Fact: They are closing the Brooklyn Banks.
The NYC skateboarding community will likely lose a beloved historical landmark and it will never be the same even if they give it back.
Architectural structures reveal a great deal about their social context, not simply by their intended use, but by the spontaneous and evolving communal activity that is discovered in rivalry, camaraderie, the spirit of play and the human pursuit of something epic.
New York City – the greatest “engineering work of the Continent” unintentionally became one of the most skatable international cities, drawing skateboarders from all over the world, across all social classes and racial demographics, who come to pay tribute to its urban beauty.
“The contemplated work, when constructed in accordance with my design, will not only be the greatest bridge in existence, but it will be the great engineering work of the Continent and of the age.”
- Report to the New York Bridge Company September 1, 1867 – Plan and Details of Anchorage, Approaches, Towers, and Steel Cables.
It was built. They came. Now they are taking it away…. again.
But there is hope.
The answer lies in the very initiative the drives skateboarding; creative expression. If the space beneath the bridge is destined to be destroyed, than perhaps the skateboarding community needs to stop saying "what a bummer man" and rethink the situation.
The outcome could be so much greater then the reality. Also, if it is possible to keep it open when the space is not being used, then it will give the community a chance to part with it.
To me, the best solution would be to create an unprecedented skate-able tribute, in honor of the esteemed history of the Brooklyn Banks, and then, to let evolution take it’s course.
Briefly, about the Brooklyn Banks
It was through compromise and consideration, that the Brooklyn Banks became a local skate spot, thanks to the dedicated few who turned frustration into action.
There have always been controversies. Skaters, everywhere, through-out history have been pushed out of parks, parking lots, pools, and other spaces. There was very little salvation and only a few places where they were accepted. But they adapted and found forgotten places, took them over guerilla-diy style and made them something far more then they were intended to be. And they’ve lost them.
The Brooklyn Banks is a unique park that truly reflects the spirit of New York City.
When it was built in 1960’s, its purpose was to make use of the dark crime-infested space, between the bridge’s off-ramp and the anchorage. (The anchorage houses the four massive steel cables that suspend the “Great Avenue” across the East River, and connect Manhattan to Brooklyn. ) Skaters were drawn to it’s rolling brick face and seclusion – there was nothing else like it. Now, it a landmark, that attracts more then just skateboarders; bikers, inliners, scooter kids, filmers and photographers.
The banks are not like Burnside or FDR, infamous skater-built and skater-funded parks, with huge concrete transitions and territorial locals. It is a park that became so much more then it intended to be. The very spirit of the Brooklyn Banks’s existence today (thanks to the efforts of leaders in community) has been built out of compromise and perseverance. That is what makes it special.
Interesting fact: In the 1980’s, VCRs came on the scene and the legendary 1985 Powell Peralta release Future-Primitive featured New York City. (Future Primitive: A collection of essays, by John Zerzan, asserting that engineering and technology are carefully constructed means of enslaving people.)
Understanding the conflict
What the DOC?
The Brooklyn Bridge is among the most severely dilapidated bridges in the United States. A very complicated reconstruction and restoration project is about to begin in December. They say until 2014. The New York City Department of Transportation has quietly announced that they will be closing down the Manhattan park known as the Brooklyn Banks and using it as parking lot for the heavy machinery required to restore the bridge.
Of course, human life should take precedence.
However, the skateboarding community did not find out the details of the park’s closure until a Downtown Express reporter overheard it in a planning meeting. Skateboarding advocates have since asked for more information, so that maybe there is a chance to save something…
something can mean everything.
Is asking for a little consideration too much?
In an essence, skateboarding advocates are scrambling, on last minute notice, for an opportunity to know the facts. With the facts, they can help facilitate a compromise that pays due respect to the revered landmark that is being taken from them. Skateboarding advocates are not unrealistic. The safety of the Brooklyn Bridge and human life takes precedence, no matter how significant the park is. However, the local skaters deserve to have a voice, as well as, the thousands who have made the pilgrimage to New York and have paid homage to The Brooklyn Banks. But will the New York City Departments of Transportation and Parks give such a small thing, as a bit of consideration? They should. Because they will have been a part of something epic.
Win / Win
When you think back to the when Philadelphia took hostage of Love Park, you have to wonder if, with compromise, the city and it’s community could have created something greater.
If skateboarders are anything, they are persistent. And over the years, skateboarding has proved that it is an economic force to be reckoned with. There are opportunities here. To do something greater than imagined, but they can’t be pursued without an understanding of what the DOC’s plan is.
A worthy tribute
The bricks that have been laid each hold an incalculable value.
What better way to pay tribute to the importance the Banks and the evolution of New 
York City skateboarding, then to perhaps design a new public space or art installation, from the very bricks that already exist? Before they are destroyed.
So if this article serves as anything, it should be to call out to those creative thinkers and builders of public art to do something. Even if all it is, is an idea. Do something. Before it is too late.
The future is not set in stone.
Instead of focusing at what will be lost, we need seize the opportunity to preserve and memorialize the symbolic importance of the legendary skate spot. The Brooklyn Banks were not always what it is today. Part of the beauty of evolution is what is constructed out of destruction.
Final thoughts for the haters.
There have been comments on other articles questioning the significance of the Brooklyn Banks, making statements like "They suck.", "They are not that well known" or "Typical elitist east coast thinking." Clearly these comments come from those who can’t hang with the monster truckers that skate here in New York.
- A look back at the struggles and triumphs that have gone down in this place is proof enough that the Brooklyn Banks are a legitimate and important icon in New York City skateboarding.
- The Brooklyn Banks have been represented in the famous street course built by the Maloof Brothers in Costa Mesa California
- Some of the first east coast / New York competitions took place at the Brooklyn Banks. Not soft cushy competitions put on by corporations, but unprecedented, guerilla-syle, street comps.
- There is a tech deck representation of the Brooklyn Banks.
- Only small minded idiotic wannabe’s who have absolutely nothing to offer can claim that the Brooklyn Banks mean nothing. You can take your small…. err… mindedness and go do something ordinary in the smooth little skate park that "your daddy" built you. So if you truely have nothing to offer, shut the hell up you scum bag, jerk offs..