Community board approves
naming Upper West skate
park after skateboarding
pioneer Andy Kessler
BY CHRISS WILLIAMS
Community Board 7 unanimously
approved a resolution to name the
Riverside Skate Park, in honor of
Upper West Side resident and New York
City professional skateboarding pioneer,
Andy Kessler.
The board’s March 3 decision will be
reviewed by the New York City Parks
Commissioner for official approval before
the skate park reopens in May after a $2.8
million renovation.
The timing of the resolution was intentional,
said Elizabeth Caputo, co-chair of
the Parks & Environment Committee. She
told the board there was no question, that
the park—located inside Riverside Park
near 108 street—should be named after
Kessler upon its scheduled spring re-opening.
Committee member Susan Schwartz
added, that the park naming had received
a lot of support from residents wanting to
honor Kessler’s legacy and that the community
board received “really touching letters
and support from every elected official
that’s ever been in New York.”
Kessler grew up on the Upper West Side
and was one of the founding members of
the Soul Artists of Zoo York, an iconic
group of graffiti artists and skateboarders
in the 1970s who helped adapt the Southern
California-based sport to New York City’s
streetscape. Deathbowl to Downtown,a
2009 documentary chronicles the evolution
of New York City’s skateboard culture and
features Kessler and friend Jaime “Puppet
Head” Affoumado, who attended CB7’s
full-board meeting to voice support for
the name change.
The Riverside Skate Park
PHOTO BY CHRISS WILLIAMS
Jaime “Puppet Head” Affoumado embraces Aaron Aniton after Community
Board 7 unanimously approved to rename the Riverside Skate
Park to the Andy Kessler Skate Park.
‘OMNY’-presence expands to Manhattan buses
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
By the end of this month, you’ll be
able to pay for a bus ride through
Manhattan with the tap of your
credit card or digital wallet.
The MTA announced Monday that it’s
expanding its OMNY payment system to
include more than 600 buses on more than
30 routes serving Manhattan. The authority
is also adding the contactless payment
system to several subway lines in the Bronx
and activating others set up in Brooklyn
and Queens.
OMNY (One Metro New York) aims
“I’ve known Andy since I was 12-yearsold
and we skateboarded together until the
day he died,” Affoumado told CB7.
Kessler was instrumental in the growth
of New York City’s skateboard community
and culture. In the late 1990s, Kessler
convinced the city to build one of its first
skate parks inside Riverside Park. Kessler,
also well-known in advocacy circles for
mentoring troubled youth by introducing
them to the sport, designed the park to
include several wooden, bright blue ‘vert’
elements, to challenge skateboarders of all
ages and skill levels.
The skateboard pioneer’s sudden death
in 2009 from an allergic reaction to a
wasp’s sting he suffered in Montauk, Long
Island, “was a huge blow to the skateboard
community” said a long-time friend of
Kessler and member of New York City’s
Skate Coalition, Ian Clarke. Kessler was
48-years-old at the time of his death.
Aaron Aniton, a grassroots skateboard
advocate present at the community board
meeting, never met Kessler but spent the last
decade getting to know his circle-of-friends
within the skateboarding community. Aniton
held back tears as he thanked CB7 for
honoring Kessler by approving the park renaming.
“It’s awesome to see the skateboard
community and local government come
together and create an environment for kids
to enjoy for generations,” said Aniton.
Kessler’s friends and fans have fought
hard to keep his vision of the park alive.
Affoumado, Aniton, Clarke and Ivory
Serra, another friend of Kessler, sat sideby
side inside Mt. Sinai’s conference room
B where the community board meeting was
held. The four men celebrated with hugs,
to replace the MetroCard in the next few
years. The state-of-the-art payment system
has already surpassed 10 million taps since
its introduction last May.
“The OMNY rollout remains on time
and we aren’t resting on our laurels,” said
OMNY Executive Al Putre. “We continue
to move full speed ahead, having just exceeded
10 million taps and expecting to
rapidly surpass that pace in the weeks and
months to come.”
MTA workers will install OMNY devices
on Manhattan buses throughout the
month, and the consoles will be activated
by the end of March.
high-fives and arms raised in victory after
the resolution passed. “It’s a great honor
for us to see this, after all he did for us,”
said Affoumado.
“He Kessler was really part of this
neighborhood and it really brings tears
to my eyes,” said board member Doug
“This is another major milestone in the
transformation of the NYC bus system,”
said MTA acting Senior Vice President
of Buses for New York City Transit Craig
Cipriano. “As we work hard expanding bus
priority and redesigning our bus system
throughout the city, modernized fare payment
is a key piece of how we can speed up
buses and bring customers to our system.”
The use of OMNY aims, in part, to
improve bus boarding speed, as customers
can just tap their credit cards or cellphones
on the device, rather than insert a Metro-
Card into a card-reading slot or drop coins
into a fare box.
Kleiman, “I remember him fondly.”
The park is still under construction and
scheduled to reopen in May. It will feature
new landscaping and design elements such
as an elevated concrete plaza with staircase,
a quarter-pipe for beginners, half-pipe and
bowl for more advanced skaters.
In addition, the MTA will be installing
OMNY devices on turnstiles along the 5
line in the Bronx between Morris Park and
Eastchester-Dyre Avenue. Once that’s completed,
crews will begin installing OMNY
along the 2 and 3 lines in Harlem, Lower
Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.
OMNY devices installed along the A
and C lines in Brooklyn, between Hoyt-
Schermerhorn Streets and Euclid Avenues,
will also be activated this month. The MTA
is expected to have OMNY ready on the 7
line at the Mets-Willets Point and Flushing
Street Stations in Queens, just in time for
the Mets’ home opener on March 26.
4 March 5, 2020 Schneps Media