Council Member Alan Jay Gerson on the Washington Square Park Decision
From the Villager (where else?)
Talking Point: Forward and united on Washington Square renovation
By Alan Jay Gerson
Now is the time for all sectors of the Washington Square Park community to come together. We need to unite to insist that the Parks Department move forward in accordance with the City Council (“Gerson-Quinn”) agreement. We need to engage the department through the process, established by the agreement, to work out remaining design details in ways that protect and preserve the character of this park we all love. The recent unanimous decision by the Appellate Division, allowing the Parks Department to proceed without going back to the Community Board 2, Landmarks Preservation Commission or Art Commission, was predictable. The City Charter clearly gives the mayor and the Parks Department, and not the City Council or community board, discretion and control over park designs, explicitly granting them great leeway in the process.
Our agreement makes some compromises with the other party — in this case, the Parks Department — as does any agreement. Those compromises were necessary precisely because the City Charter gives the Parks Department full authority over park designs and redesigns. However, after extensive community input, we were able to use the Council’s limited budget leverage to obtain an unprecedented amount of park protections and improvements. At the same time, the agreement preserves the park’s historic, open and bohemian character.
Community Board 2 has repeatedly endorsed the department’s design with the changes required by the Gerson-Quinn City Council agreement. Both the Art Commission and the Landmarks Preservation Commission have made clear their positions on the limited issues within their legal purviews. At best, lawsuits will, by the delay they cause, drive up the repair and reconstruction costs, while more and more segments of the park fall into disrepair and join the mounds in being fenced off from use. Additionally, because of the state of the plumbing in the fountain, we need to move quickly to preserve a working fountain.