So tonight around 11:40 we're walking through Tompkins Square Park ... when we find the Ninth Street/Avenue A gate locked and the police telling us to go back.
We ask what's up and they tell us it's *always* been this way and the Park is closed before midnight. Continuing to practically ram us out the north-facing gate.
So, the reader decides to call 311 for more information.
They don't know the hours for the Park and send us to the Parks Department, who first claim it's "7 am till dusk" and then "7 am till 1 am," inviting us to get into some deep shit with the 9th Precinct to find out why they locked the Park up. Nobody is saying it's supposed to be closed before midnight, because nobody's an idiot.
Well, all you need to do is look at the official signs around the Park... like these two that EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams randomly photographed a little earlier this winter ...
Oh.
I've been run out of the Park myself at random hours. 11:10 p.m.! 11:45 p.m.! I've also found myself in the crazy TSP Game where the NYPD is closing one side... and you get to the other side only to discover the gates have been locked. And the officers there tell you to go back where you came. "But the other gates are also locked." Uh-oh! Now you've done it! Talking back to an officer!
Anyway, we all should have access to our public places ... Perhaps all involved officials may want to create consistent set hours before someone is arrested for walking through the Park at 11:40 trying to get home.