Advocates Call For Swift Reopening Of Park

By Heather Fletcher
AUGUST 9 , 2006

Park advocate Skip Blumberg is giving the city a choice: reopen City Hall Park to the public, or face a lawsuit. The clock is ticking.

Blumberg, who heads Friends of City Hall Park, said during a meeting with his group Aug. 8 that he would give the city a little more than six weeks to make a decision. He plans to rally the group and others in the park in October to either laud the city for reopening the closed-off green space, or to call for legal action.

“We’re going to call on every patriot in the city of New York to come to the aid of City Hall Park,” he said.

The north end of the acreage next to City Hall has been secured with police barriers and officers standing sentry since Sept. 11, 2001. But preventing attacks on the site of city government has also prevented the public from using much of City Hall Park, which may have been illegal, Blumberg said.

“We believe a court would find that a substantial portion of City Hall Park has been alienated,” he read off of a memo from the group’s lawyer, Derek J.T. Adler.

Adler argues that the city does not have the right to close off the park from the public without permission from the state legislature.

Blumberg hoped to first talk about the group’s plans with City Councilman Alan Gerson, but the Downtown representative instead sent a member of his staff to meet with the group. Cindy Voorspuy, Gerson’s director of constituent operations, cited a scheduling conflict.

Reached at Gerson’s office the next day, spokesman Paul Nagel said the councilman is aware of the potential legal action and said he plans to meet with police officials to discuss opening the park. No date for that meeting has been set, Nagel said.

Meanwhile, Blumberg’s group has another meeting scheduled with Gerson at the end of the month. The agenda of that meeting is similar to the first: to discuss creating a council resolution aimed at reopening the park.

Blumberg said he would also consider other options, including putting a tighter security perimeter on City Hall or swapping the closed-off land for a park elsewhere in the neighborhood. Finally, there’s always the option of relocating City Hall and building a safer, newer one, he said.

Blumberg’s group concluded their meeting at the park by pausing to read the words of historian Henry B. Dawson, etched in stone near the park’s entrance.

“It must not be forgotten that the park is still the refuge of the people, the cradle of liberty,” it reads.