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performance crackdown at WSP

Parks Department Evicts Artists from Washington Square Park Fountain Plaza | Agency Denies Change in Policy

October 25, 2024October 25, 2024

Artist Crackdown at Washington Square Park Resumes NYC Parks Department Insists “there has been no crackdown in enforcement or change in our policy” Late last month, artists who display their art at Washington Square Park’s … Read more…

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NY City Council Member Christopher Marte: “Stay tuned for a public meeting” on Washington Square Park

August 27, 2023August 27, 2023

What is “a more balanced approach” to the park? New York City Council Member Christopher Marte’s district includes Washington Square Park. In his community newsletter last week, Marte posted the following: Working on Washington Square … Read more…

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Protesting Police Over-enforcement of Artists at Washington Square Park | Creative Action July 30th

October 25, 2024July 29, 2023

Updated – In June of 2021, the City of New York, desperate to present ‘normalcy’ after the first wave of Covid, so wanting to project the image that the City was “back,” reached out to … Read more…

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NYC Parks Department Statement on Recent Arrest of Artist Oriel at Washington Square Park

October 13, 2019October 13, 2019
NYC Parks Department logo

To follow up on the story first reported here at Washington Square Park Blog from Wednesday: “An Artist Was Aggressively Tackled and Arrested at Washington Square Park. His Offense: Displaying Art on the Ground.” Hyperallergic … Read more…

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An Artist Was Aggressively Tackled and Arrested at Washington Square Park. His Offense: Displaying Art on the Ground

October 10, 2019October 9, 2019

Updated again 10/10 12:55 p.m. This happened on Sunday, October 6th at the park. An artist, Oriel, was displaying his art just west of the Washington Square fountain when he was approached by Park Enforcement … Read more…

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Washington Square Park Performers Warned “Expressive Matter” Rules Will Now be Enforced; Tickets Will be Issued

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018

Updated 6:38 p.m. Washington Square Park’s Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) went around earlier this month, and told performers at the park that they would need to begin following “expressive matter” rules from 2013 beginning May … Read more…

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“Living Statue” Petitions to get Back to Washington Square Arch

May 17, 2018

As reported here last month, Washington Square Park’s “living statue,” Johan Figueroa-González, was arrested on the Arch by the New York City Police Department on Friday April 13. The performance artist was the subject of … Read more…

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Report back From Last Week’s C.B. 2 Meeting To Come

September 20, 2016September 14, 2016
Sarah Neilson Sergeant Rivera Washington Square Park

Report back from last week’s Community Board 2 meeting on the Decibel Meter Experiment is on its way! And more… Stay tuned. Photo: Cathryn

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The Decibel Meter Experiment at Washington Square Park: How’s it Been Going? Community Board 2 to Revisit Wed. Sept. 7

September 6, 2016September 6, 2016
Music At Washington Square Park Greenwich Village NYC

It was never an issue in the “old” park, but, since the redesign of Washington Square Park, complaints about the volume of music ‐ music being something the space is known for ‐ have risen … Read more…

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Between the Liner Notes Explores When 3,000 Beatniks “Rioted” in Washington Square Park

July 26, 2016July 25, 2016
Folk Riot Washington Square Park Greenwich Village

Award-winning podcast, Between the Liner Notes, this month delves into the 1961 Washington Square Folk Riots. Washington Square Park Blog was interviewed, along with an illustrious line-up, which included key figure Izzy Young who ran … Read more…

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Washington Square Park “Step Up Sergeant” Begins May 1 for Music Decibel Monitoring, More: Will This be a Good Thing?

May 1, 2016
Sergeant Rivera Coming to Washington Square Park PEP (Park Enforcement Patrol)

Will Washington Square Park Become Uber–Regimented like Madison Square Park with introduction of Park Enforcement Patrol “Step Up Sergeant?” For a few years now, voices around Washington Square Park, some louder than others, have complained … Read more…

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Washington Square Park Music Volume: Opinions Build in Crescendo | Report back on Last Week’s Public Hearing

June 11, 2015June 11, 2015

Community Board 2 held a public hearing last week on volume levels of music at the park. This is an issue that C.B.2 has brought up before – although curiously, over the seven years I have … Read more…

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Amidst Confusion, Community and Performers to City’s Parks Department: Commit in Writing — No “Performance Crackdown” at Washington Square, and all NYC Parks

May 8, 2013May 2, 2013

Manhattan Borough Parks Commissioner Bill Castro came before the Parks Committee of Community Board 2 last night at downtown’s Grace Church Tuttle Hall to address the many conflicting things being reported about whether performers at … Read more…

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Will Performance Crackdown – Ticketing and Fining of Entertainers and Buskers – Be Reinstated at WSP?

June 7, 2012

This blog broke the story on May 10th — “City Reverses course of performance crackdown at Washington Square Park – no more fining of “entertainers and buskers”” — and all seemed right in the world. … Read more…

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City Reverses Course on Performance Crackdown at Washington Square Park – No More Ticketing and Fining of "Entertainers and Buskers"

May 10, 2012

Updated Updated May 11th, 1:04 p.m. — In a victory for the community and park goers, the New York City Parks Department has quietly reversed their policy of ticketing and fining of musicians within 50 … Read more…

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Realize that little things lead to bigger things ... And there's a wonderful parable in the New Testament: The sower scatters seeds. Some seeds fall in the pathway and get stamped on, and they don't grow. Some fall on the rocks, and they don't grow. But some seeds fall on fallow ground, and they grow and multiply a thousandfold. Who knows where some good little thing that you've done may bring results years later that you never dreamed of. ~ Pete Seeger

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Series on misrepresentations and evasions by Parks Department & WSP Conservancy to push this private entity through: Private Conservancy Watch This organization does not run or manage the park.

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