| Releases & Statements
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum blasted
the Bloomberg administration’s plan to limit demonstrations,
concerts, and public gatherings on Central Park’s Great
Lawn. At a hearing of the Parks Committee of the City Council
today, Gotbaum, a former Parks Commissioner, said new rules allowing
only six events a year with a limit of 50,000 people per event
are unnecessary and questioned the administration’s motive
for proposing them.
“For decades, the Great Lawn
of Central Park has been a symbol of freedom. The Mayor’s
new rules betray that legacy,” Gotbaum said. “The
supposed purpose of their plan is to protect the grass, but it
does so at the expense of our civil rights and ignores Central
Park’s rich history.”
Gotbaum likened the Mayor’s
plan to strict rules that discouraged German and Irish immigrants
from visiting the park in the years after it first opened: “Group
picnics were banned. School children couldn’t play ball
on the meadows without a note from their principals. Conscientious
New Yorkers fought these restrictions and won. When we’ve
changed the rules in the past, we’ve opened up the park
to more people. Why on earth would Mayor Bloomberg want to go
in the opposite direction?”
Gotbaum noted that the Parks Commissioner
already has the power to deny a permit if a proposed event is
likely to cause harm to the park, as well as the power to demand
that organizers put up a bond to pay for restoration if their
event damages the grass. She argued that the Mayor’s true
motive is to limit public demonstrations that have the potential
to embarrass his administration. The Police Department has already
moved to restrict parades and demonstrations along 5th Avenue.
By making 5th Avenue and the Great Lawn virtually off limits,
the Bloomberg administration is essentially pushing future demonstrations
onto the West Side Highway, where their exposure to the public
eye will be minimal.
“Mayor Bloomberg shouldn’t
be ashamed of the big events this hosts. He should be proud of
them,” Gotbaum said.
She cited a 2003 concert by The Dave
Matthews Band, which drew 83,000 New Yorkers to the Great Lawn
and raised over $2 million dollars for City public schools: “At
the time, the Mayor said, ‘Central Park, which has a long
history of hosting major outdoor concerts, is the perfect setting
for such an exciting event under the night sky,’ but apparently
he’s changed his mind. The Dave Matthews concert took place
on September 24th, too late in the calendar to have taken place
under the new rules.”
Gotbaum mentioned several other historic
events that could not have taken place under the new rules: a
mass presided over by Pope John Paul II in 1993, which drew between
125,000 and 130,000 people to the Great Lawn; a 1981 Simon and
Garfunkel reunion attended by 500,000 people; and a 1982 demonstration
against nuclear proliferation attended by 750,000 people.
Four of the six events the plan would
allow each year are already reserved for the opera and the symphony.
The remaining two would be locked into a one-month period from
mid-August to mid-September. No special events and demonstrations
would be permitted on the Sheep Meadow or the North Meadow. The
Hecksher Ballfields would also be off-limits beginning in the
fall of 2005.
“The new rules don’t just
violate our civil rights, they go against our values,” Gotbaum
said. “New Yorkers like big, diverse crowds, and we like
to speak our minds. Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Benepe have
a responsibility to those values. They must keep the Park beautiful
while at the same time embracing its status as New York’s
town square. It may not always be easy, but I know from my own
experience as Parks Commissioner that it can be done without additional
restrictions. If anything, Central Park needs more help from City
Hall, not a giant sign that says, “’Keep off the Grass!’”
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