7/28/2019 Goodbye Washington Square Park

1/3

Goodbye Washington Square Parkby Robert Lederman, artistpres@gmail.com

The future looks very good for Washington Square Park; good that is if you are acorporation or the puppet of one. The newly formed WSP Conservancy, which advertises

itself as being solely about little old ladies (and a celebrity couple) planting flowers andcleaning up trash, will soon be selling off the park to corporations anxious to use it as abillboard for their wonderful products.

The freelance musicians, artists and performers that WSP is world famous for will soonget to see what the newly amended park rules for expressive matter vendors were allabout (hint: if you actually read the full text of the rules, rather than the fake synopsis ofthem provided as an FAQ, you will see that they ban performers from the entire park).

Sarah Neilson, the Senior Project Manager for the Chief of Capital Program Managementwith the NYC Department of Parks, will be doing double duty as the director of the new

conservancy. Ms Neilsons job for the Parks Department gives an exact clue as to whatshe will be doing as conservancy director.

Her job is to monetize our formerly public parks by selling permits for special corporaterun events and to arrange for real estate interests to put condos in parks. She will be doingher utmost to maximize the profit potential of what was once just nice a place for NewYorkers to hang out, listen to music or play.

The conservancy claims it was created solely in order to raise money for parkmaintenance. Was the Parks Department previously refusing their donations and denyingthem a chance to plant flowers? Of course not.

So what is the fundraising really for?

To start with, you have to pay Ms. Neilsons six figure salary. Later on the boardmembers will likely need a salary. Then more poorly trained PEP officers will surelyhave to be hired in order to evict all the performers once Ms. Neilson gets up to speedselling daily special event permits to record companies, commercial bands andcorporations who want to plaster their name all over the park.

Like a decades old song about rebellion that is now being used to sell laundry detergent,the once proud symbol of the sixties will lend its street cred to the deceptive adcampaigns of any corporation willing to pony up a few hundred thousand for a one daypermit.

Community Board #2, formerly home to ten thousand radicals, artists, jazz musicians andfree thinkers, when did you become so trusting and naive that this nakedly obviousBloomberg scam could be presented to you, voted for almost unanimously and sold toyour community as a park improvement?

7/28/2019 Goodbye Washington Square Park

2/3

If you are not watching the store, who is? Certainly not the Mayor, the Parks Departmentor Christine Quinn, all of whom are infatuated with BIDs, Park Conservancies and parkprivatization.

Did you buy the absurd argument that because the budget allocation for parks keeps

shrinking, that privatization is inevitable? Have you ever heard about cause and effect?Dont you realize that it is the Mayor and Quinn who keep cutting the parks budget sothat park conservancies will appear to be inevitable?

If you would like a crystal ball-like glimpse into the future of WSP, walk a few blocks toUnion Square Park (USP).

Soon in USP youll be able to order a $35 breakfast in the new pavilion restaurant, buy a$10 bunch of carrots from the Greenmarket and then purchase a shopping bag full of veryexpensive gifts from the giant Holiday Market with 200 vendors. Dont forget that those200 vendors replaced 50 or so congestion-causing artists selling real paintings, prints,

photos and sculptures. Thats progress, right?

While the buskers and performers who currently use much of WSP for free under theFirst Amendment will soon be gone, dont worry, because Ms. Neilson plans to bookmany commercially viable acts into the new WSP. Theyll be singing the wonders ofSony, Disney, Nike and CitiBank.

The park will have a giant CitiBike rack; a corporate run restaurant, and, exactly as isbeing done with the High Line and the more elite areas of Central Park, the entire parkwill soon be available to be rented for private parties so long as you can foot the milliondollars for one day fee.

Dont you just love non-profit corporate charities like the Washington Square ParkConservancy that are run by little old ladies and public spirited celebrities? How did weever survive without them in the previous 300 years of NYC history before the creationof these wonderful entities that clean our parks, staff them with police and plant flowers.

Without conservancies we might have to invent an agency like the Parks Department todo this important job. We might even need a police department to patrol parks, or asanitation department to take away garbage.

The Bloomberg legacy. Impressive isnt it?----------------------------------------------------

Please come to Community Board 2s meeting Thursday,June 20th 6 p.m. 557 Broadway (Scholastic Building)between Prince and Spring, auditorium.Public comment begins at 6 p.m. sharp. This will be your last chanceto oppose a conservancy taking over Washington Sq Park.

7/28/2019 Goodbye Washington Square Park

3/3