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Claims of a Breach in City Hall Park Pact
For months, Friends of City Hall Park president Skip Blumberg had been counting on Community Board 1’s intervention to break a deadlock between his group and the commissioner, Bill Castro. Blumberg claimed that Castro has failed to honor many of the terms of an agreement reached last February to reopen the park to the public and provide for its maintenance. After threatening to sue the city to force it to reopen sections of City Hall Park closed since Sept. 11, Friends of City Hall Park and representatives of elected officials had worked out an agreement to open five gates in the northern portion, allowing the public to once again use the park. The agreement also called for the Parks Department to provide adequate maintenance for the park and to add greenery and benches to the plaza on its eastern side. The gates were opened, but at times have been closed. The lawns have been left muddy and grassless, and rats are prominent among the local fauna. Blumberg had grown increasingly exasperated in recent months over what he described as substantial breaches of the agreement. But when Castro appeared before CB1’s Seaport and Civic Center Committee last month to address Blumberg’s grievances, the commissioner sought to downplay their importance. Gates have been closed because of the danger of falling debris from the Tweed Courthouse, he said. Some lawns have suffered as a result of their use by students of the school housed in the courthouse, who lack other physical education facilities. Castro conceded that there is a rat problem in the park, but said it is not surprising, given the hospitable environment provided by the underbrush of the park. Members of the Seaport Committee seemed satisfied with Castro’s presentation, but Blumberg was livid. “How can you let him come in here with these excuses, misstatements, and outright lies?” he demanded of the committee. When Blumberg called Castro a liar, the commissioner rose from his seat, excused himself, and left the room, leaving the rest of the meeting in the hands of his deputy. Members of the committee told Blumberg he was “way out of line” and that his behavior reflected badly on the community board, which had invited Castro to speak. For his part, Blumberg was frustrated with the board members’ response. “We’re really disappointed,” he told the committee. “We were hoping that the Community Board would stand up for the community on this issue.” CB1 members and staff insisted that they were being responsive to the community, but that Blumberg’s confrontational approach was not the way to make progress on the issue. “The difference between us and you is we’re a little more patient in dealing with city bureaucracies,” said CB1 district manager Noah Pfefferblit. Blumberg tried to continue to discuss the issue, but committee chairman John Fratta had had enough. “We’re moving on, Skip,” he said, turning the committee’s attention to the next item on its agenda. Reached by telephone the next day, Blumberg said he stood by his statements. “I figured it was better to call him a liar to his face than to do so behind his back,” he said. Disappointed with the board’s response, Blumberg said he is now counting on scheduling a meeting with Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris to effect some change. “The Parks Department will not negotiate in good faith,” he said, “so we have to go over their heads.”
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