The Wanton Destruction of Washington Square Park

Longtime Greenwich Village resident and activist Sharon Woolums fought for three years to save Washington Square Park. In the video above, she sings about the forces that ultimately doomed the park to a radical redesign.

One of the most familiar places in my life was Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. While I no longer live in Manhattan, I grew up just a few blocks from the park, spent many hours there, and always accepted that it was a sacred institution that wouldn't be sacrificed to the interests of developers. So I was shocked when I visited the park a few weeks ago and saw that it had been fenced up, torn down, denuded of ancient trees, and basically destroyed, all in the interests of making it "better utilized" (i.e. more conducive to gentrification).

I write a lot about the inevitable passage of time and the erosion it causes to cyber properties on this web site. Still, it was a blow to see one of my neighborhood's major gathering places looking like a desert, and I got angry enough about it to produce the video embedded above, starring community activist Sharon Woolums, who fought valiently for three years to save the Park, but was ultimately defeated by powerful entrenched interests. You can learn more about the ghastly destruction of Washington Square Park over at SharonWoolums.com.