Letter to Commissioners Adrian Benepe (Parks)and Jonathan Greenspun (CAU) regarding a proposal to move the New York is Book Country Festival from its traditional location to Washington Square Park and the surrounding small streets. This huge 2 day fair would overwhelm the area with visitors and vehicles. In addition, our historic park would be effectively leased to Target for their book displays and readings.
June
28,2004
Hon Adrian Benepe — Commissioner
NYC Parks Dept. — The Arsenal
16 W. 61st Street
New York, NY 10023
Dear Mr. Benepe,
The
Greenwich Village Block Associations(GVBA) is a coalition of neighborhood
organizations dedicated to preserving and improving the quality of life
for residents of our historic neighborhood. The GVBA has learned
that a proposal
to move the New York Is Book Country Festival to Washington Square Park
and to nearby Village streets was recently opposed by Community
Board 2. Although
the GVBA represents an appreciable part of the residential Village community,
we were unaware that this proposal was under consideration until after
the fact. Villagers had little opportunity to voice an opinion
about its ramifications
before the community board made its judgment.
The GVBA explored the possibility that a smaller book fair might be accommodated
without using Washington Square Park. We understand, however, that the
organizers cannot compromise the size and scope of the Festival to an extent
that might
make it endurable. Upon examination of the Festival website we discovered
that the Washington Square/New York University Campus site is presumptuously
given prior to assessing community receptivity or receiving approval. We
understand that dissension exists among the participating booksellers;
the Antiquarian Booksellers evidently do not wish to relocate to the Village.
It seems that this proposed change of venue was precipitous, ill advised
and discourteous to its participants and its unsuspecting hosts.
It has been longstanding policy that Washington Square Park be unavailable
for commercial affairs. The GVBA believes that no exception to this policy
should be made for the Festival. To permit a commercial enterprise to
intrude upon our historic central green space would create a controversial
precedent.
Washington Square Park is the site of several large events that the community
accepts with forbearance but little pleasure. The park’s use by New
York University is often the subject of community discourse and distress.
NYU’s unfortunate role in the Festival proposal will serve only
to exacerbate its troubled relationship with its neighbors.
As taxpayers we are sensitive to the fiscal concerns of the Parks Department
but we do not believe that “leasing” our parks — particularly
one as heavily used as Washington Square Park — in exchange for financial
consideration is a management policy that should be fostered. The prestige
of the New York is Book Country Festival and its sponsors may suffer as a
result of negative publicity and hostility that will be engendered if it
imposes itself upon an unwilling host. We trust that the NYC Parks Department
will respect CB2’s rejection of the application for the New York Is
Book Country Festival to be moved to Greenwich Village. Since the new “vision” for
the Festival conflicts with residents’ abiding “vision” for
their community, the GVBA suggests
that the Parks Department persuade the organizers to seek a more receptive
venue and to act in the Festival’s own best
interests. Since the permits are already in place for the event to be
held where it has traditionally occurred for the past 25 years, the GVBA
believes
that it may be inappropriate to alter the venue at all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
