Reports on the ten-alarm fire that ripped through the 21-acre former Greenpoint Terminal Market last week might lead one to believe that it was simply a set of abandoned buildings—however historic—awaiting demolition. But in addition to the requisite squatters, it housed a film studio, woodworking shops, and the Autumn Bowl, an underground, but hardly secret, indoor skate park. All were spared, but none know what will happen next. “It sucks,” says Rob Erickson, an Autumn co-founder. “I have a feeling that this fire is going to ruin the area. We had this little pocket that was really cool and isolated. And now it’s been thrown wide open.” The bowl began three years ago, when Erickson and friends decided to build a ramp for winter skating. They found an “uninhabitable” warehouse on the waterfront and, with funding from Tylenol, cleaned it up. It works like a private club, with about 70 members renting keys. If the fire accelerates the area’s redevelopment, Erickson says the bowl will carry on. “We might be able to go to East New York or something. But we looked there already before we found this place.”

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: May 15, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!