For more than five years, much of the green oasis of City Hall Park has sat dormant behind locked gates, ostensibly for security reasons. This July a significant chunk of the north end of the park will finally reopen to the public.

On Feb. 20, Manhattan Borough Parks Commissioner Bill Castro told a meeting of Community Board 1 that  five gates will reopen, on Chambers Street, Centre Street and Broadway.

According to the plan, the northern part of the park, from the back of City Hall to Chambers Street, will be open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day. The northeast and the northwest lawn areas will be open to the public, and the walkway running from Broadway to Centre Street will be reopened. However, access will be restricted when the Ross Academy, a charter school in the Tweed Courthouse, is using portions of the lawns and pathway for recess activities. Castro said this would include the hours between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays, as well as two Saturday mornings a month. A new fence will be erected behind City Hall for security reasons.

At the meeting, Castro received sustained applause for the decision to reopen the north end of the park. But a Downtown resident whose name over the years has become synonymous with the fight to reopen City Hall Park’s gated areas, which include about two-thirds of the park, stole the show.

“I want to thank Skip Blumberg for all that he’s done for this park,” said board member Paul Hovitz. The room broke into loud applause, and others called out praise. Blumberg and his Friends of City Hall Park have been lobbying to get the park reopened for nearly as long as it’s been closed. Until now, the city claimed that security concerns around City Hall trumped the public’s right to park access. Matters came to a head last September, when the group’s attorney, Derek Adler, sent a letter to the mayor’s office, threatening a lawsuit.

The group claimed that the park’s closing represented an “alienation of public land,” an action that requires the state legislature’s approval. A flurry of meetings with the deputy mayor, the NYPD, and Commissioner Castro followed.

“The lawsuit made this a priority of theirs,” Blumberg said later, in a phone interview. “But they were giving it back only an inch at a time.”

After a Feb. 9 meeting, attended by Parks Department representatives, representatives of local elected officials, Friends of City Hall Park, and State Senator Martin Connor, park advocates and the city reached an agreement just in time for the first scheduled announcement, which took place at a meeting of CB1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee on Feb. 13.

Those in attendance, when that first announcement was made, seemed overwhelmingly to approve of the park’s reopening. But it also provided a forum for some to voice their reservations.

“When we’re discussing the northern and the southern end of the park, it’s probably not so much a security question as it is a potential privatizing of what should be public park space,” said Bess Matassa, an aide to Assemblywoman Deborah Glick.

“I understand it’s not the Parks Department that chose to site a school in the park, but portioning off municipal land and doling it out at certain hours to private groups is something that this community shouldn’t have to deal with.”

Others, while they applauded the outcome, questioned the time and energy that the reopening required of community groups.“It’s not a good policy for the city to lock up our parks,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, “and groups with limited resources shouldn’t have to sue the city to get their park space opened.”

Skip Blumberg, while elated at the prospect of the park reopening, is not resting on his laurels.

“We have given our support of their written plan,” he said, “but there remains the threat of a lawsuit until the park is reopened as promised.”

As part of that plan, new amenities will appear in the northeast portion of the park. On Feb. 23, the Friends of City Hall Park met with park designer George  Velonakis to see a presentation on them. His suggestions included a new triangular lawn in the southern part of the plaza, additional year-round greenery, and an assortment of tables and chairs. Castro has also pledged to increase staffing at the park to ensure proper maintenance. “It sounds excellent,” Blumberg said afterwards. “George understands our recommendations for a simple, low-maintenance, year-round ‘green oasis.’” Despite their insistence that the fight is not yet over, the Friends of City Hall Park invite all “civic-minded neighbors” to a get-together on March 9. The group will convene at the Murray Street Grill, 6 Murray St., from 6 to 8 p.m. to celebrate their hard-won victory.

 

 

 

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