Every June, the Bronx Tourism Council puts on the best bash in the borough – the I Love the Bronx Ball. It’s a gala affair usually held at a Bronx landmark like the Bartow-Pell Mansion or Orchard Beach. 

Because this event attracts so many movers and shakers from all over the borough and throughout the city, we suggest that next June the Tourism Council holds the event at a venue where all that attention could do some real good: the Kingsbridge Armory.

Despite all the talk of new stadiums for the Nets and Yankees, and feverish planning for the city’s 2012 Olympic bid, the city’s indigenous resources are being left out in the cold. The armory is a prime example. 

But if politicians and civic leaders could see the awe-inspiring armory from the inside (the event could easily be held on the gargantuan drill floor), we think they would make the rehabilitation of the landmark facility a priority. Even the planning over the next several months for the event would pressure the Bloomberg administration to remove the remaining stumbling block to issuing a request for proposals for the project .  

Staff Sergeant Denis Flynn of the 145th Maintenance Unit posted in the buildings behind the armory had one wish before shipping to Fort Dix (in preparation for deployment to Iraq). "I hope the armory issue will be resolved when we return 14 months later," he told us in an e-mail. 

Having a ball at the armory in June might just get us there.