks status. There are plans in the works for someone to buy it back … and to level the entire block to make way for a tall residential tower, as well as commercial space."
"The theater will not be sold," Cappozalo's daughter, Doreen Cugno responded,"
And Cappozalo is focused on future plans for the St. George and the Richmond Dance Ensemble. "We envision a good life for the theater," she said.
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