Comments on Down the Line!: COMMUNITY CORNER: First ever Ft. Greene Tennis Ass...

Hey DtL readers, check this out: http://fort-gree...

2010-02-25T18:43:32.991-05:00

Hey DtL readers, check this out:

http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/tennis-fundraiser-nets-dozens/

RiCHie! How did your event go?

2010-02-25T18:42:00.452-05:00

RiCHie!
How did your event go?

cool, rich. i'm currently in hell's kitchen, but m...

2010-02-24T22:46:19.411-05:00

cool, rich. i'm currently in hell's kitchen, but my lease is up in may and i'll probably be moving back to brooklyn - maybe clinton hill. i've played in fort greene, but not since summer 2008. would love to be involved in this in any way.

my email is andy.schlesinger@gmail.com. i'd love it if you'd contact me with some information. thanks -

andy

natch: thank you so much for sharing! it sounds li...

2010-02-24T14:29:01.373-05:00

natch: thank you so much for sharing! it sounds like the exact process we're undergoing. we were able to meet with our council person back in december and she was excited about our efforts. of course, funding of any kind is scare right now but we are looking to reach out to philanthropists, local businesses, etc. to help with the efforts.

at the moment it seems like such a daunting task but ultimately it benefits not only the players but the community at large as you mentioned.

thanks again for the advice!!!

Your post are very nice. thanks for sharing. I lik...

2010-02-24T13:26:04.323-05:00

Your post are very nice. thanks for sharing. I like to exchange my Link with you, my blog is

http://tennisworld-tennis.blogspot.com/

Send me a Email to

prabhathbhathiya@yahoo.com
thanks

Congrats, Richie! And good luck on your event ton...

2010-02-24T12:07:12.506-05:00

Congrats, Richie! And good luck on your event tonight.

I was involved with something similar about fifteen to twenty years ago. Granted, times, technology, and the state of the economy were much different then, but here's my two cents. Erm, make that $1.50!

You've probably already done all of this, but...
We did buckets of research. On how publicly accessible sports facilities available to the community would decrease crime, increase family "togetherness", etc. That's always a major concern to public officials. Then we bugged our city/borough councilpersons (who represented our district) to death until we could get a meeting with them, present our information, and get at least one of them on our side. That led to some PIAC (public interest) funding. We also presented the same information to the local philanthropists in our community. In NY, you should have about a million of them! :D We also went to any university within 100 miles, and spoke to the tennis coaches. Many of them were former ATPers, who had some great connections.
You might consider e-mailing Billie Jean daily (until you get her attention.) There's nothing she won't do to support tennis.

Like I said, you have probably already done most of that, but it can't hurt to pass that info on to you any way, just in case.

Oh, BTW, we did get our courts updated, and it really did help bring the inner city back to life. We got our Parks & Rec department to shut it down and lock it nightly, and open it up in the mornings. At that time, our city's legal department was adamant that the city had to be responsible for opening and closing. Not sure if that applies in your case, but if it does, that's how we resolved it.