Photo by Stacie Joy
The area behind the office/fieldhouse is locked up once again in Tompkins Square Park ...
three days after it was unlocked for the first time since Nov. 8.
Depending on who you ask, the area is/was closed because of drug activity or a broken pipe.
4 comments:
Just for a second, I thought that was Marley's Ghost door-knocker
Nope ,...just the Mayor's Lock.
Not sure what's going on here, but it was open over the weekend. I'm starting to think it just depends on who is working that day.
11:03 comment may be right about locked/unlocked depending on who is working in the park on a given day. Yesterday (Tue.), I saw that the "Children's Garden" area was open again with people in it. I am providing a little more info that may be helpful.
FYI, this area is called the "Children's Garden" and used to be restricted to children and their parents/guardians, per a sign on the entrance gate, when it was the only area with water sprayers/sprinklers. The sprinklers were turned on in the warm months in the concrete middle section. Plus it is the entrance to the children's pool. However, when the water sprinklers were added to the redone children's playgrounds around the park years ago, the "Children's Garden" area became open to all without any formal policy change. The sprinklers in the garden were rarely turned on over the last 3 summers.
Historically, the "Children's Garden" was always used in good weather for children's birthday parties around the picnic tables located along the back fence by 10th Street. In the spring, summer, and fall, kid's birthday parties would be held at the picnic tables almost every Saturday and Sunday with kids and their families having a great time with food and games. They would decorate the fence behind the picnic tables with birthday streamers and balloons and a buffet of food and birthday cakes would cover the tables.
Sadly, during the last few years since the start of the pandemic, the heroin dealers and junkies took over the picnic tables starting in the morning, leaving their syringes and needles on the tables and benches in the area after shooting up. I would usually see at least two or three junkies still there after the morning rush, nodding out after their fix. The picnic tables were removed this fall. I would guess that they were removed by the Parks Dept. to try to discourage that pattern of drug sales and use in that area. That "pattern disruption" strategy appears to be working since I have not recently seen the usual groups of dealers/junkies hanging out by that back fence. TSP has always had hard drugs, but it has been quite a while since the out-in-the-open hard drug sales and use has been at this level, and outside of the 7th St. & Ave. A corner of the park. I have lived on TSP since the '80s.
We had some great birthday parties for my son and his elementary school used to hold their annual picnic there in the summer. I loved sitting there on a hot day, as it is the coolest part of the area with all the tree shade and even better with the sprinklers on. A very peaceful spot and I'm sorry to hear it's been taken over by drugs and closed off by Parks without much explanation. With East River Park half gone, we really need every bit of green space and air we can get, but NYC government doesn't seem to prioritize those needs for a healthy city.
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