Stuy Town Ice Rink? Neighbors Would Rather Hell Freeze Over [Update]

Residents of Stuy Town have suffered out-of-control rents, over-grown lawns and now the slickest issue yet, a new ice rink.

Bah, humbug!

Residents of Stuy Town have suffered out-of-control rents, over-grown lawns and now the slickest issue yet, a new ice rink. Stuy Townies are chillier on the idea than a divorced couple, according to DNAinfo. The rink is replacing a favorite playscape, so neighbors can barely get their knives out fast enough.

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The rink will be up and functioning only during the winter months. Residents will have free access to the rink for a limited number of hours every week, although the exact amount remains unclear. Outside of those designated hours, residents will be asked to pay for rink access. That amount is also yet to be announced. The site will also stay open nightly until 9 p.m., with music playing from loudspeakers until 8 p.m.

[snip]

“Living next to an ice skating rink …is not the equivalent of living next to a basketball court or children’s playground,” wrote Alvin Doyle, president of the Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village tenants association, in a letter to the property manager.

“The qualitative differences are obvious, and your failure to recognize that demonstrates a complete lack of sensitivity for the concerns of the residents of buildings bordering the rink,” Doyle added.

The rink is not open to the public.

Bunch of scrooges.

UPDATE: One Stuy Town resident emailed in to say that there is a lot more to this ice rink than tykes, skates and loudspeakers:

First, the ice skating rink is located 50 feet from hundreds of apartment windows and comes with maintenance, resurfacing and sound system noise that comes a long with a rink. As of last night at 10:30PM, the construction site was active.

Second, if the rink is only open to residents, that wasn’t the case as of Monday. The rink was to be free to tenants 6 hours a week, very early in the morning, and when CW Capital caught wind of the tenants concerns, they CUT they hours to 2 free hours a week out of spite.

Also:

  • Stuy Town was caught illegally hosting other commercial activities on the property.
  • One must agree to be photographed and filmed as part of Stuy Town’s ongoing marketing campaign, the REAL reason this rink is being built in the first place.
  • The common areas of the buildings are a MESS as you can see on our Facebook photos so the fact they are spending money on a sales gimmick rather than fixing the buildings is ridiculous.
Here is an example about how these events are free to “residents and their guests”. This event listed on About.com was for “residents and their guests” but a PR person from Stuy Town sent publicity materials to this author, read comment # 7.

THIS is why tenants are upset. These events are NOT for us.

So before starting with the bah hum bug business, please get a sense of the bigger picture of what’s taking place here.

This is harsher than the Romanian judge.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Stuy Town Ice Rink? Neighbors Would Rather Hell Freeze Over [Update]