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BPC Authority Hears Wish Lists for Center A community center is coming to Battery Park City, and plenty of residents want a piece of it. The 50,000 square foot center is slated to include two swimming pools, a gymnasium, an auditorium, a fitness area, dance and Pilates studios, classrooms and even a kitchen for cooking classes.
“Since 9/11, we’d been feeling the isolation down here more and more,” she said. “Now our group is gaining support faster than we can absorb it.” Meyers said their meetings sometimes attract as many as 40 people. For now, the Seniors use a Battery Park City Conservancy community room two mornings a week for exercise classes, bridge or mahjong. But, they say, their access to the space is limited. Last month, nearly 20 Battery Park City seniors came to a meeting of Community Board 1’s BPC Community Center Task Force to rally for space in a community center that is more than five years in the planning.
The seniors had just one simple request. “What we need is a permanent drop-in place,” said Meyers.For starters, a space the size of a classroom would do. “We will certainly consider your needs,” responded committee chair Anthony Notaro. The seniors weren’t the only ones with needs.
He added that the facility would draw people from other neighborhoods, bringing income. According to the committee’s estimates, the center may cost as much as $5 million a year to operate, with fundraising needed to support it.
The wishes of P.S. 89 parents in attendance, however, were not so easily granted. They wanted space for a P.S. 89 annex, to create smaller classes in the school. But Remauro said this option is no longer a possibility. “The DOE [Department of Education] has already said that they are absolutely not interested in this annex space,” she said, adding that changing the center’s layout at this stage could invite a lawsuit from the developer. “Legal problems,” she said, “could set the community center back ten years.”
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