#tfreport — Tompkins Construction Begins Today

Construction to renovate the Tompkins Square Park ball-field — better known as the T.F. — began today. Posted signs say that it will reopen on December 1st. However, we’ve been around long enough to know that the city takes its time, and that date could get extended into the future.

We outlined the basic changes occurring to the park in the post announcing the construction: new asphalt fixing all the cracks, obviously no AstroTurf, a painted track on the floor, no more dugouts, more benches (though they are the 1939 World’s Fair benches), and an end to all permitted sports allowed in the space (meaning no more Sunday hockey in the fall or District Attorney softball in the summer.) The skateable obstacles that were in good condition were placed in storage. The ones that were falling apart were discarded.

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I Can Buy Myself Griptape, Write My Name on the Tail

📸 via Zach Baker

For Fuck’s Sake: The Tompkins construction start date has been moved …again. October 16th. Going to stop posting these every week from here on out. It starts when it starts. (P.S. Some of the in-better-shape obstacles have been moved into storage.)

“They had a trashcan fire in one of those iconic Love Park bins. It was so cold that people’s bushings were freezing up making turning impossible… They had to grab their board and leave it by this trashcan fire for five minutes, which would buy them five minutes of skating before the bushings froze back up and they had to do it again… It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, people everywhere.” Palace videographer, Jack Brooks, is the latest subject of the Slam City Skates blog’s “Visuals” series, in which he discusses Bill’s “Pigeon” edit, the Palace Kalis board, filming Lucien’s Palasonic part, and more.

A watershed moment in the Bobshirt franchise: an hour-long interview with Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.

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#spotcheck

Can the Parks Department make up its mind please?

Some Dump on Seigel Street

Kevin Rodrigues by Alex Pires • 2016

Another Tompkins Construction Date Change: The park is now being closed off for renovations and re-asphalting on Monday, October 2nd, exactly one week from today. (And the deli across the street isn’t even a deli anymore, as of a few days ago: they got rid of the entire counter for a mini smoke shop. No more sandwiches, grill or smoothies. End of an era.)

“Mainstream skateboarding finally caught on to the fact that when you’re driving to the spot, you’re passing all this other stuff that’s so much more interesting. Stuff people can skate more creatively. And you can make a far more interesting skate video by focusing on that.” New Zealand’s Manual magazine caught up with Josh Stewart to talk about putting himself through another Static video.

“BURNT” is the latest montage by Christian Kerr, featuring the continued evolution of Gabe Tennen’s tech-lord career arc, and the return of the Duane Reade benches.

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