Washington Square Park
By Charlie. Filed in North America, Travel |
Many visuals come to a person’s mind if they have traveled to, or live near by, Washington Square Park in Manhattan. The arch, the fountain, the street musicians. This is the center of it all for many in the community that is the heartbeat of Greenwich Village. It’s a smaller version, yet complete, of the whole of New York city. It has become for many, the hub, between the NY hotels and suites of the Upper East Side and those who move to the ‘Island’, the hub for what is happening, stylish and contemporary. While all in all, remaining a relaxing park, designed with paths and benches and playgrounds for the children. There are permanent chess boards and dog runs, providing the children, the animals and the ‘grown-ups’ for opportunities to get out and about and to be able to bring along those that are cared for. Ironic that the site previously known as public gallows and a burial ground for indigents, then later a burial ground for the victims of yellow fever, is now much sought after spot for real estate investments and living for the upper class.
Beatniks have gathered here since the 60′s and the part was made famous, in part, due to the artists of all disciplines, the painters and the poets and songsters. Located close to NYU, the college crowd draw has been influential. Cafes with poetry slams, and the bohemian influence of the music and the scene has added to the history the park has had for a couple hundred years. During the eighties however, the park deteriorated, structurally and culturally. Drug dealers moved in and took over. The city of New York has spent the last years restructuring the park, with cameras and occasional police supervision. Regulations have been put on the artists and the musicians performing on the sidewalk. This happened in most part under the administration of Mayor Giuliani, and while the park is safer, controversies have arisen concerning the cameras and the infringement of privacy. Much as the controversy in Chicago over the placement of cameras downtown, citizens are uneasy about the feeling that they are being watched constantly. And while that is a philosophical debate in and of itself, the result is safer environments for those that wish to walk downtown, or to escape downtown to just simply sit on a park bench.
The park enjoyed a brief revitalization following its new design, but then began to deteriorate into a center for drug dealing by the 1980s, following the decline and recession the entire city underwent at the time. In the ’90s, it was reclaimed thanks to efforts by an active local community, and a police crackdown under Mayor Giuliani’s administration. But even this success was not without controversies over the use of hidden cameras to monitor park activity, and the regulation of artists and vendors.
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