Tisch

At Washington Square Park, the "Tisch Fountain" Plaques Arrive!

December 4, 2008

One of the many controversial, widely disliked aspects of New York City’s redesign of Washington Square Park is the renaming of the century old — here-to-fore unnamed — fountain, its name sold off to the Tisch Family for $2.5 million. This agreement, between the Parks Department and the Tisch Foundation, took place in January 2005. [...]

Read the full article →

Chanel Park? Parks Commissioner Benepe: "Everything has a sponsor"

July 25, 2008

Metro NY’s Patrick Arden’s consistent coverage of what’s going on in our City’s Parks is always spot on. In today’s Metro, he covers the NYC Parks Department – via the Central Park Conservancy – allowing a “traveling advertisement for the Chanel handbag” in the middle of Central Park this fall. Yes, you read that correctly. [...]

Read the full article →

This Week In the News: Toyota gets naming rights to an East Village park… NYPD wants precinct in Flushing Meadows Park… Randalls Island ruling allows athletic field construction… Privatization and Parks

May 23, 2008

*Toyota gets its own park in the East Village! Curbed and the New York Times report on the Toyota Children’s Learning Center (photo) on East 11th Street. The landscape architect told the Times, “The notion of the Toyota Garden is of learning and discovering.” But as Curbed noted, “Discovering the joys … of driving a [...]

Read the full article →

Three More Trees Felled at Washington Sq Park This Morning; NYC Parks Department Budget Hearing Thursday; Upcoming Film Screening

May 21, 2008

Mark Your Calendars: On Sunday, June 1st at 7 p.m., Matt Davis, who supplied this photo of the trees in the process of being destroyed and has shared much of his knowledge, will screen his documentary “SQUARE: Straightening Out Washington Square Park.” In it, he chronicles the City’s redesign plans over a four year period [...]

Read the full article →

In the News… Daily News' Juan Gonzalez: "Mayor Bloomberg's Union Square Park Restaurant Deal Tasteless"

April 30, 2008

Juan Gonzalez has an excellent piece in today’s New York Daily News: “Mayor Bloomberg’s Union Square Park Restaurant Deal Tasteless.” Gonzalez writes: A $7 million private donation to the project from an anonymous source is based in part on construction of the [restaurant] concession, a [Union Square] partnership spokesman confirmed yesterday. So why can a [...]

Read the full article →

Event: Stop Privatization of Public Space/Protect Our Trees – Arbor Day; Fri April 25 Union Sq Park

April 22, 2008

Street Artists, Activists, Community Members, Public Space and Free Speech Advocates (Everyone Invited) Gather to Protect Our Trees and Protest Privatization of Public Space In Honor of Arbor (Tree) Day Friday April 25th When: Friday, April 25th, 6-8 p.m. Where: UNION SQUARE PARK, 14th Street betw. Union Sq East and Union Sq West by Gandhi [...]

Read the full article →

Bloomberg MillionTreesNYC: What I really think about trees

April 4, 2008

I have no idea how NYC Mayor Michael (“No One’s Ever called me a Tree Hugger Before”) Bloomberg really truly deeply feels about trees but his MillionTreesNYC “initiative” strikes me as mostly bluster and p.r. In case you missed the news, Mayor Bloomberg has designated April MillionTreesNYC Month. Assessing the # of trees that have [...]

Read the full article →

Connect the Dots: A guide to the NYC Parks Department –Washington Sq Park and Union Sq Park "Redesigns"

March 25, 2008

Washington Square Park “Renovation” Washington Square Park and Union Square Park are both in the midst of redesigns by New York City. There are some striking similarities in how these controversial plans of two historic parks initially got pushed through despite community disapproval and widespread negative public opinion. A Primer on how the New York [...]

Read the full article →

To the New York City Council on NYC Parks Department

March 20, 2008

It’s All a Chess Game The New York City Council Parks Committee held Preliminary hearings on the Parks Department budget yesterday, March 19th. My testimony follows. We would have liked to have heard some hard hitting questions from the City Council members to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe but that did not occur. Perhaps we can [...]

Read the full article →

Bloomberg's Privatization of the Park: NYU, Tisch, Who Else?

February 29, 2008

Phase I of the City’s extensive planned “renovation” of Washington Square Park has gone from a projected $6 million to over $13 million. The “renovation’s” TOTAL costs — in two Phases — were stated to be $16 million at the onset (an excessive sum to begin with) but are now lurching upwards to $25-30 million. [...]

Read the full article →