By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — Get those paddles ready — table tennis is coming to Tompkins Square Park.
The city is installing a new permanent ping-pong table in the East Village green space next weekend for table-tennis enthusiasts to let 'er rip, the Parks Department confirmed.
The idea was proposed last year by Alan Good of local manufacturer Henge, which builds and places all-weather, concrete ping-pong tables in outdoor venues around the city.
The table will arrive on March 19, and be placed between the park's flagpole and center lawn, Good and the Parks Department said in an e-mail.
The company's first local project was a table for Gulick Park on the Lower East Side, which opened last May. Henge also installed an outdoor table at a school playground in Jamaica, Queens, in November.
The table itself is made of polished concrete and includes a steel net, so players can compete no matter the conditions.
Good had been visiting businesses near Tompkins Square Park to ask them to support the sport locally by selling paddles and balls to would-be participants in need of equipment to play.
He initially pitched the Gulick Park table in 2009, gathering hundreds of signatures from local public housing residents in favor of the plan.
