The Monitor reported on the ground-breaking of the new amphi-theatre
earlier this week. I had the pleasure to attend the event today, which gave ample praise to all the effort undertaken by our community to secure the funding and put the plans in place to reconstruct the outdoor stage. According to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, the new bandshell will be renamed The Richard Rodgers Bandshell and will be the premier outdoor performance stage in New York City's parks.
Mary Rodgers-Guettel, Executive Board Member of The Rodgers Family Foundation, spoke on behalf of the Foundation who contributed $1 million to the project. She was gracious and self-effacing, noting that her father loved growing up in this area and would have loved to know that the community would benefit by construction of the new bandshell. She is one of the daughters of composer Richard Rodgers, who grew up across the street at 3 West 120th Street and contributed $150,000 to the cost of the amphitheatre when it was first built in the 1960's.
In my kick today about politicians of our community, I must mention that none of the local politicians showed up for the groundbreaking (no Scott Stringer, no Bill Perkins, no Inez Dickens, no Keith Wright, no Charlie Rangel), but all sent representatives to let the small crowd (full of influential locals) how important the event was to them. Matthew Washington, Chair of Community Board 11 did give a brief talk about the park and how important it is to the community and I was very impressed with him.
The Marcus Garvey Bandshell and Amphitheatre, today:
The Richard Rodgers Bandshell, March 2011:
