Clayton’s Corner: Fighting for a Dying Astor Place [VIDEO]
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“[The Astor Place redesign] is a moral issue … this is a fight … we have to win this.” -Jim Power
The Astor Place redesign will eliminate the cultural fabric of the neighborhood, and further contribute to the death of downtown. This is the overall theme of a new mini-documentary that Clayton Patterson sends our way.
Directed by skater-slash-filmmaker Simon J. Heath, the short features commentary on the state of Astor Place from some notable local figures. And very much from a skater standpoint. Patterson, Jim “Mosaic Man” Power, and skater Jim Moore all provide opinions, voiced to a soundtrack of grinding skateboards.
The $16 million Astor Place redesign project will completely change this nexus neighborhood, adding two pedestrian plazas and reconfiguring Peter Cooper Park altogether. Expect completion by the end of 2015, give or take a decade.
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