BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | The carpet for celebrity photos was green, not red, and the green — as in cash — came flooding in at the Friends of Hudson River Park Gala at Chelsea Piers on Thurs., Oct. 8.
More than $2.8 million was raised by more than 1,000 donors and guests at the glitzy confab for the West Side waterfront park, which stretches from Chambers St. to W. 59th St. Tickets reportedly started at a cool $500 per plate.
In addition, Citigroup announced a $10 million gift to the park to be used to complete Pier 26, located across the West Side Highway from the multinational financial giant’s Tribeca headquarters building.
The star-studded evening was hosted by Padma Lakshmi of “Top Chef,” while Seth Meyers of “Late Night” presented an honor to Martha Stewart, and the affair ended on a high note with performances by The B-52s and The Dolls.
Also honored were Chelsea Piers’ Roland Betts, Tom Bernstein and David Tewksbury in recognition of the groundbreaking sports complex’s 20-year anniversary, plus Scott Lawin, vice chairperson of the Friends’ board of directors.
The gala’s co-chairs were Michael Novogratz, president of the Friends, and his wife, Sukey, along with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, and Diana Taylor, chairperson of the Hudson River Park Trust.
The crowd started off sipping cocktails by the carousel on Pier 62, where they also enjoyed fresh oysters from roaming shuckers, plus a water show from a boat parade.
Everyone then marched over to Pier Sixty for dinner, propelled along by the pounding rhythms of the Cobra Performing Arts Marching Band, with the path dotted by flight attendants from Delta — a sponsor of the night’s auction — flicking glowing red safety wands.
In an interview after posing on the green carpet with Trust Chairperson Taylor, Stewart said she is a huge user — and fan — of Hudson River Park.
“Oh, every day,” she told The Villager. “I walk in it. My granddaughter lives on it — in the Village. I’ve looked down on the park from my office in Chelsea every day for years, and I’ve seen it grow. I’ve been driving down the West Side to work every day for years. I watched the piers go from stubble in the water to piers.”
Stewart is a member of the Friends’ board of directors.
Taylor, for her part, was overjoyed about the Citigroup announcement.
“Citigroup, wow! What great people,” she enthused.
Earlier, after her own green-carpet spin with Stewart, Madelyn Wils, the Trust’s C.E.O. and president, had hinted at some “big news,” referring to the Citigroup gift.
Lakshmi said she and her daughter enjoy the park.
“I like to roller skate,” she said.
Technically, that would mean she uses the adjacent bikeway, which actually is not part of the park, since rollerblading isn’t allowed on the park esplanade. But, hey — this wasn’t a night for nitpicking.
Also gracing the green rug was Miss U.S.A. Olivia Jordan. She admitted she is new to the city, having only been here three months, and is still “checking out the parks.” But the beauty queen — a native of landlocked Oklahoma — said it’s all about location, and that the Hudson River Park definitely has got it.
“You have to be by the water,” she said. “You need water to stay grounded — think about it.”
Ryan Serhant of the TV show “Million Dollar Listing New York” was also among the boldface names enjoying the riparian revelry. Asked by The Villager if he agreed that local property values along the waterfront have benefited from the park’s presence, he said, definitely.
“Ten thousand percent,” he said.
Yet, asked about a former scheme for residents living near the park to be assessed a special tax that would go toward the park, he summarily slammed it as a terrible idea.
“What? No!” he blurted out. “We pay enough taxes! It’s New York!”
It would be unfair to single out people around Hudson River Park, he argued, so anyone with a good view should have to pay the extra fee.
“Then everyone around Central Park would have to pay higher taxes,” he said. “Everyone with arched windows would have to pay higher taxes. Anyone with a view of the Statue of Liberty would have to pay higher taxes.
“It’s discrimination,” he flatly declared.
Under the tax plan — floated by an earlier incarnation of the Friends — a Neighborhood Improvement District, or NID, would have been created to assess the fees. But the NID idea was nixed two years ago after a potentially lucrative funding stream for the park was created, when the state Legislature approved the park selling its unused development rights to development sites across the highway.
Meanwhile, Adrian Benepe, the city’s former parks commissioner and a former director of the Park Trust, said the Friends’ annual gala has vaulted it into the ranks of the city’s top private park fundraising groups. The Friends are the Trust’s main private fundraising wing. The Trust is the state-city authority that is building and operates the park.
“It puts them really in the big leagues of park conservancies, like the Central Park Conservancy and others,” Benepe said of the Friends. “Eight auction items went for $30,000 to $40,000.”
Those items ranged from a swanky sailboat cocktail cruise for 40 people to a private luncheon by Martha Stewart and Momofuku’s David Chang.
Citigroup’s gift is also very impressive, he added.
“It’s a tribute to the park, because Citigroup is a very cautious investor,” Benepe said.
The Citigroup donation’s amount ranks it among the top 10 gifts ever made to New York City parks, he said.
Last year’s pledge of $113 million by Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg to build Pier55 off of W. 13th St. in Hudson River Park ranks as the largest park gift in the city’s history and the second largest in U.S. history. The Lower West Side power pair have also given $35 to help build the High Line park.
Some West Siders, however, recoil at the infusion of all this private money into Hudson River Park. The “Diller Island” plan, for one, has come under fire from both environmentalists and park advocates, the latter who fear its many planned ticketed entertainment events will essentially privatize much of the new pier for too much of the year. The plan for Pier55 — which would be constructed on a new “footprint,” on a spot in the river where no pier previously existed — is also currently being challenged by an environmental lawsuit by the City Club of New York.
But the Trust argues that the cash-strapped park, construction of which is still not fully completed, needs private funding since government funding for parks has dried up, plus Hudson River Park is expected to be financially self-sustaining.
