Washington Square Park is fine. There is no out of control noise, drugs, violent crime, nudity or sex problem in the park. A minority of residents near the NYU campus, who are mostly white and wealthy, seem to have a problem with young people - particularly brown young people - having some fun in a public park.
Yes, there are lots of young people. Yes, there are artists. Yeah, there are people putting on dancing and music performances. There are tons of sunbathers. Some people play chess. Others smoke pot. A tiny minority of people shoot up. None of this is a reason to shut the park down at 22:00 with the iron fist of the NYPD.
The park is fine.
Know what isn’t fine? The wealthy people who claim to live near Washington Square Park and want it cleared out. Let’s take this resident as a prime example:
Alan Silverstein, a 59-year-old who lives near Union Square, told Gothamist that police were right to exclude dissenting voices from the “Build the Block” meeting.
He lives “near Union Square.” So at minimum, he lives four street blocks up University place, some 0.2 miles away, and out of earshot of Washing Square Park. And he thinks that the police were right to commandeer a community meeting on June 16, and keep defenders of public space out.
People who say that Washington Square Park is "unsafe" with a straight face are either arguing in very bad faith, or they weren't alive in the 1980s. They also equate 'dirty' with 'unsafe.' I moved to NYC 26 years ago, just after Kids was filmed in the park. While I, like anyone, was approached by a weed seller ("smoke, smoke"), I was never not safe. It is ridiculously safe today. I repeat: it is safe.
I am not surprised but still disgusted by the comments from most of the local, millionaire residents. They drop the word "skateboards," as a code for brown people. Also they speak of skateboards as if they are a new phenomenon- as if there hasn't been a skate culture since the late 1960s. No one has been killed in the park. The park is one of the safest places to be in the city. I prefer a city that has people outdoors into the night hours. Washington Square Park is world famous. It's up there with the best public outdoor spaces in Paris (the French love Washington Square Park, by the way). Leave our young people alone. They are keeping the neighborhood safe simply by being there. I've seen sunbathers, not "crack" (Crack!!! What a lie). And if you are so sensitive to the noise, please move to another ZIP code.
Some light Google searches shows that the battle against young people and their skateboards in the park made the news in 2019. This is not news, nor is it a big problem.
Now if the noise and drugs are a real problem, I'd have officers handing out noise citations, and make sure the 8th Street area has a safe injection site. The overall problem of noise in the park, which isn’t a big deal, will simmer down, as it does with each NYU semester cycle. The park is both public and is a part of the small NYU campus. In terms of wealth to campus acreage, NYU has to have one the highest ratios in the world.
Do none of the olds complaining about drug use remember Needle Park? Or even Washington Square Park in the 1980s? What's happening now is cheerful and positive in comparison. In the objectors’ alternative reality, attractive young sunbathers are described as naked hooligans having public sex. Pot smokers are crack addicts. Skateboards are tools of menace and intimidation. These NIMBYs are exaggerating, embellishing, and making stuff up.