Washington Square Decision Bad for Public Discourse
From the Villager
Washington Sq. decision grants city license to lie
By Jonathan Greenberg
The closer you look at the recent decision by the Appellate Division to overturn Judge Emily Jane Goodman’s ruling on the redesign of Washington Square Park, the more it resembles a political fix.
Typically, an appeals court overturns a lower court’s ruling on issues of law. But in this case, the decision by the five-man Appellate panel (four of them Pataki-appointed conservatives) revised the facts in Goodman’s July 25, 2006, ruling, replacing reality with fiction. The Appellate Court has reconstructed what really happened during the past two years, in order to grant the Parks Department a license to radically redesign Washington Square Park.
The approvals the Parks Department received from C.B. 2 and Landmarks Commission members were, in fact, based upon misleading information. The reason that the city spent eight months appealing Judge Goodman’s decision instead of complying with its simple “do it right this time” instruction was that it did not believe it could win the approval of its true plan for our park through a legitimate review process.
C.B. 2 and the Landmarks Commission have never voted on the fully revealed plan, which destroys the theater-in-the-round that makes Washington Square Park one of the most unique public gathering spaces in the world. The Parks Department deliberately refused to disclose its actual plans until after receiving C.B. 2 and Landmarks approvals. Instead, they falsely marketed their redesign as a relatively minor renovation that would improve the park’s current functionality.
Meanwhile, in Councilmember Alan Gerson’s talking point in last week’s Villager (“Forward and united on Washington Square renovation”), he seems untroubled by two years of misrepresentations and an abuse of the community approval process. Given the deceit of Parks and its legal stance officially disavowing the unsigned “Gerson-Quinn agreement,” few Villagers would agree with the councilmember’s statement that “Even if Parks’ fountain proposal proceeds, there will be no real change in Washington Square Park’s feel and character.”
“Forward and united,” Gerson wrote last week.
I have a better idea for the city: Try listening to us, the taxpaying citizens, for a change. We are united and this is what we say: Preserve Washington Square Park, keep it open, repair it, don’t redesign it!
Greenberg, a local parent, is lead plaintiff in Greenberg vs. City of New York and founder of the Open Washington Square Park Coalition. He holds a master’s law degree from Yale Law School and has lived near Washington Square Park more than 30 years.