There are two high-profile events this weekend in Tompkins Square Park... a
free punk show tomorrow headlined by
Star Fucking Hipsters .... and the
Charlie Parker Festival on Sunday... So, in preparation for these gigs, people will have to build up and tear down a stage....just like they have to do every time there's an event like this in the Park.
So, I know this has long been a point of discussion, but it seems like a good time to bring up the subject again.
For starters....last year, the city completed a
$1.5 million upgrade on the main playground in Tompkins Square Park that took 11 months to complete.
Before that, the city unveiled the new dog run,
which underwent a $350,000 renovation ($30,000 of which was funded privately by the dog run group).
This is all well and good...However, that's about $1.8 million for these things... Though, personally, I don't have kids or a dog... So, why doesn't the city now fork over some money to rebuild the Tompkins Square Park bandshell? That the city destroyed in 1991, of course. I won't get into the whole history. You can read about it
here. Chris Flash (and others) at
The Shadow has been a tireless advocate on this subject.As
The Villager noted in February 2006, a quick paragraph of history:
[T]he band shell’s days were numbered. By the late 1980s, it had become a homeless shelter, with 40 to 50 people sleeping in it, as well as Alphabet City’s largest urinal. In addition to the homeless,
it was increasingly used by neighborhood activists and squatters as a rallying point. Following a major riot in 1988 over imposing a curfew on the park and another big one in 1991 that started at the band shell — which some accuse police of instigating — a few months after the last riot, the park was closed for a year for a renovation. One of the first things done was to demolish the bandshell.
[Bandshell photos
via Flickr]
And, this is subject to some speculation,
the Grateful Dead's first-ever New York City gig was in Tompkins Square Park on June 1, 1967.
In any event, bandshell or not, people
still sleep in the park... Is that so surprising? A bandshell is beneficial to nearly everyone in the community... for concerts, theater... community groups, religious organizations, etc.
Is the NYPD really worried about patrolling this?
I recently saw six police cars swoop in on one fellow with an open container. About 10 police officers stood there for 20 minutes while one officer wrote the man a ticket. It's about time the city give the people here something else that they want and need.
