Park Group Fears City’s New Control

 by Carl Glassman

From the green and peaceful looks of it, Washington Market Community Park is hardly a place of impending crisis. With its well-tended grounds and new play equipment that is joyfully climbed upon by children, the park seems every bit the neighborhood jewel it has always been since it was created out of a dusty city lot 22 years ago.

A busy afternoon in Washington Market Park. Photo: Kate Moxham

But the park’s board of directors, an elected group of local volunteers who oversee programming and maintenance, warn that troubling changes are in the air. What has made the park special, board members say, is community autonomy in running the park—from setting park rules to maintaining the lawn. Now they fear that the autonomy is going to be lost.


For the past five years, Washington Market Park, at Chambers and Greenwich Streets, has been officially a Parks Department park. But its funding stream was unique among the city’s parks and, for its size, unusually generous. In a special arrangement made with the city when the park was founded, money for the park—now $46,000 a month—has come from the operator of a parking lot at Greenwich and Warren Streets as payments in lieu of city taxes.
That special funding provided the park with an unusually high level of care and community control. It also paid for much of the new playground.

Until earlier this year, three members of the community and a Parks Department official sat on a board, separate from the park’s board of directors, that controlled spending on maintenance and park improvements. That changed last spring when one of the community members, Bill Watson, a professional landscaper and former park board president, became the subject of a city investigation looking into possible unauthorized billing for work he performed in the park. (A Parks Department spokesman would not comment on the status of the investigation. Watson, in an interview with the Trib, acknowledged that “in hindsight” what he did was wrong but said investigators found no criminality and negotiations continue on the amount of money he must reimburse the city.)

As a result of the investigation, the city ended the deposit of park funds into the community account.

Park board members say that community control of the park is slipping away and they fear that the level of its care will soon diminish.

Early this year, after going through the process of interviewing private contractors for the job of maintaining the park, the Parks Department brought the hiring to a halt, board members say. Money could no longer be used for a private contractor, they were told, as it had been in the past.

That sparked concerns not only about the quality of care for the park but also about the future of park money within the Parks Department budget.

“We are a drop in the bucket of parkland and green space in New York City and we’re afraid were going to get lost,” said Fraya Berg, the park board’s president.

Ashe Reardon, a Parks Department spokesman, insisted that the community has nothing to fear. “I understand that people are concerned about a big agency taking over. But we work with parks groups all the time. We look forward to working with this group.”

Reardon said that the park’s money resides in a separate “grant line.” “To be really clear, it’s not part of the general fund,” he said.
Park board president Fraya Berg, left, and Sheila Kavanagh discuss colors for playground safety surface. Photo: Carl Glassman

But Reardon described the community’s role in deciding how the money gets spent as “advisory” and a “collaboration,” a far cry from the many years when community representatives had a nearly free hand in spending decisions.

By late last month the park had nearly run out of money to pay the crew that maintains the park. As private contractors, the workers can no longer be paid with the park funds now going to the city, the Parks Department said. Reardon said that Parks Department workers will temporarily take over maintenance duties. The agency has been in talks with the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, the well-regarded and well-funded caretakers of Battery Park City lawns and gardens, but there was no agreement yet.

Susan Sonz, a long-time Tribeca resident who has managed the park’s care for nearly all of its life and had bid on the maintenance contract, said it would be a mistake to turn over the park’s care to the Conservancy.

“Only private maintenance can be accountable,” she said.

Sonz and several park board members worry that the board’s role as guardian of park policy, particularly the rule forbidding commercial uses, also may decline. “We don’t want corporations having their cocktail parties and big corporate events there,” Sonz said.

Meanwhile, future park funding is uncertain. The parking lot operator whose tax dollars have supported the park will be gone soon. The lot is on Site 5B, where a residential and retail complex is due to be developed by Edward Minskoff. (See page 4.) It is unclear what his obligation to the park will be. A spokeswoman for the city, which is selling the land, said the issue will be part of the negotiations.

Berg said that with the Parks Department in charge of Washington Market Park funds, the park will be in a poor negotiating position. “The developer will perceive that the Parks Department is paying for the park,” she said, “and his financial commitment to the park will be diminished.”

“This,” Berg added, “is all about the future.”