“Honey, I Shrunk the Park” — City’s Plans call for 23 percent reduction in “public space” around Washington Sq Park Fountain

Figures don’t lie. But a lot of liars figure.

The NYC Parks Department figures that the “new and improved” Washington Square Park will have just as much public space as the old one. But let’s check the figures:

* The EXISTING entire plaza is currently 51,223 square feet.

* The PROPOSED plaza area will be 39,419 square feet.

That’s an 11,804 square foot reduction, right in their official plans.

* The old and expansive interior plaza was 27,650 square feet.

* The PROPOSED interior plaza will be 20,662 square feet.

Who’s lying? Who’s figuring?

It was a lie when George Vellonakis, the new plan’s “designer,” told the Community that the reduction in public space would be five percent.

The shrinking of the public space in Washington Square Park has a tremendous impact on how it will be used, which in turn impacts on the character of the park. Who gathers there? HOW will they gather? And how will the new, constricted space be regulated?

Will musicians need official approval? Will performers and political speak-outs be required to obtain a permit? Will the free spirit of the Park be shredded and destroyed?

Maybe that’s Mayor Bloomberg’s whole point.

* Recycled Entry * Originally Published March 17th, 2008 *

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WSP Blog NOTE: - The reduction of public space at Washington Square Park - and a mandate to increase it - is something the Community Board could still address as well as NYC Council Member Alan Gerson and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

Thoughts on Construction at Washington Square Park

Somebody mentioned the other day that they walked by Washington Square Park and it looked like the whole place had been bulldozed. (Which … of course… a lot of it has.)

It’s true - when you walk by the Northwest Quadrant where the work is being done now - everything that was connected and seemed intimate and inviting about the space has been made to appear barren. There’s large concrete paths. There’s “plazas” but you won’t see or interact with the people sitting across from you because there will be ornamental flower beds between you and them. (Think suburban park.)

Flowers are beautiful, of course, but part of the charm of Washington Square Park is the ways in which you’d connect with others there. There will now be impediments to that. And it doesn’t feel like you would want to stroll through, it feels like a passageway. Of course, it’s not done yet.

Which brings me to the information I was told by City Council Member Alan Gerson at the City Council Parks Department Budget Hearing. He mentioned that Manhattan Community Board 2 has some say in some of the design (not the things most of us would like to see changed, but still) but they have not met to discuss it. He wasn’t sure why.

(Council Member Gerson - Washington Square Park falls in his district - acts as if there was just nothing he could do about the redesign of Washington Square Park - when clearly there was. He took the easy route and sold out his community.)

The work at Washington Square Park is proceeding and the Community Board hasn’t met to discuss it … do they think the Parks Department is waiting for their input?

J. Bary, who took this photo and has been photographing the work there, says there’s trees being dropped in around the new fountain location but - if so - I haven’t noticed them. It’s possible that they are mostly visible from high up - where he is taking his photos from. It’s also probable that I focus so intently on the hole in the ground where the “aligned” fountain is supposed to appear that I’ve missed them.

Actually, Mr. Vellonakis, the Washington Square Park Fountain is already aligned. As is, Fountain is Park’s “midpoint”

Watching the screening of the documentary “Washington Square SQUARED” last night at the Bowery Poetry Club, there was some key footage featuring Parks Department designer George Vellonakis. It is his plan that cuts up and moves all the pieces in this successful park into configurations and contortions that few prefer - and yet the plan proceeds.

One moment that stands out (among many) illustrates his empathy. Who does Mr. Vellonakis have empathy for? The community who likes the park the way it is? No. The trees that have stood in the park for 80 years that he wants chopped down? Not quite. His empathy is reserved for the “poor tourists” who (he believes) can’t take good pictures of themselves with the famous Arch behind them — because there is a tree in the way!

Well, luckily, those tourists have Mr. Vellonakis, NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe, and Mayor Bloomberg on their side because that obstructionist tree (along with 13 others) is no longer there!

There is much discussion of the “aligning” of the fountain in the film — the Parks Department plan is to move it 23 feet east so that it aligns with the Arch at Fifth Avenue. There’s much appreciation by users of the Park of the un-alignment of the fountain and the Arch. Something about the fountain not being connected to Fifth Avenue works when you enter Washington Square Park: you escape the city - yet you meld with your neighbors within it in unimaginable and unique ways. It’s a great public space. Mr. Vellonakis’s design aspires to destroy that.

But a little known fact that is somewhat key is that the fountain actually IS aligned. It’s not a mistake that it was in that specific location.

In Emily Kies Folpe’s book, It happened on Washington Square, she writes at length about the installation of the fountain. She states that the fountain was “placed at the midpoint of the park’s east-west axis, the fountain gave the Square a definitive central focus.” The fountain was installed in 1870 and “dominates its center.” When the park was redesigned in 1871, retaining that focal point was a key part of the design plan. Folpe writes in her 2002 book, “Despite later changes, the legacy of the 1871 design lingers on in today’s Washington Square.”

Until Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Parks Department get their way, and move the famous fountain to align with the Arch, and that’s the end of something that’s worked quite successfully for 137 years.

** The above is a schematic of the new redesign. Don’t let all the greenery fool you.**

Three More Trees Felled at Washington Sq Park This Morning; NYC Parks Department Budget Hearing Thursday; Upcoming Film Screening

Three more stately old trees were felled at Washington Square Park this morning. When will it end?

The total number of trees at Washington Square Park which have met the fate of the men with the chain saws is now fourteen.

I highly doubt - despite what NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe would say - that these trees were “dying” or “dead.” They were likely in the way of the City’s redesign plan.

Beautiful mature 80 year old trees are chopped down one morning by a man with an ax directed by the misguided whimsy of a city government to redesign a highly functioning public space to better fit in with our CEO Mayor’s “vision” for our city. There’s something criminal and outrageous about that.

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The New York City Parks Department Budget Hearing is coming up before New York City Council tomorrow Thursday, May 22nd. If you can swing by, please come to City Hall and advocate for our Parks/public spaces. Perhaps if the Parks Department was better funded, we wouldn’t be seeing so many of their privatization games (for example, Washington Square Park Fountain sold off to the Tisch Family with naming rights for $2.5 million).

Important data: City Parks take up 14% of City land and yet the Parks Department receives less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the City budget. Parks workers have been cut by 66% over the last twenty years.

Come to City Hall Council Chambers — 1:30-3 p.m. Parks Department Presentation (a chance to see Commissioner Benepe in action); 3 p.m. Public Comment.

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Mark Your Calendars: On Sunday, June 1st at 7 p.m., Matt Davis, who supplied this photo of the trees in the process of being destroyed and has shared much of his knowledge, will screen his documentary “Washington Square SQUARED.” In it, he chronicles the City’s redesign plans over a four year period — how the dramatic “renovation” of Washington Square Park got pushed through, and past, an outraged community. The film, with musical guests, will be shown at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery at Bleecker. More details to follow.

The Pieces of the Washington Square Park Fountain - Dismantled

This is a photo of parts of Washington Square Park’s famous fountain dismantled and behind gates taken at the Park May 7th, ‘08.

There’s so much history there and yet the city just chops it up and prepares to install a new and “improved” version.

At a workshop last week, “Livable Neighborhoods,” presented by the Municipal Art Society, I heard Marci Reaven speak from the organization, Place Matters. She talked passionately about the importance of Places in New York City and why they matter. She stated that we must figure out ways to get that message across… we must be able to describe why a place is important, be able to describe it, and get the word out, ensuring that enough people know about it.

Now, with Washington Square Park, it would appear that quite a lot of people know about the place and they are able to talk eloquently about what they appreciate about it. (Whether enough people know what the redesign plans entail, still to this day, is another story…) But does New York City’s government hear? Perhaps that’s the question.

One of Ms. Reaven’s points was that when the physical landscape disappears, the “memory landscape” disappears also. Therefore, with New York City’s redesign “plans,” which alters the physical landscape of this historic park, it becomes that much more important to preserve the “memory landscape” of Washington Square Park - and somehow get the City to do so as well - and not stop trying to get the message out there.

**Link to Place Matters.

NYC Parks Dept.-2/3 cuts in workers and endless privatization schemes

According to New York Jobs With Justice: “Years ago, NYC’s public parks were administered by over 7,500 municipal employees of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Today, it’s only 2,500 municipal employees taking care of NYC’s public parks. This number continues to shrink as the years go by. Much of the labor has been privatized through city partnerships with non-profit administrators resulting in a two-tier work force of public servants in the City’s public parks.”

That is a 66% reduction in Parks Department workers. Since so much has been willingly privatized (by the City), it’s hard to know what the actual number of workers is now.

Another result of the reduction in the Parks Department budget and the City government’s focus on privatization of our public spaces is that private entities manage the space and also deem how that space is used.

In addition, the City sells off naming rights to, for example, the fountain at Washington Square Park under the ruse that they can’t afford to repair it otherwise, and they agree to re-name it Tisch Fountain for $2.5 million (and it ends up being moved, unnecessarily “aligned,” along with the deal) …

The Parks Department accepts a $7 million “anonymous” donation with STIPULATIONS - strings attached - that this donation ensures that there is a private restaurant in the historic Pavilion at Union Square. Although it hasn’t been revealed who the donor is, somehow restauranteur Danny Meyer, who is also co-chair of the Union Square Partnership (the local BID-business improvement district), is the only name bandied about as the choice to helm the restaurant.

You can see how much of a slippery slope this whole privatization game is.

Spring in Washington Square Park - The Park is Bustling. What Happens Next?

There’s something about the spirit of Washington Square Park that even now, despite virtually HALF of the Park being closed for the City’s “renovation,” the open space is still filled to the brim with people commingling, creating music, art and conversation in new locations. (There’s no choice as the Fountain, its Plaza, and the Arch are behind gates and off-limits).

Interconnections happen at Washington Square Park in ways that just do not happen in other spaces. That is why it is such an internationally known, perfect public space.

The City’s redesign plans don’t take this into account. Their aspiration is to create a Park that is prettified and glossy and passive.

The areas at Washington Square Park where people are gathering now - the north east corner by the picnic tables, the Garibaldi statue, the teen playground - those areas will all be REMOVED with the completion of the City’s redesign plan. In the North East corner (well, in every ‘corner’ of the Park), there will be a “plaza.” What that means I am not quite certain but the significance of that is - without question - a diminishing of the public space. The Fountain and the surrounding Central Plaza - the premiere area where people gather at the park - are scheduled to be reduced 23 percent. How is this allowed to happen?

At Union Square Park right now, it’s a familiar drama that is being enacted. Some of the same actors, slightly different script, same basic plot, all being pushed through by Mayor Bloomberg and the City’s Parks Department — in the interest of privatizing and reducing the public space. If this is troubling to you, you have to something to say, join us Friday at Union Square Park from 6-8 p.m., pick a Park in the City to represent, create some art, make some music, dress up.

Washington Square Park Fountain “Aligned” - Its New Location

Note the Alignment! This photo illustrates the circle (in center) of where New York City intends to place the newly aligned fountain.

One of the contentious issues of the “renovation” of Washington Square Park is the movement of the fountain 22-23 feet east to be “aligned” with the Arch at Fifth Avenue.

I imagine Mayor Bloomberg, Parks Commissioner Benepe and “Architect” George Vellonakis sipping champagne somewhere ecstatic that, with the realization of their “vision,” the famous Washington Square Park Fountain and the historic Arch will AT LAST be aligned.

No matter that it worked just fine for over a century as it was. The redesign of Washington Square Park is about taking apart the pieces of this great public space that functioned incredibly well for years and years and tampering with them. In a business model - which CEO Mayor Bloomberg knows - if something works well, you try to make it better, but you don’t change it dramatically. Of course, it’s not about that. It’s about creating a new business model - for Washington Square Park.

Imagine sitting at the Fountain (well, if you can, once it has a 45 foot plume spouting up from it) and think how glad you will be to view so clearly the traffic careening down Fifth Avenue.

New York City government’s attempt to create symmetrical spaces (4 “plazas” at each corner, lush manicured lawns and planters in the proper places) in a public space that’s always been about not being symmetrical misses the whole point (purposefully).

Note: Since this photo was taken, there is a big hole now dug in this center spot. It’s a bit sad. The thing is … they may get their Tisch fountain aligned with the Arch, but — as far as the entire redesign plan being replicated — let’s see what transpires. As they say, it’s not over til it’s over.

Photo: Washington Sq Park In Full Swing(As It ‘Was’)

“Honey, I Shrunk the Park”

Figures don’t lie. But a lot of liars figure.

The NYC Parks Department figures that the “new and improved” Washington Square Park will have just as much public space as the old one. But let’s check the figures:

* The EXISTING entire plaza is currently 51,223 square feet.

* The PROPOSED plaza area will be 39,419 square feet.

That’s an 11,804 square foot reduction, right in their official plans.

* The old and expansive interior plaza was 27,650 square feet.

* The PROPOSED interior plaza will be 20,662 square feet.

Who’s lying? Who’s figuring?

It was a lie when George Vellonakis, the new plan’s “designer,” told the Community that the reduction in public space would be five percent.

The shrinking of the public space in Washington Square Park has a tremendous impact on how it will be used, which in turn impacts on the character of the park. Who gathers there? HOW will they gather? And how will the new, constricted space be regulated?

Will musicians need official approval? Will performers and political speak-outs be required to obtain a permit? Will the free spirit of the Park be shredded and destroyed?

And maybe that’s Mayor Bloomberg’s whole point.