In Greenwich Village, good fences make good Fascists, or so the rabble-rousers at CB2 would have you believe. A recent meeting, The Villager reports, got a little nasty, when some attendees wanted to voice their dissent and point out that the creeping authoritarianism masquerading as renovation that the Parks Department has been quietly rolling out across the city is about to land on the most contentious piece of ‘public’ space left: the venerable Washington Square.
Once home to personalities and events that are the cornerstone of every liberal arts fantasy about sticking it to the man, and now the source of some of the best single-serving-size oregano in the city, Washington Square Park stands tall with Union and Tompkins Squares as the hallowed ground of alternative culture. And, like those two sites, the Parks Department has set its sights on providing beautiful planting and green space that will be inaccessible to humans, and dog run renovations, which, regardless of the final form, will incense some portion of the mercurial dog-owning community.
Though several of the design recommendations are under scrutiny, as one would expect with any vigorous community interest, the major point of contention is the plan to wrap the park in the same vaguely nostalgic wrought iron fencing that has slowly but certainly encircled every piece of park property in Manhattan. In some areas, it is used to great effect, such as the planting areas (Gustav Hartman Square and the like) along East Houston, or some parks, such as Tribeca Park, which, prior to renovation, looked like a traffic divider with trees. But in places like Tompkins, the fears of Washington Square residents are amply demonstrated. With only a few entrances, often blocked by NYPD patrol vehicles, the utility of fencing as crowd control and as a means of restricting access is strongly in evidence.
I haven’t seen the plan (the Parks Department is going to ‘try’ to put it online), so the real indicator of this will be in the handlding of the north and south entrances. Given the current layout, simply ringing green spaces won’t be of much benefit to putative police control: the plaza that runs through the park, mirroring the width of Fifth Avenue, terminating on the north end, and West Broadway, on the south, is so broad that other means of restricting access would be necessary to reproduce what is possible in Tompkins.
The indication from the article is that a more drastic intervention is called for; if so, this is a frontal assault on the what makes the park such a pleasant formal environment. Standing in an area that already features tree cover than can be found in most other areas of Manhattan, its continuity with the park creates the most humanly scaled residential and park interaction in the city. That most of the perimeter buildings have become institutional is more than unfortunate, but at least pedestrians can experience firsthand what idealized urban living can be. Tompkins, which is bounded by wider streets, lacks the same intimacy, and most other larger parks and squares are more commercial than residential.
How any fence that is enclosing enough to ‘secure’ the park at night, and, as the NYPD argues, deter drug dealing — which is funny, since a permanent substation with real cops and myriad cameras hasn’t stemmed the tide, so the new strategy basically admits that a fence may be more effective than live officers — won’t ruin one of the most commanding vistas in the city is hard to imagine. Perhaps the thinking is that we got so used to seeing awful cyclone fencing surrounding the arch for what seemed like decades of renovation that a permanent visual intrusion won’t be any further insult.
All in all, this creates the perfect storm of community resistance: a renovation that not even its mother loves. The lack of any formal precedent for the fencing, and likewise the obstruction of one of the most striking views in the city should get the even the most conservative preservationist exercised, and the threat to whatever vestiges of bohemian culture that exist in the Village should bring out the Tompkins battle-wounded in droves.
As glib as that is, it’s no small issue. The Parks Department has had a string of impressive successes throughout the city, and the decision to force this restrictive collar on what is legitimately historic ground to several generations of diverse New York culture needs to be seriously reconsidered. Here’s a good place to start.
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Whither Bohemia?
In Greenwich Village, good fences make good Fascists, or so the rabble-rousers at CB2 would have you believe. A recent meeting, The Villager reports, got a little nasty, when some attendees wanted to voice their dissent and point out that the creeping authoritarianism masquerading as renovation that the Parks Department has been quietly rolling out across the city is about to land on the most contentious piece of ‘public’ space left: the venerable Washington Square.
Once home to personalities and events that are the cornerstone of every liberal arts fantasy about sticking it to the man, and now the source of some of the best single-serving-size oregano in the city, Washington Square Park stands tall with Union and Tompkins Squares as the hallowed ground of alternative culture. And, like those two sites, the Parks Department has set its sights on providing beautiful planting and green space that will be inaccessible to humans, and dog run renovations, which, regardless of the final form, will incense some portion of the mercurial dog-owning community. Though several of the design recommendations are under scrutiny, as one would expect with any vigorous community interest, the major point of contention is the plan to wrap the park in the same vaguely nostalgic wrought iron fencing that has slowly but certainly encircled every piece of park property in Manhattan. In some areas, it is used to great effect, such as the planting areas (Gustav Hartman Square and the like) along East Houston, or some parks, such as Tribeca Park, which, prior to renovation, looked like a traffic divider with trees. But in places like Tompkins, the fears of Washington Square residents are amply demonstrated. With only a few entrances, often blocked by NYPD patrol vehicles, the utility of fencing as crowd control and as a means of restricting access is strongly in evidence. I haven’t seen the plan (the Parks Department is going to ‘try’ to put it online), so the real indicator of this will be in the handlding of the north and south entrances. Given the current layout, simply ringing green spaces won’t be of much benefit to putative police control: the plaza that runs through the park, mirroring the width of Fifth Avenue, terminating on the north end, and West Broadway, on the south, is so broad that other means of restricting access would be necessary to reproduce what is possible in Tompkins.The indication from the article is that a more drastic intervention is called for; if so, this is a frontal assault on the what makes the park such a pleasant formal environment. Standing in an area that already features tree cover than can be found in most other areas of Manhattan, its continuity with the park creates the most humanly scaled residential and park interaction in the city. That most of the perimeter buildings have become institutional is more than unfortunate, but at least pedestrians can experience firsthand what idealized urban living can be. Tompkins, which is bounded by wider streets, lacks the same intimacy, and most other larger parks and squares are more commercial than residential.
How any fence that is enclosing enough to ‘secure’ the park at night, and, as the NYPD argues, deter drug dealing — which is funny, since a permanent substation with real cops and myriad cameras hasn’t stemmed the tide, so the new strategy basically admits that a fence may be more effective than live officers — won’t ruin one of the most commanding vistas in the city is hard to imagine. Perhaps the thinking is that we got so used to seeing awful cyclone fencing surrounding the arch for what seemed like decades of renovation that a permanent visual intrusion won’t be any further insult. All in all, this creates the perfect storm of community resistance: a renovation that not even its mother loves. The lack of any formal precedent for the fencing, and likewise the obstruction of one of the most striking views in the city should get the even the most conservative preservationist exercised, and the threat to whatever vestiges of bohemian culture that exist in the Village should bring out the Tompkins battle-wounded in droves. As glib as that is, it’s no small issue. The Parks Department has had a string of impressive successes throughout the city, and the decision to force this restrictive collar on what is legitimately historic ground to several generations of diverse New York culture needs to be seriously reconsidered. Here’s a good place to start.