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City Hall Park is back online (well, almost)
After endless emails (well, at least four) to both Parks and the NYPD, I finally got my answer from a reader: City Hall Park is partially open, with the path through the fountain and from the southern corner now cleared.
B. sent these pics yesterday; the park was barricaded on Sunday.
That still leaves the Warren Street crossing between City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse to reopen; the city has not excuse not to do that soon and restore both the park space and some pedestrian flow to the area.
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Agreed! These are public spaces and they should be open unless there is some imminent threat we’re unaware of.
Meanwhile, the landscape and hardscape of the park continues to deteriorate bsdly.
Is there a volunteer group that takes care of this park like the Duane Park group or the Hudson River group. If so, does anyone have the contact details?
yes and stay tuned
Finally! I saw them (few police officers and 3 civilians) open the gates to the fountain in the broadway side on Tuesday afternoon but didn’t know it was for good. It’s about time !! There was absolutely no reason to keep that park closed … if they were worried you could have stationed police and keep it on guard (actually they had police inside and outside sitting doing nothing)
Well anyhow, I guess all the complaints and emails to city council members did the trick. Bravo
Hmmm..did you not see what the tent city did to the far side of the park? Keeping it closed was keeping us and our families safe at the same time maintaining some park space that once ruined would take years to restore. Certainly not ideal for the NYPD to have to stand guard, but the alternative of letting everyone and anyone run wild has ravaged our city.
I live across from the park and resented having the NYPD keep it, and the streets surrounding it, barricaded for weeks after the encampment was cleared. While you may feel that is a safety issue, it is a massive inconvenience for others who do not share your fears.
Putting aside the amount of taxes I pay to have parks kept open, and police doing more than hanging out behind barricades, by the dozens, I was recovering from major surgery while the park was closed unnecessarily. The NYPD’s actions prevented me from using it as part of my recovery and, perhaps more importantly, kept me isolated in the midst of a pandemic. Had it been open, friends could have met me there to visit, which the NYPD’s actions made impossible.
It was open Sunday night, closed Monday, closed Tuesday, and then open last night (Juniper Peanut loves walking through, and I love having a bit of green). Tons of stuff still blooming :).
Hey Pam what’s your problem? I post that NYPD closed the entire park to punish the entire community and have them demonize protesters and protesting, that that is a common tactic among fascists and you don’t approve it why? What else was NYPD doing by closing the park?
People protested at City Hall Park. NYPD then closes most if not all of the park and has it closed well after the protestors encampment was removed. How is that not punishing everyone for what they perceive as the transgressions of a few?
Stop being a comments section cop. You want comments you approve of? Then require people to register to post. Why are you letting anyone post then? It is annoying to post a comment and see five other comments up instead. So passive aggressive. I did not insult or namecall you or anyone else. Yes, I called NYPD fascist because they are. They close an entire park because of protesting – that is fascist behavior, something a police state would do. You disagree? Then say so instead of be a comments cop.
My problem is that you post without an authentic email address using different aliases that are intended to make readers think more than one person is commenting. Many commenters appear as anonymous, but you are the only one who fakes out the system by inserting an @ and a .com in a random phrase. You also comment several times in one day, which gets tiresome. You also regularly attack other commenters. It is also my prerogative to approve comments, and when I decide that you have abused the platform by either posting too often or with more venom than I care to absorb, I delete them.
Go Pam!!! It’s okay to have debate on here, but not vicious attacking without willing to hear out other opinions. Cover your wars and close your eyes, but difference of opinion will still exist. NYPD did a good job of bringing our area back to civility and safety.
Thank you, Pam.
as long as the park is ” safe” I do approve of it being open. Once we get homeless and criminals looking to assault, that is when it will probably close again. The city is not a safe place right now. I rather walk around than become a victim walking through the park. I am praying for a safe city back again!
Tribeca Citizen how can I reach out to you? I have a story for you
tribecacitizen@gmail.com
I just walked through the park this morning with my dog. Felt perfectly fine, although I must say, not as nicely maintained as the Bloomberg days. Just observing.
To clarify, I advocated the closures during the encampments.
Now, it’s all cleared, there is no reason for the current closures:
The path at Warren St (Btw Tweed and City Hall) is direct access from Broadway to ADA elevator for 4-5-6 Lex. line; critical to many residents and non-resident for a safe direct accessible subway entry.
Early after the clean-up many were finally given access to that elevator using the circuitous route around to Reade Street, one had to ask for permission, only to get down to the mezzanine level finding the turnstiles roped off.
Platform access was only via stairs from across Centre Street at the Metropolitan Building/David Dinkins Building.
The police officers are not city residents, do not often use the subways and are oblivious to these details as they are stationed at street level only; What happened to that NYPD credo: C.P.R. ?
Warren St. path has been cleaned up for some time now, still barricaded and gates locked. The only people seen occupying it are police officers sitting on the park benches and scrolling on their phones and the occasional park employee.
Continue that police presence while the community uses an open park path.
Neighborhood activists like Friends of City Hall Park have been writing to all our ‘serving’ local and sate politicians w/minimal response or action.
City Hall Park benches were a life line to the surrounding neighborhood to meet friends safely.
It’s our right, as taxpayers and citizens to have access to the public commons.
Come on….
It was closed today Sunday 9/6 when I walked by about noon.
Yesterday, while walking my dog I saw two junkies sitting on the park bench.One had his belt as a tourniquet on his upper arm while holding it tight in his mouth and shooting up. This was in broad daylight.I watched people walking past oblivious to their surroundings. I’ve been in this neighborhood for over 10 years and never have I witnessed such a brazen act. Police were nowhere near the Brooklyn Bridge side entrance to the park. One day the park is open the next day closed. I don’t understand the logic. They should keep the park open and have police monitor the park with walkthroughs.
I don’t know about the south end of the park, by the fountain, but the Warren St. passage continues to be locked AND barricaded. I know because I live nearby.
Chambers Street is generally open, occasionally barricaded, but the sidewalk is half barricaded, for no apparent reason. Since many people don’t wear masks, that makes social distancing impossible. Of course, the police don’t care because they never wear masks – but I resent it.
Yes, it was wishful thinking on my part to think it was reopened for good. It is all being controlled by the NYPD and not Parks, and over the past months they have not been willing to tell me when the park will open.
Constructed from 1803 to 1812, [1] the building is the oldest city hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, [5] such as the office of the Mayor of New York City and the chambers of the New York City Council. While the Mayor’s Office is in the building, the staff of thirteen municipal agencies under mayoral control are located in the nearby Manhattan Municipal Building, one of the largest government buildings in the world, with many others housed in various buildings in the immediate vicinity.