Updated
When will the fountain turn off this year? The latest the Washington Square Park fountain has remained on in recent years was during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street time period: the water spouted past mid-November. The park was one of the movement’s hubs and the water was left on to discourage protester use of the basin.
The median shut-off time is typically mid-October. Since the weather has been (weirdly) warm, it will stay on a bit longer. Enjoy it – and maybe you’ll witness a rainbow like this one today!
NYPD and Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officers keeping watch at the Northwest Quadrant:
Hangman’s Elm 337 year old tree NW:
There are four locations still missing trees along the fountain plaza which lends a very austere, corporate feeling to it. In three of these four tree pit locations, the trees have been planted and replanted multiple times: All repeatedly died. There is something clearly amiss which the Parks Department is not adequately addressing due to departmental politics related to the park’s re-designer. I’ve written about the dying trees many times at this blog, and, in 2011, NBC News did a comprehensive piece following up on it. Sadly, not much has changed since that time. 14 trees have already given their lives to the designer’s folly – there were healthy, 40-year old trees very much alive there before they were chopped down. They gave their lives to the Bloomberg Administration’s redesign plan for Washington Square Park, which included incredulously digging up and relocating the famous fountain 22 feet east to “align” with the Arch, thereby wresting it from its historical location of 137 years placed at the park’s “mid-point.”
The leaves of the WSP trees have not yet changed to fall colors. Some of the remaining trees circling the fountain are displaying orange leaves – which may be a sign that they are also dying.
Shakespeare in the Square “Twelfth Night” Returns October 22 & 23 at Garibaldi Plaza:
Roman Numerals on the Arch:
More on the The Arch’s Roman Numerals
First piece at WSP Blog on the dying trees around the fountain, 2009: Two of Seven Newly Planted Trees Surrounding the Washington Square Park Fountain Have Died — Is the Cause the Design?
Photos: Cathryn
Last year the Parks Dept turned the water off during the weekend of Nov 15 while we were commemorating the Paris attacks. The first night we had a lovely reflection of the arch lit in Blue White and Red. The following night it was off.
Hi Stacy, Thanks for this recollection. I had forgotten about the reflection of the Arch from that time in the fountain. But I did not realize how quickly it was then off! Thanks!
Cathryn