[Photo credit John Penley]
In case you haven't already seen it... Lincoln Anderson has a nice piece in The East Villager this week on Harry Greenberg, who's retiring after more than two decades as the supervisor of Tompkins Square Park.
There are plenty of passages to highlight...
Greenberg is quick to credit his staff for keeping Tompkins clean. Actually, the number of his workers has shrunk over the years, forcing him to do more with less. In 1990, he had 15 permanent workers in Tompkins Square Park, and also managed part of Parks District 3, which is contiguous with the East Village and Lower East Side’s Community Board 3. Today, he only has four permanent workers for Tompkins, who also have to maintain 34 other sites in a portion of the district, such as the planted islands on East Houston St., for example.
And!
Although there are drugs in the park, it used to be far worse. Plus, Greenberg noted, “What park doesn’t have drugs?”
“I used to come to this park early in the morning, and there were drug dealers and hookers. Now it’s normal people,” he said, though adding with a laugh, “They could be hookers and drug dealers.”
I loved the piece. Such a perfect illustration of a community newspaper profile at its best -- here's a guy who has been here a long time and seen a lot, and from an unusual perspective. Enjoy your retirement, Harry! (And bravo, Lincoln Anderson.)
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Marjorie! Kudos to Harry and his crew for all they've done through the years... As John Penley noted in the piece, gonna be tough to replace Harry...
ReplyDeleteHarry-Amy and the parks people are great! It was a wonderful tribute to Harry--who is compassionate and kind and hard working and has helped to make Tompkins the premier park in the City (in my opinion).
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