Letters to the Editor

Volume 1, Number 44 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | July 20 - 26, 2007

Letters to the editor

Ten square questions

To The Editor:
Next week, the Parks Department will reveal to the public its revised plans for the redesign of Washington Square Park. Two years ago, during the three-month public community board review process for the redesign, Parks refused to leave a copy of the plans with the public or the community board. Parks officials have also refused to go on the record answering a single one of the questions below.

Is the object of this redesign plan to change the way people use the park and, if so, in what way?

If it could be established that an overwhelming proportion of Villagers and New Yorkers favored using existing capital funds to simply renovate and improve the park while preserving its current design, would Parks be willing to allocate our tax dollars for this purpose, make the repairs and keep the park open during the renovation process?

Since the park’s central plaza has for 40 years been the most popular gathering space in Greenwich Village, and one of the world’s most renowned impromptu performance and music jam spaces, why would you risk this current usage by dramatically changing its design?

How will the new design, which reduces the size of the central plaza by 23 percent, brings it to a street-level grade and transforms the fountain into an ornamental object inaccessible to the public, fully preserve and maintain the central plaza’s exceptional impromptu theater in the round?

Why is the renovation of the park restrooms, which surveys show is the single highest priority for park users, not included in the budget for either of the planned two phases of Washington Square’s redesign?

Will the newly designed walkways, split by planters and smaller than those there now, be able to accommodate the large number of people that pass through the park on busy weekends, and will we be able to stroll as freely in the walkway if we have baby strollers, are holding hands or have dogs on leashes? Has any independent study ever been done as to how this redesign will impact the movement of crowds and public safety in the park?

Given that more than 90 percent of Villagers prefer the park’s permanent fence to be no higher than its current 2-foot height to maintain its popular open feel, why does Parks insist on a fence twice that height?

Since the park redesign eliminates all six of the park’s quiet seating areas, does Parks feel that as many people will make use of the slightly expanded lawn as currently use the seating areas? Does Parks believe that people from the senior center across the street from the park will sit on the grass as they now sit in the quiet seating areas?

Has the Parks Department been “punishing” our community by not repairing the pavement, bathrooms or grass in Washington Square Park for the past two years, and does Parks believe the park is adequately maintained at this moment?

For 180 years, Washington Square Park has been publicly funded. Will this plan require the creation of a conservancy to fund the park after the renovation?
Jonathan Greenberg
Greenberg is lead plaintiff in Greenberg vs. City of New York and founder, Open Washington Square Park Coalition.

The Battle of Board 2

To The Editor:
In March 2007 a campaign was started to co-name the block on Greenwich Ave. between W. 12th and W. 13th St. “Little Britain.” Even though we collected 6,000 signatures in support, on July 10, a subcommittee of Community Board 2, the Greenwich Village community board, voted it down stating, “co-names cannot be done for commercial reasons” and “a lack of historical importance.”

The full board will vote on Little Britain on July 19.

Here are seven reasons why we believe Greenwich Ave. needs Little Britain.

1. To support small, local businesses by generating more customers, so that they can afford the fourfold increase in rents landlords are demanding.

2. To recognize a nationality that has been an integral part of the neighborhood for more than 100 years.

3. To support the small, local businesses that contribute to the character and diversity of the neighborhood that are being pushed out by uniform global brands.

4. To recognize the contribution Tea & Sympathy has made to the neighborhood in the 17 years it has been here — 90 letters of thanks received from neighborhood organizations over the last year.

5. To create a destination for Anglophiles among the 44 million people visiting New York each year, which will benefit every business on the block — which is why all these businesses have signed individual letters of support.

6. Because, to date, more than 6,000 people have voted for Little Britain in the Big Apple; 1,0 of these signatures were collected in Tea & Sympathy and 57 percent of the total online signatures were New York City residents.

7. To increase the West Village’s share of New York’s $22.8 billion direct visitor spending each year, of which Great Britain is the top-producing nation.

In summary, while we respect C.B. 2’s Traffic and Transportation Committee’s vote, we believe our cause is just and that the tongue-in-cheek campaign we created is no different in principle from all political or lobbying campaigns in the U.S., in that we raised funds from a likeminded corporation. To hold that against us is, we believe, unreasonable.

Please support our campaign at www.campaignforlittlebritain.com.
Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett

Turning the tables. Ouch!

To The Editor:
Villagers should be very careful before sitting at any of the round metal tables with four chairs attached on the pier at the foot of Christopher St. If one of the curved legs of these tables is not firmly bolted to the ground, the whole table can tip over and land on top of sitters as they hit the ground in the attached chairs. After this happened to me last week, I’m very careful to check that the leg bolt is in place before sitting down in one of these contraptions.
Vahe A. Tiryakian

E-mail letters, not longer than 350 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to Chelsea Now, Letters to the Editor, 145 Sixth Ave., ground floor, NY, NY 10013. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. Chelsea Now reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel.