One question that may come up: Why is the area of the Park behind the fieldhouse/office locked up? The locks arrived on Nov. 8, and since then, park-goers no longer have access to the space that includes the Slocum Memorial Fountain as well as picnic tables, sprinklers (during the summer) and other less-traveled spaces.
There isn't any signage to explain why this part of Tompkins is no longer accessible to the public.
One Park worker said this happened after Sue Donoghue, commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, paid a visit and saw used needles in this area. (There was also a reader report about an OD back here in late October.) Another TSP worker had no idea why the gates were locked. The Parks Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the weekend, someone placed a sign (since removed) noting that "staffers are allowed to frolic there" ... and to call the Manhattan Borough Commissioner for Parks ...
Today's meeting is scheduled at 10 a.m. inside Tompkins at Ninth Street and Avenue A.
Thanks to Steven for the photos.
26 comments:
Yes it has been closed since they found the dead body. There is a office for park employees in there so its not an employee lounge ALTHOUGH everyone of those parks employees deserves one for the shit they have to clean up.
This is such a nice spot in the park - so sorry to see it shuttered. Hoping today's meeting is followed up with action steps to bring the Park back for "everyone to enjoy" condition.
I was told the same last week - that this area was closed by the commissioner with no explanation, but we can assume it's because of the drug use.
Closing off sections of the park does not address the problem. It makes things worse as many of us only have this park as an area for air and recreation, essential to mental and physical health. The issue of drugs needs to be addressed. Closing the park hurts everyone and accomplishes nothing.
I have to work today, so can't make the meeting. Any updates would be much appreciated.
This used to be mainly an area for children, including access to the pool. but since the pandemic it had been overrun with drug use.
Closing off sections of parks doesn't stop public drug use & provides no help to people sick with drug addiction (and likely numerous other problems that social services could assist with, if the addiction is kept at bay) & denies park space to the public in an area where there's not a whole lot of it.
The Parks department keeps doing this throughout the city and you think they'd learn it doesn't really help anything, but they're probably satisfied if it keeps crime stats down within the parks and doesn't earn the mayor any bad press in the New York Post. After all, there's a subset of furious neighbors who go running to the tabloids any time they think there's something in the neighborhood that they paid too much for their homes to have to see day-to-day (but they'd never use the park anyway. They have a terrace)
It's a huge mistake to close part of the park, including when cops barricade the chess tables. Open up the park! Open to all! Whatever you want to call em - I like the term village idiots- they've been part of the "community" of the park for 150 years! When they are locked out and barricaded from their place, they're still there, just spread out all over messing up the park's spatial rhythm.
As far as cops, how 'bout walking the park instead of cop cars?
It is closed because of the junkies shooting up all day/all night with no respect or regard for the kid's/families and other people in/from the community who come to enjoy the park.
They literally turned the park into a drug den and local politicians who we voted into office don't care!
I concur with others. Along with the dead body which was recently discovered and the constant drug abuse in broad daylight from addicts, this is exactly why this part of the park is indefinitely closed. Actions have consequences. Residents pay the price.
"The Parks department keeps doing this throughout the city and you think they'd learn it doesn't really help anything, but they're probably satisfied if it keeps crime stats down within the parks and doesn't earn the mayor any bad press in the New York Post."
Yep.
Actions have consequences? Sounds like the city just doesn't want to do the work, and it's easier to shut down services than to tackle tough problems. It's what happens when you elect a dimwit authoritarian wannabe.
Closing off sections of the park because a small number of people do the wrong thing, thereby punishing the rest of us who use and need OUR FUCKING PARK, is absolutely UN-acceptable.
I attended the meeting today in the park. The ninth precinct CO was there with various other cops, as were members of the Dept of Sanitation and Parks Enforcement Patrol [PEP - the Parks Dept's equivalent of a police force]. For about half an hour, they listened to members of the public talk before they retreated in order to have a "private meeting" elsewhere.
A few people there demanded that the park be closed each night. They claim that the park is "unsafe" due to homeless people and drug users. Nevermind that drug use is rampant all over the city, that drug use takes place in EVERY city park, at ALL hours of the day, and that those who want to get into Tompkins or into any city park after curfew simply jump the fence around the park. Several others bravely countered those pushing for the park to be closed, demanding that the park remain OPEN at night.
The rhetoric used to justify closing the park sounds like the same shit we heard back in 1988 when a handful of creeps, cajoled by aspiring politician (and shill for real estate interests) Antonio Pagan, demanded that Tompkins Square Park be closed because of homeless persons, drugs and needles.
Unscrupulous cops in 1988 used this as a justification to impose a park curfew that led to the bloody Tompkins Square Police Riot of August 6, 1988 and subsequent riots and skirmishes between cops and community residents over the following three years. Many wised-up cops we spoke with then did NOT like being used as tools to facilitate the gentrification to come!
Those of us who USE our beloved Tompkins Square Park, that we shed BLOOD for, know that there are only a few homeless and semi-homeless people in the park at any given time and that drug use, if any, is done discreetly. Yes, there are needles left behind, which is very fucked up, but that does NOT justify closing sections of the park or imposing a curfew on those of us who love and respect our park.
The REAL problems that should be addressed in our park were NOT addressed at today's meeting. They include renovating/repairing the public bathrooms (the women's room has NO doors on the stalls!), adding more garbage receptacles and reducing the rat population. Those who are less fortunate than the rest of us, who have NO place to live, are NOT rats to be removed from the view of the public. They have as much right to use the park as anyone else.
Also attending was political aspirant Carlina Rivera, who tried to control the public input part of the meeting, but failed. From what we heard, she has allocated $150,000 to close off parts of St Marx Place and Avenue B on weekends, but has allocated NOTHING for the park. 150 grand to get someone to put barriers at intersections? REALLY?? That kind of money could be used for addressing REAL issues in the park, but if the park had no issues, politicians like Rivera would have no issues to pretend to be concerned about, would they??
There are no easy answers, but closing the park and removing the homeless is NOT the solution. The majority of my neighbors that I speak with want that park open 24 HOURS a day. And that is what we are going to fight for.
Chris Flash
Publisher/Editor
The SHADOW
Agree but this is the entire park now! It is very common to walk by passed out people. People fishing around with needles while I take my kid through the park multiple times each day. Does this mean we should close the whole park? Just say there need to be other solutions in place…
At the 9th Precinct meeting last night Commander Clement was saying this is park territory and parks department can and should be the ones managing these issues.
Couldn't make the meeting this morning- yes, any updates?
As a LES/EV resident I have been going to this park for many years and I have never seen it this bad. The NYPD and PEP need to work together and set up mini station houses in the park next to the areas where the homeless drug users like to congregate like at the chess tables. The NYPD and PEP officers should also patrol the park regularly on foot and deal with problems as they occur and not after the fact that is often the case. The park should also be open 24 hours a day for the enjoyment of citizens like myself.
I was waking home through the park on Ave A and St.Marks during Monday afternoon. As I made my way where the gates are located, an older sixty-something man rode his bike directly into my body, which really hurt, and began calling me a faggot a few times, which is a trigger for any gay man who has been bullied before. He then proceeded to call me a bitch ass who has no business in this park with his bike blocking my path. I've lived in our hood for twelve years and have never encountered an incident such as this. He continued to berate me. As jarred as I was, I walked away and kept looking back if he followed me. I didn't feel safe and searched for a police officer to report the assault, but there was no one to be found. As a concerned, loyal, law abiding, and tax paying resident, I would like to see more of a police presence in this area. Moving forward, I have to be on the look out if this monster emerges again. Not sure whether he was mentally ill, delusional, bigoted, or on drugs. Scary times.
FIRST: The REAL underlying problem across the board this: People behaving badly, full stop.
If all human beings in NYC were courteous, decent, rational & law-abiding, we would be living in a very different environment.
Imagine NOT being terrorized by anyone/anything ... not by drug dealers, drug users, mentally ill people, or even rogue bike riders. It's like a fever-dream, isn't it?
Imagine if you could go out for a walk or go run errands without constantly having to be on "high alert" for any number of situations that could threaten you.
SECOND: The proximate problem is that people who behave badly in NYC generally don't face many consequences. The bail in-and-out "turnstile" system is horrendous (and an affront & insult to everyone living here), AND it makes the NYPD wonder why they should bother "fighting" crime.
Further, there's the law that says you CANNOT commit a mentally ill person against their will (unless they've already done something sufficiently ghastly). That means there are no genuine ways to deal with or "control" the behaviors of that entire population.
The mentally ill are free to suffer, or to make *us* suffer, or to attack or kill if that's what their minds tell them to do. The people who are mentally ill AND using street drugs take that to another level.
CONCLUSION: Those of us who want to live in a safe & civilized city are paying the price: WE are the ones who don't count, WE are the ones who are disempowered, and WE are the lowest priority on the totem pole, b/c WE are not causing problems!
There are solutions, but between a useless-mayor and worse-than-useless DA, you can be assured that NO solution will be forthcoming anytime soon.
I wish I could be more optimistic, but I've lived here a very long time, and I know that I now have to be hyper-aware every minute when I'm out on the street for any reason. Being able to take a restful, relaxing walk is pure FICTION at this point.
I miss NYC when it was reasonably sane & safe, and I very much fear that we won't see THAT again for many, many years.
For the first time in 20 years, I've seen cops walking up and down Ave A in pairs over the last few days. It's a start. I never saw them inside the park, but still see NYPD and PEP driving their cars through the park (PEP honked at me today because I was apparently in their way on a walkway). PEP should also be WALKING around the park.
The drug issue is a city-wide issue, not just confined to Tompkins or parks in general. Homelessness is a city-wide issue. Closing the park is just another way of sweeping these problems under the rug. We can't afford to wait for the next mayor to address with these issues.
Everyone needs to calm the f down. Carlina Rivera told me this morning at the mtg in Tompkins that the city is renovating the building & that the park will be closing at midnight in the near future. If you want to make a difference, join Friends of Tompkins Sq Park & help us clean up our beautiful beloved park.
@10:23pm: Forgive me if I don't immediately believe what Rivera says. Her word is not her bond, in my experience.
At this point there is only one possible way to save Tompkins Square Park: tear it down and replace it with a casino.
The city budget is $100 BILLION, of which police get $10 BILLION. So why should citizens have to be responsible for doing the work to keep parks clean? And why doesn’t that buy foot patrols to keep the park safe and comfortable for kids, and social workers to help addicts?
What about More lights in areas
Cops are leaving in droves and the media-cop crime scare has driven the remaining all to the subway. Enjoy your new platform announcements no one needs.
Carlina is a joke, with all this "open street", building chairs in the middle of Ave B childish crap. Leave the road alone and handle the actual recreation areas. So frustrating.
Been going to the park for years but I never thought to frolic.
I’m in the park almost everyday to birdwatch or listen to whoever’s playing music and I feel perfectly safe (52 y.o. female). Yes, I’ve seen a couple folks shoot up. I’ve also seen people making out. In both cases, I just look away and keep walking. Easy enough. Those sights aren’t to my taste, but they are also not my business, and they do not affect my life.
Parks are our public spaces and the city's lack of care or understanding of their importance to the overall urban fabric is inexcusable, especially after the pandemic, which showed how essential having open green space is to mental and physical health. It's scandalous how badly our parks are faring--that volunteers are expected to take care of the grass, trees, plantings, security, and cultural programs is absolutely ridiculous, basically asking citizens to pay twice, through taxes and then donations. The parks are also our public face to the world, and god knows what tourists must think of us after a walk through Tompkins, or the sad remains of East River Park (I ran into a French tourist trying to get into East River Park, pointing to her guidebook, asking, but where is the park? Where is the park?). Shame on our politicians!
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