Walking Tour: Washington Sq Park Past, Present, and Future: A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space * Sunday, July 27th, 12 noon

Washington Sq Pk under construction

Mark your calendars and come out for the second Walking Tour if you missed the first!

Walking Tour: Washington Square Park Past, Present, and Future: A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space * Sunday, July 27th, 12 noon.

Meet up at Washington Square Arch, Fifth Avenue and Washington Square North
* $5 * (Raindate: Sunday, August 3rd)
TRAINS: A,B,C,D,E,F to West 4th Street/Washington Square

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Washington Square Park Blog and Washington Square Community Improvement District(CID) present this unique walking tour of Washington Square Park.

Washington Square Park Blog will offer a guide to the redesign of Washington Square Park combined with history of this wonderful Park.

Some background on the redesign of Washington Square Park :

The pretext: They say they want to align the fountain with the Arch.

In the 1890s, noted architect Stanford White purposefully kept the two unaligned, and that way has worked just fine – thank you very much – for over a century. About this magnificent fountain, Jane Jacobs writes: “In effect, this [fountain] is a circular arena, a theater in the round, and that is how it is used, with complete confusion as to who are spectators and who are the show.”

The reality: They are cutting away public space to control public gatherings and un-permitted performances.

The City is:

• Digging up 18th Century and 19th Century burial grounds

• Ruining the historic nature of the park with much reduction in public space

• Chainsawing 40 to 80-year-old trees (14 cut down thus far. Plans allow for more to be felled.)

• Fencing in the Park

• Removing the famed chess tables (and rebuilding SOME of them)

• Dismantling the large circular Fountain, which also serves as public rallying venue, rebuilding it in a much smaller version eight yards away with vast reduction of the ad-hoc seating

* Renaming the fountain (a plaque on each side) for the billionaire Tisch Family media tycoons … after the Tisch family contributed $2.5 million to the Mayor’s Fund.

• Adding lawn space — more “picture perfect” for NYU’s graduation ceremonies.

• Narrowing the public walkways

* Spending $25-30 Million on this unwanted redesign (the original budget was an already high $16 million; it has now skyrocketed past that).

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Hope to see you — !

“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.

Events at the Squares - Washington Square Park (Saty 6/28) and Union Square Park (Wed. 7/2): Reclaim Our Public Space

Washington Square Park and Union Square Park are two of the great public spaces in New York City - each with incredible historical references and ideals. Public space - our commons - is being continually minimized and distorted in the interest of privatization and the ’shopping mall’-ification of the city. Real estate interests and Business improvement districts (BIDS) rule and communities lose out in Mayor Bloomberg’s New York.

Come learn about and reclaim these two great NYC spaces.

Two upcoming events:

Washington Square Park * Saturday, June 28th(tomorrow!), 12 noon

Come to the Walking Tour! WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:

A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space

(Raindate Saturday, July 12th, 12 noon)

Meet Up at Washington Square Arch, Washington Square North @ Fifth Avenue ; $5

“In the 1950s, Jane Jacobs helped keep cars out of Washington Square. But a new redesign - which will entail dismantling the fountain, removing the chess tables and cutting down decades-old trees - puts the beloved green space in jeopardy all over again. [WSP CID] leads this tour through WSP, which highlights some of the proposed ‘improvements.’” - Time Out NY 6/26/08

Trains: A,B,C,D,E,F to West 4th Street/Washington Square

Presented by Washington Square Park Blog and Washington Square Community Improvement District(CID)

Union Square Park * Wednesday, July 2nd, 6 p.m.

Celebrate this year’s national nativity party ye olde fashioned way…

PUSH BACK PICNIC !

Northern end of the Park, by the Abe Lincoln Statue

As the nation prepares to celebrate it’s 232nd Birthday, and the Union Square BID (Business Improvement District) prepares to privatize the LANDMARKED Pavilion building, come join the Community Improvement District (CID), along with your favorite radical heroes of Union Square for a radical auction action and more. Make a bid on your favorite national chain store franchise! Dance circles around stodgy, stogie-smoking, sell-out politicians! Marvel as the park pushes back against the greedy takeover artists!

Let’s push back the privatizers and keep Union Square a place for public gatherings, public rallies, and public play. PUSH BACK THE BID — UNION SQUARE IS NOT FOR SALE!

More info: Union Square Not For Sale

Event: Walking Tour! Washington Square Park: Past, Present, and Future: A Guide to NYC’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space Saty June 28th

Come to the Walking Tour! Saturday, June 28th, 12 noon

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:  A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space

(Raindate Saturday, July 12th, 12 noon)

Meet Up at Washington Square Arch, Washington Square North @ Fifth Avenue ; $5

Time Out NY this week wrote:  In the 1950s, Jane Jacobs helped keep cars out of Washington Square.  But a new redesign - which will entail dismantling the fountain, removing the chess tables and cutting down decades-old trees - puts the beloved green space in jeopardy all over again.  [Guide] leads this tour through WSP, which highlights some of the proposed “improvements.”

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Washington Square Park Blog and Washington Square Community Improvement District (CID) present a walking tour: “Washington Square Park Past, Present, and Future: A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space” on Saturday, June 28th at 12 noon.

A unique Walking Tour of Washington Square Park Past, Present and Future, it will include a Guide to New York City government’s redesign of Washington Square Park - a controversial project that will alter the historic nature and structure of this successful public space.

The tour will also include history of the Park (Past) and what’s being done right now(Present).

Community Improvement Districts(CID) are a new model organizing to protect, preserve and promote the well being of our community. The needs of people are our primary concern, distinguishing us from the better known and financed groups referred to as Business Improvement Districts(BIDS), whose sole interest is promoting better business and an environment conducive to shopping. At Washington Square Park, the neighborhood BIDS, along with NYU, the Tisch Family, and Mayor Bloomberg have played a role in a redesign plan that is destroying the very heart of Washington Square Park.

Trains: A,B,C,D,E,F to West 4th Street/Washington Square

More about Community Improvement Districts (CID) here.

What are New York City’s plans? Click here.

What is up with Community Board 2? Approves NYU’s demolition plans for 133-139 MacDougal Street / Provincetown Playhouse despite widespread community disapproval

Manhattan Community Board 2 voted 37-1 (with 2 abstentions) to approve NYU’s proposal to demolish 133-139 MacDougal Street, the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments.

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation(GVSHP) noted, at last week’s general meeting(June 19), speaker after speaker spoke out against NYU’s demolition plans and ONLY NYU and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office spoke in favor of demolishing the Provincetown Playhouse and yet the Community Board voted with them.

Who exactly does the Community Board represent?

After NYU’s initial plans to totally demolish the historic Playhouse were revealed, heated protest caused the University to back down - somewhat. According to GVSHP, NYU “did agree to preserve the four walls and entry facade of the theater portion of the building, although NYU originally claimed there was nothing worth preserving about the theater.”

The Real Deal, a real estate blog, wrote about the history of the building:

“The building, originally four separate townhouses, was combined in the early 1940s. In 1916, the Provincetown Players, including playwright Eugene O’Neill, called 139 Macdougal Street home, and two years later moved three houses down to its current home at 133 Macdougal. The Players, famous for experimental theater, book-ended the four houses with fellow radicals living in between them.

In the early 1900s, the Washington Square Bookshop promoted modern literature at 135 Macdougal. Next door at 137 Macdougal stood the Liberal Club, the self-proclaimed ‘Meeting Place for Those Interested in New Ideas,’ whose famous members included Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair and Margaret Sanger.”

The article notes that, “… the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation deemed [the location] eligible for historic preservation this week.” NYU’s plans include a new building “with two extra floors to be used by its School of Law.”

Andrew Berman, head of GVSHP, commented: “Unfortunately there seem to be a little too much eagerness [by the Community Board] to accommodate NYU at the expense of our neighborhood’s history and character.”

Then, if you look at their track record on Washington Square Park, Community Board 2 voted twice in favor of the “renovation” of Washington Square Park again despite widespread community disapproval.

The Board eventually rescinded their approval when the New York City Parks Department’s lack of transparency and withholding of information became impossible to ignore.

That being said, neither Community Board Chair Brad Hoylman, nor NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, seem to remember that the “approval” was rescinded. The Community Board chairs are often seen featured in photos with Commissioner Benepe and the BID (Business Improvement District) members holding checks towards the Park’s redesign.

So, who exactly does the Community Board represent?

Event-Walking Tour * Washington Square Park: Past, Present and Future - A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space. Saturday, June 28th

WALKING TOUR: WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:
A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space
Saturday, June 28th, 12 noon

(Raindate Saturday, July 12th, 12 noon)

Meet Up at Washington Square Arch, Washington Square North @ Fifth Avenue ; $5

Washington Square Park Blog and Washington Square Community Improvement District (CID) present a walking tour: “Washington Square Park Past, Present, and Future: A Guide to New York City’s Redesign of a Perfect Public Space” on Saturday, June 28th at 12 noon.

Community Improvement Districts(CID) are a new model organizing to protect, preserve and promote the well being of our community. The needs of people are our primary concern, distinguishing us from the better known and financed groups referred to as Business Improvement Districts(BIDS), whose sole interest is promoting better business and an environment conducive to shopping. At Washington Square Park, the neighborhood BIDS, along with NYU, the Tisch Family, and Mayor Bloomberg have played a role in a redesign plan that is destroying the very heart of Washington Square Park.

This will be a unique Walking Tour of Washington Square Park Past, Present and Future. It will include a Guide to New York City government’s redesign of Washington Square Park - a controversial project that will alter the historic nature and structure of this successful public space. Pushed through with a non-transparent process by the New York City Parks Department, the redesign of this park is largely unwelcome by the community and was done without listening to community input.

The tour will also include history of the Park (Past) and what’s being done right now(Present).

Trains: A,B,C,D,E,F to West 4th Street/Washington Square

More about Community Improvement Districts (CID) here.

What are New York City’s plans? Click here.

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.**

Film Premiere Sunday June 1st: “Washington Square SQUARED” in Manhattan

“Washington Square SQUARED” is a one hour documentary which focuses on the redesign of Washington Square Park and what’s taken place over the last four years: how the Bloomberg Administration pushed through its agenda to get this famous park in ‘line’ - literally.

It begins with the fountain, that famous theatre-in-the-round, home to political protest, art and musical freewheeling. The new design calls for this structure to “align” with the historic Arch (after over a century unaligned), more “picture perfect” for tourists traveling down Fifth Avenue, and reduction of the voluminous public space that surrounds it transformed into quaint areas with landscaped lawns.

The footage shows the government’s bait-and-switch games with the outraged community, whose members watch the City attempt to transform the Washington Square Park that they know and love into one that is pretty and pacified and far from its artistic, bohemian roots.

If you’ve been wondering how it got to this - with much of Washington Square Park behind gates and bulldozed - “Washington Square SQUARED” will bring into sharp focus what’s happened thus far and what’s in store.

This is the premiere screening of this documentary.

Directed by Matt Davis

With Musical Guests: The Fools, A Brief View of The Hudson, Jeff Dickinson, Farbeon

This SUNDAY, JUNE 1st, 7 p.m.

BOWERY POETRY CLUB

308 Bowery between Houston & Bleecker

F train to 2nd Avenue; 6 train to Bleecker

Four Dollars

More information: square-movie.com

NY Observer’s “Most Powerful” in NYC Real Estate - Who Played Role in Washington Sq Park Redesign?

The New York Observer released their compilation of “The 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate” today. Some familiar players from the City’s very-much-controlled “process” to redesign Washington Square Park made the list, as I’m sure you’re not surprised! Although there were a few surprises…

#2: Mayor Michael Bloomberg

On “public officials,” the Observer writes, “They seem to be at their best for real estate … as obstructionist or helper; and Mr. Bloomberg’s administration has done very little of the former and a lot of the latter.”

#11. NYU; specifically: Michael Alfano; Executive Vice President, N.Y.U.

Alfano is “onetime dean of N.Y.U.’s College of Dentistry” (?) and “now oversees the 15 million square feet leased and owned by the university, and is spearheading a plan to add six million feet of new space in the next 25 years. That’s no easy task, particularly in the notoriously prickly Village community.”

Prickly, eh? Hopefully the “task” will only get more difficult for NYU which has stamped its footprint down, thereby squashing much of the charm of the Village. The University has made its presence felt over what happens at Washington Square Park, despite what their official statements say.

#44. Robert B. Tierney; Chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission

The list notes: “Tom Wolfe has written that Mr. Tierney lacks the power or pluck to stand up to developers…”

Certainly, the Commissioners of Landmarks Preservation were notably reticent in challenging the City’s plans around Washington Square Park, which they approved. (Also, George Vellonakis, the “designer” of the new plan, was less than upfront or perfectly honest during his presentation to them.)

#57. Adrian Benepe; Commissioner of the Department of Parks & Recreation

This was a surprise to me but there, on the list, is Commissioner Benepe! The Observer states: “More than one-seventh of the city is controlled by the agency that Mr. Benepe has led since the start of the Bloomberg administration. He is overseeing a major parks expansion, and new projects like Manhattan’s High Line are spawning nearby development and hiking land values.”

It seems like most of the projects Commissioner Benepe is “overseeing” are about “spawning nearby development and hiking land values.”

#88. Andrew Berman; Executive Director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

“Building anything new in Greenwich Village can be an extraordinarily trying, if not impossible, experience today, in large part due to the well-organized resistance of Mr. Berman,” says the Observer.

However, it is also worth noting that the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation was eerily silent on the issue of the “renovation” and redesign of Washington Square Park.

As for Union Square Park…

He hasn’t figured (thus far) into Washington Square Park but for Union Square Park, where some of the above players also appear, Danny Meyer, President of the Union Square Hospitality Group, appears on the list at # 24. The Observer comments: “The restaurateur from St. Louis triggered the transformation of an entire neighborhood with the opening of his Union Square Café in 1985; the once-seedy area now teems with top-rated eateries. Expect the Upper West Side to become one big burger line when his Shake Shack opens on Columbus Avenue.”

1 Year Ago: Community Board 2 Rescinds its Approval of Parks Department’s Washington Sq Park Plans

On April 19, 2007, Manhattan’s Community Board 2 rescinded its approval of Bloomberg’s plan to bulldoze and rebuild Washington Square Park. Happy Anniversary!

All, right, technically the Board gave the City until May 9, 2007, to adequately respond to questions that had been raised; otherwise, the approval would be rescinded. Which is what happened when the Parks Department ignored the Community Board’s directive.

While Community Board votes are largely considered “advisory,” officials like to cite Community Board decisions to validate their projects when those decisions go in their favor. In the case of Washington Square Park, Parks Commissioner Benepe falsely cites in his letters that he had the approval of the local Community Board, and ignores the inconvenient fact that the Board had rescinded their previous approval.

Here are the Minutes from the April 19th, 2007 Community Board meeting at which the Board took back its approval.

COMMUNITY BOARD 2 Manhattan MINUTES
DATE: April 19, 2007

13 3. Washington Square Park

… WHEREAS, the Appellate Divisions opinion affirmed Community Board 2’s legal right to be fully informed and provided with accurate plans for review, irrespective of the Parks Department adherence to the Board’s recommendation

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Community Board 2 will rescind its prior approval of the plans for renovation of Washington Square Park effective May 9, 2007 unless before such date the Parks Department presents for review and examination its current plans for renovation to the full Community Board 2, the Community Board 2 Park and Waterfront Committee or to the Washington Square Park Task Force; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Community Board 2 calls on our elected officials, most especially City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilman Alan Gerson, State Senator Tom Duane, Assembly Member Deborah Glick and Borough President Scott Stringer, to use their respective offices to urge the Parks Department to appear before the Community Board and/or the Washington Square Park Task Force and present its detailed plans for Washington Square Park before any contracts are put out to bid and work of any nature is performed in connection with the renovation of Washington Square Park.

Vote: Passed, with 42 Board members in favor and 5 in opposition.