Left rectangle ads redesigned
Robert Ripps book
History of Tribeca Buildings
Feds will lock in courthouse plaza and public art
I am catching up to Streetsblog on this: the federal General Services Administration is planning to fence off the plaza behind the Moynihan courthouse, aka 60 Centre, in order to keep protests out, from what I could understand after listening to the CB1 Landmarks Committee meeting from last month.
The plaza, which connects Worth and Pearl and is something of a pedestrian thoroughfare through the Civic Center, also has a notable Maya Lin sculpture titled “Sounding Stones,” a series of four six-foot square granite blocks.
The representative for the GSA said that the requests came in from the federal law enforcement agencies after the 2020 George Floyd protests (just doing the math for everyone — five years ago last May) and came up again more recently with the crowds that gathered for the Sean Combs trial. ADD LINK. The property, he said, is federal with a land-lease to the city. The plan is to install an eight-foot wrought iron fence with a gate that would open from 7a to 7p daily.
I will note two things: one, on a Sunday when I went by it was fenced off. Annoying, and does not bode well for any promises to keep the fence open once installed. And two: slippery slope. As Chinatown activist Jan Lee noted, “I’ve watched this over and over again where our public plazas start out as public places and we watch them bring in the metal gates, then they zip-tie the metal gates, then they make permanent the metal gates, then they padlock the metal gates,” he said. “We have watched this happen at the AT&T plaza, where we lost 20,000 square feet, and we watched it at 125 White Street, where we lost 25,000 square feet.”
And I am adding my pet peeve: City Hall Plaza and steps. Before 9/11, these were open to the public. Now police fencing — and a parking lot for City Hall workers — divides the southern half of City Hall Park with the northern half.
And because I am feeling ticked off in general, the “No Trespassing” signs in FRONT of 60 Centre were infuriating. How could the public trespass on a public building?? We own it!
The committee members expressed their displeasure but it was clear this is a go – the GSA rep said he came to just make people aware of the plan. “If you are so concerned, put a security guard there,” said CB1 member Susan Cole. “We have had very few incidents. The access for people who live in this community is critical. This was really thoughtless.”
7 Comments
Comment:
Medium rectangle #1 (top)
Right column rectangle ads
Restaurant guide icon
We will be witnessing this move, straight out of the fascist playbook, more and more.
I’ve tangled w/ Jan Lee on congestion pricing (he’s anti, I’m pro) but I agree 100% with him here. His remarks here — which originally appeared in Streetsblog’s July 16 story you linked to — are, sadly, telling.
Also telling: the silence from CM Chris Marte. It’s been nearly four weeks since the plaza was fenced off, and there hasn’t been a peep from his office.
PS: The Streetsblog story also has a pic of the Maya Lin sculpture that no one will now get to see.
Ugh, death by a thousand cuts. It’s a nice, quiet little courtyard area with some nice public art, and it’s strangely a critical path for me to walk home from from work through the Seaport area to Northeast Tribeca where I live, because of the massive areas carved out and fenced off for Police Plaza and the Courthouses, plus the Brooklyn Bridge.
Never mind that we have to put up with police cars parking on our streets (literally on our sidewalks) with no enforcement. Or the heaving morass of Canal Street fake bags and watches and electronics, which has been creeping South into the blocks between Broadway and Lafayette, and which the police do nothing about. Or Brooklyn Bridge itself, full of illegal vendors blocking the walkway and only occasionally cleared out by enforcement.
We object to the removal of access to a rare civic center public space, an often-used pedestrian thoroughfare and valuable public art. How can the public be compensated by this direct loss to the public? New open space nearby? Investment in existing public space? Can CB1 intervene? Is NYS legislation necessary for this alienation?
No, because it is federal property.
Presumably, this is to prevent ppl of ill intent from attempting to enter the court house- with the added feature of more quickly apprehending them within gates. It’s a pity nonetheless.
Donald Trump has authorized me to call all of you surly people ingrates for complaining about the loss of public amenities. He says you’re being very rude to him because, after all, he’s fixed the erstwhile Kennedy Center (soon to be renamed) and he’s giving an award to disco singer Gloria Gaynor. No longer will you have to put up with the “Commie Kennedy Center” honoring the likes of immigrant-loving terrorists like Aaron Copeland, Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, George Balanchine, Mel Brooks and their ilk. And no longer will “those kinds of people” be able to approach our beautiful American public buildings (which he’s initiated a program to make more “traditionally American” in the future). Are you not amused?!
Wake up, folks. It’s all of a piece.