Board to Film Fest VIPs: ‘Keep Off the Grass’

By Carl Glassman

The Washington Market Park’s Board of Directors are ever-vigilant protectors of Tribeca’s green gem at Greenwich and Chambers streets. They’ve turned down movie makers who want to shoot there, artists who wish to stage events there, and even the Parks Department, who, a couple of years ago, thought it might be nice to put the 16-ton gilded bronze statue "Golden Boy" there.

Last month, the board made no exception for Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Pataki, Robert De Niro and other luminaries when they turned down the Tribeca Film Festival’s proposal to hold its May 8 opening ceremony in the park, attended by a crowd of perhaps 500 on the newly seeded lawn.

They also short-circuited a plan to close the park for three days so that the festival could erect a tent over the grass and throw two private cocktail parties for 300.

"We have to think about the precedent," Fraya Berg told fellow board members. "Otherwise, it’s going to be in our face three times a year: ‘Well, you let Robert De Niro do it…’" De Niro is a co-founder of the festival.

The festival, expected to draw thousands to Tribeca, comes at a delicate time for the park. With much of the lawn recently reseeded, and major reconstruction of the playground set to begin on May 13, the board worried that there would be no place left for kids to play if the delicate grass is damaged and needs to be seeded yet again.

Still fresh in their minds was last September’s onslaught of tourists who trampled plantings as they scrambled for a view of the Trade Center destruction.

"The park’s been so inaccessible for so much of the time," said Park Board President Linda Lakhdhir. "It seems more precious than ever."

Karen Dalzell, who is producing the festival’s many events, pitched the proposal as a way of extending a hand to the community.

"It would be really wonderful to make the park the single place that is about Tribeca," she told the board at its monthly meeting, saying that holding the ceremony there would be a "positive gesture" after the park’s struggles following Sept. 11.

"We’re fighting for the grass for the kids," said board member Liz Liebeskind. "They’re just getting their grass back."

Dalzell conceded defeat. "It seems like a big pain in the butt," she said, "and if it’s going to ruin the grass we don’t want to do those things." But she did get the board to agree to close the park’s basketball courts for three days so that the private parties could be held there.

Another question before the board was a struggle. Should the park remain open on Saturday, May 11, the day that thousands were expected to flood the neighborhood for the festival’s family carnival? (See page 26 of The Tribeca Trib in print.) Most of the group seemed determined to keep the gate closed that day until Peter Downing, the event’s organizer, sat down to persuade them otherwise.

"It seems to me the wrong message to give to people coming to the Family Festival that, ‘Oh, look, there’s a charming park, but it’s locked and they’re not letting us in.’"

Following a long discussion, the board voted to keep the park open but the lawn fenced. The board is requesting three security guards and a limit of 400 in the park at a time.

"I’m still not happy," Lakhdhir said later, "but I felt like we had to make some effort to accommodate what’s meant to be a benefit for the community."