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Public
Service Announcement from the Woodstock Preservation Alliance
PRESERVING THE 1969 WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL SITE
“KILLING THE GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN EGG”
"Would you build a shopping center where Washington crossed the
Delaware?" - Alan Gerry, to The New York Times, regarding the historical
importance of the 1969 Woodstock field and his previous decision to not build
there. It seems that now, in 2002, the answer would be “YES”. Alan Gerry and
the Town of Bethel are days away from approving a plan that will effectively cut
the famed Woodstock field in half, place buildings on the top one third, and
surround it with steel fencing, thus changing its appearance, allure and meaning
forever.
The total acreage for the proposed Bethel Performing Arts Center is 634, and the
Gerry Foundation owns an additional 700 in the surrounding area. The original
remaining festival site is a mere 37.5 acres. Other than the “bottom line“
of cost effectiveness, why has Mr. Gerry gone back on his word? Why are the
Bethel Joint Lead Agencies approving a plan that effectively carves up and
dismembers a landmark that is truly a part of Americana? Why does Governor
Pataki continue to underwrite the destruction of a piece of history? Why does
the Sullivan County Visitors Association sit by, silently?
GREED? SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS? FEAR OF HE WHO HOLDS THE CASH?
The Woodstock Preservation Alliance is completely in favor of a venue in Bethel
that will bring the arts and needed economic stimulation to Sullivan County.
With a number of entertainment venues in close proximity, it is the mystique of
the Woodstock site that will set this PAC apart from the others. Even Priscilla
Presley had the sense not to knock down half of Graceland before opening it up
to the public.
A letter to the WPA:
In summer 2001 I was hired by the
Manhattan-based land-use planning firm that the GF employed to compile the Draft
Environmental Impact Statement for its planned Performing Arts Center
development. I authored the "Statement on the Historical and Cultural
Significance of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Site." ... Alan Gerry himself
and his Foundation's staff assured us then that they had no intention of
disturbing the 37.5 -acre "Festival Stage Area" site [i.e. concert
bowl and top plateau]; they obviously have since changed their minds. The
statement I wrote couldn't have been more supportive of the importance of
preserving the site as is; my colleagues in cultural resource management with
whom I worked also stressed the desirability of mitigating PAC development
within the Festival Stage Area's sight-lines as far as was practically possible.
… not only will it be a sacrilege to develop even just a portion of the
Festival Stage Area, but it's not in their economic self-interest either. What
makes their real estate valuable is precisely the powerful draw that that
particular site exerts on the touring and music-loving public -- the very same
people they will need to attract and satisfy if their PAC is to succeed
financially. It would be the height of folly to "kill the goose that laid
the golden egg." Don't let Alan Gerry forget that he acknowledged as much
when he told the New York Times in the presence of his friend Governor George
Pataki and many thrilled local people in June 2001: developing that special spot
would as unthinkable as building a shopping mall where Washington crossed the
Delaware. - Michael Wm. Doyle, Ph.D. Ball State University
OPEN YOUR EYES! DEMAND ANSWERS! DO WHAT’S RIGHT! PRESERVE THE SITE!
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