The City Department of Parks has entered negotiations with an operator to put four ""bubbles" over the 26 tennis courts in the northwestern part of Central Park during winter months, according to an article today by Serena Solomon at DNAinfo.com
"A golf cart would shuttle uptown tennis players from Fifth Avenue and Central Park West to climate controlled courts in Central Park where a match would cost up to $100 an hour, under a proposal being considered by the Parks Department, the article said.
"Some Upper West Side residents, park advocates and the local community board have objected to the plan, saying it's an elitist idea that milks money of a public space and they've been kept in the dark about," the article continued. "The only people who will be able to afford this is the well-heeled," declared Upper West Side resident Cynthia Doty, at a Community Board 7 meeting Thursday night, the article said.
The courts can now be used by anyone willing to pay a $100 permit fee per season but their playing time can be limited to one hour if no other courts are available. When the bubbles are up, the article said that tennis players would be charged $30 to $100 per hour" with a "congestion-pricing scheme fee structure that would cost more at more popular times.
Betsy Smith, assistant Parks Commissioner, said the bubbles would allow New Yorkers to increase their wintertime exercise, the article maintained, adding that much of the cash generated from the new hourly fees "would go in to the city's general fund." Ms. Smith was quoted in the article was stated that "it is not taking away space that is not being used for anything else."
Some residents at the meeting questioned by public debate on the plan began three months after the Parks Department had singled out an operator, New York Tennis, to start contract negotiations, the article said.
"The Parks Department has engaged in this without a huge public process," said Mel Wymore, CB7 chair, but William Castro, the borough commissioner for the Parks Department said that the community board was give the request for proposals in March 2009, according to the article.
Demand for court time at the tennis courts has always been very high and the extended time they would be available under the proposal is likely to significantly improve the real estate values of properties nearby, especially along Central Park West in the 80s and 90s on the one hand but is also likely to significant lower real estate values of properties overlooking the bubbles which tend to be not as attractive as plays in shorts and the attractive clubhouse.
"A golf cart would shuttle uptown tennis players from Fifth Avenue and Central Park West to climate controlled courts in Central Park where a match would cost up to $100 an hour, under a proposal being considered by the Parks Department, the article said.
"Some Upper West Side residents, park advocates and the local community board have objected to the plan, saying it's an elitist idea that milks money of a public space and they've been kept in the dark about," the article continued. "The only people who will be able to afford this is the well-heeled," declared Upper West Side resident Cynthia Doty, at a Community Board 7 meeting Thursday night, the article said.
The courts can now be used by anyone willing to pay a $100 permit fee per season but their playing time can be limited to one hour if no other courts are available. When the bubbles are up, the article said that tennis players would be charged $30 to $100 per hour" with a "congestion-pricing scheme fee structure that would cost more at more popular times.
Betsy Smith, assistant Parks Commissioner, said the bubbles would allow New Yorkers to increase their wintertime exercise, the article maintained, adding that much of the cash generated from the new hourly fees "would go in to the city's general fund." Ms. Smith was quoted in the article was stated that "it is not taking away space that is not being used for anything else."
Some residents at the meeting questioned by public debate on the plan began three months after the Parks Department had singled out an operator, New York Tennis, to start contract negotiations, the article said.
"The Parks Department has engaged in this without a huge public process," said Mel Wymore, CB7 chair, but William Castro, the borough commissioner for the Parks Department said that the community board was give the request for proposals in March 2009, according to the article.
Demand for court time at the tennis courts has always been very high and the extended time they would be available under the proposal is likely to significantly improve the real estate values of properties nearby, especially along Central Park West in the 80s and 90s on the one hand but is also likely to significant lower real estate values of properties overlooking the bubbles which tend to be not as attractive as plays in shorts and the attractive clubhouse.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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