From Joel Kupferman, lawyer extraordinaire:

IRONY – Adrian Benepe, NYC Parks Commissioner, speaking at a ceremony commemorating the halting of Columbia University’s gym construction 40 years ago. (WSPB note: The University’s plans were to take over a large swatch of Morningside Park, and were stopped by protest and action, in court, and in front of the bulldozers.)

PROTEST —- Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who masterminded the destruction of Washington Square Park, by moving and shrinking the fountain plaza, is speaking at a ceremony commemorating the halting of Columbia University’s gym construction 40 years ago. Sponsored by Friends of Morningside Park. This is the last part of Columbia 1968 and the World: A 40th Anniversary Event.

Some background: “This spring marks the 40th anniversary of the 1968 student protests at Columbia University. A group of alumni participants, working with faculty and students, has developed a program for a three-day conference to reexamine those events from a wide range of viewpoints and in the context of what was happening in 1968 in the country and the world.”

NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe will speaking at 2:00 PM today at Morningside Park @ West 113th Street.

The Parks Department continues to privatize parks and restrict the use of parks to gather and to protest. (See previous entry.)

Central Park was set off limits by the Parks Department for a huge anti-war rally on the great lawn during the Republican National Convention. See IndyMedia coverage.

The Parks Department continues to install ARTIFICIAL TURF in scores of city parks, including Riverside Park. Despite the fact that this synthetic turf reaches over 160 degrees in the summer (disparately impacting children who cannot leave the city in the summer), contains many toxic elements and compounds, and damages the environment; and that there are NY state and city legislative bills calling for a moratorium on the use of such grass, Commissioner Benepe still claims it is safe to use. Read more at New York Environmental Law & Justice Project.

JUST A LITTLE FOOD FOR THOUGHT while you picnic.

Joel R Kupferman
New York Environmental Law & Justice Project