Community Groups Gear Up For Battle Over Park

Privatization

By Ying Chan

Inside the metal jungle, the sound of rambunctious children laughing can be heard. It is a sunny day at the playground in Union Square Park, with crowds of parents and excited children packed together. But at the stone pavilion which sits within the playground, a debate has been brewing for years.

For years, numerous community groups have been vigorously fighting against the privatization of the pavilion at the north end of the park. In the coming months, as the city prepares to issue a proposal to push forward a similar plan to privatize the pavilion, community groups are bracing for the legal battle that will follow shortly thereafter.

“At the first case, the judge decided that we were too soon, that the case wasn’t ripe yet, which we disagreed with, but that’s what the judge ruled,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates and board member of the Union Square Community Coalition (USCC). “They went into court and said, ‘Oh we’re not sure that it’s going to be a restaurant’— I mean it was a complete laugh…it was laughable.”

NYC Park Advocates is a non-profit, non-partisan watchdog organization whose mission is to protect and improve upon conditions in public parks across the city. In 2004, it formed Save Union Square Park, a community-based campaign to hamper the efforts of the city to privatize the pavilion and take away potential recreational space.

In a court hearing held in May 2008, state Supreme Court Justice Jane S. Solomon allowed renovations to proceed on the north end of the park, which had began only two months prior. Pending further notice from the court, however, the city and Union Square Partnership (USP), the public-private collaboration that spearheaded the project, were prohibited from installing fixtures and launching the operation of the restaurant. Just last year, however, Justice Solomon ruled in favor of the plan, declaring that the proposed eating establishment would be consistent with public purposes.

“We are gratified by the court’s decision,” said Jennifer Falk, executive director of the Union Square Partnership, in a statement that was released soon after the hearing. “Just this month, the North End Project reached a major milestone at 50 percent completion, and park visitors and area residents can now see the amazing positive changes that have unfolded as construction continues to move forward.”

Despite this major setback, the Union Square Community Coalition and other opponents of commercial usages of the pavilion, plan to pursue legal action immediately after the release of the proposal.

The original project, which included renovations to the north end of the park, a 14 percent expansion in playground space, and a bridge to link the entrance of the pavilion to the rest of the park, is funded by an anonymous donor and USP, on the condition that the plan would include an exclusive year-long restaurant established within the pavilion. According to Croft, USP has already spent an estimated $19 million on renovations at the north end. While the plan for a permanent eating establishment has long been rejected, faced with pressure from the surrounding community— a minor victory for community groups— privatization on any level, whether it is year-long or just half a year, is vehemently opposed.

“For over 130 years, the public has used these spaces for recreation, for free speech issues—this is a vital resource for the community and one of the problems here is that this community has only two playgrounds,” said Croft. “It’s got the least amount of playgrounds based in any community board in New York City, just two playgrounds; so we desperately need to utilize these spaces.” Croft added, “So this has the least amount of playground space, but the highest concentration of restaurants.” According to Croft, there are over 150 restaurants, markets, and cafes within a two-block radius of the park.

Designated a National Historical Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior in 1997, the 3.5 acre park has an extensive history of activism. According to nycgovparks.org, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Web site, “For nearly 170 years, Union Square Park has been a gathering place— for commerce, for entertainment, for labor and political events, and for recreation.”

In November 2008, for instance, after the death of a Walmart employee at Valley Stream by a stampede of frenzied shoppers, Reverend Billy, the stage name for activist-performer Billy Talen, spoke out against consumerism at Union Square. For community groups, privatizing the park is the destruction of a historical landmark.

“The history of Union Square is amazing,” said Croft. “There is a historical pavilion in Chinatown as well that was abandoned just like this one was and instead of turning it into a restaurant, they gave it back to the community for a recreation and community space and that’s exactly what this community has been advocating for.” Chinatown’s historical pavilion, located at the north end of Columbus Park, was reopened in 2007 after years of deteriorating conditions in which it served as a home for city pigeons.

For the city and for USP, however, the restaurant would provide a significant amount of revenue for the park, which faces cuts in available spending from the Department of Parks and Recreation in the coming year. According to ny4p.org, a Web site for the organization, New Yorkers for Parks, Mayor Bloomberg’s Fiscal Year 2011 Preliminary Budget will reduce the Parks Department’s budget from $258 million to $239 million.

Croft, however, claims that revenue earned by businesses within parks “generally goes into the city’s general fund,” instead of towards the budget allotted to the Parks Department by the city.

State senator Thomas K. Duane of New York, a longtime supporter of the efforts of community groups, is concerned with the economic divisions that the restaurant would inadvertently create. “Specifically, this proposal would make the restaurant larger and exclusive to higher income consumers,” said Duane in a January 2005 Community Report. “I believe that public space should be available to all of the public.”

But for some, like Sunjit Chawla, who is a frequent visitor of the playground with his son, a student from a nearby elementary school, the restaurant would be a welcome addition to the park. “I think it’s a great idea that this building is going to be a restaurant because we need more unique, interesting places for people to go, have dinner, have drinks and hang out with their friends,” said Chawla. “But that’s what New York’s about— there’s a new place opening up everyday and there’s a new place shutting down.”