Marte: ‘More balanced approach’ needed on Washington Square Park

BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Updated Aug. 28, 6 p.m.: Art vendors and buskers in Washington Square Park are being “unfairly targeted and ticketed” due to newly ramped-up enforcement of the park’s rules, according to Councilmember Christopher Marte.

As a result, it’s time for “a more balanced approach” in Washington Square Park, he says. To that end, a public meeting is being organized in an effort to try to reach a happier middle ground.

The goal, he said, is to have a park that is both “fun and safe.”

Marte’s district currently includes the famed Greenwich Village park. However, due to City Council redistricting, after this year it will shift into Carlina Rivera’s Council district.

As first reported by The Village Sun, police have recently been trying to rein in vending in Washington Square Park — cracking down on illegal general vending (such as of clothing, candles or jewelry), pushing artist vendors away from the fountain and ordering artists to furl their oversized beach umbrellas, among other things. In turn, artist vendors have been pushing back, with weekly, bell-ringing protests against the new ramped-up enforcement.

In fact, all of the park’s rules are being enforced more tightly, including the one saying performers must have a permit for amplified sound. Community Board 2 and the Washington Square Association recently called for the park’s rules to be consistently enforced.

There’s no question that vending has exploded in the Greenwich Village park since the pandemic. On top of that, with the legalization of adult-use pot in New York, illegal weed vendors have been cashing in by selling pre-rolled joints in the park — recently also adding psychedelic-mushroom chocolate bars to their menu.

Only licensed dispensaries are legally allowed to sell reefer — though not many of those outlets have opened so far — creating a void that has been filled by the graymarket, including the one that took hold in the park. The 6th Precinct recently has also been increasing its efforts to crack down on ganja vending in the square.

In his recent community newsletter, Marte announced that a public meeting about the park is in the offing — specifically to address the situation with artists and performers. Both artists and buskers are covered by the First Amendment, meaning their artwork, music or dance is considered “expressive matter,” and so is allowed. However, the Parks Department has regulations that apply to the iconic space — such as requiring that vendors not set up within 50 feet of the Washington Square fountain, for example. As for performers, amplified music is not allowed in the park without a permit.

Blurring things, as also first reported by The Village Sun (and more recently followed up by the New York Post), weed vendors have trickily been trying to pretend they are art vendors, displaying artwork, while selling pre-rolled joints from under their tables.

“It’s summertime and Washington Square Park is as alive as ever,” Marte said in his newsletter. “Unfortunately, the increased police presence, which was brought in to try to make the park safer, is now causing artists and performers who have a decades-long history in the park to be unfairly targeted and ticketed. Meanwhile, other residents feel like the actual crimes they witness, like drug dealing and harassment, go ignored. We’ve been meeting with the performers, neighbors, the police and government officials and are working to implement a more balanced approach to this historic park, which has always been the heartbeat of New York City’s art scene. Stay tuned for a public meeting we will have on this important issue.”

Speaking to The Village Sun, Marte stressed that he and his staff have been meeting with local stakeholders not just to discuss the issue of artists and vendors in the park, but a range of other park issues, as well. Long-simmering frustration in the community is high about entrenched problems that persist in the park — from hard-drug use and pot vending to even skateboarding.

“We met with the community board,” Marte noted. “We have been doing work behind the scenes. My office met with the 6th Precinct two weeks ago. There’s more being done and we’re meeting with every stakeholder to address every problem.”

He assured, “The park is going to be left in good hands,” at the time when it leaves his district.

The second-term councilmember said he does not support pot vendors in the park since it undercuts the legal dispensaries that are now opening up for business.

“We’ve heard that that is a key concern of the residents,” he said of the unsanctioned pot purveyors.

On the hand, though, he does not support a sweeping ban on vendors’ use of giant beach umbrellas, noting there might be cases when “someone needs an umbrella.”

On amplified sound, an ongoing thorny issue in the park, Marte said there needs to be “a conversation” about it.

“It is hard,” he said, noting that when multiple musicians in the park use amps, “It can add up, louder and louder. People want to be louder than the next guy.”

Asked if he supports keeping the plaza around the fountain clear of artist vendors and performers, Marte said it’s another thing that “should be part of the conversation” and that some kind of “compromise” might be in order.

“We haven’t had these conversations with the Parks Department yet,” he pointed out.

But one thing that should not be happening — regarding the plaza, for example — is shifting or erratic enforcement of the rules, he said, noting, “It’s important to have consistent enforcement.”

On skateboarders, meanwhile, Marte said he’d like to seem them not use Washington Square Park. Older residents, in particular, fear being knocked over by the skaters, who sometimes send their boards flying when trying to land trick jumps.

“We hear it a lot from seniors who are just trying to walk through [the park],” he said. “We have skateboarding parks in my district that we encourage people to use.”

As for the hard-drug scene on Washington Square Park’s west side, especially its northwest corner, Marte admitted that it’s been a challenge to try to control it.

“We tried a few things,” he said. “Closing down the northwest corner improved it for a few months.” However, he noted that this summer, “It’s gotten worse. We’ve spoken to agencies that focus on it. It could be seasonal — because of summer.”

He added that he’s done walk-throughs of the park’s drug zone with Council colleague Erik Bottcher, police and homeless outreach staffers from Goddard Riverside.

“It’s a drastic improvement compared to where it was in the middle of the pandemic,” he noted of the park’s narcotics scene.

As for when exactly the meeting on the park’s artists and performers will happen and whether he will co-sponsor it with Community Board 2, for example, Marte said those details are currently still being determined.

Artist-vendor activist Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics), said the meeting offers a chance to revise the Parks Department’s rule changes from 2010— including the “50 feet from monuments” rule — that made it virtually impossible to vend art legally in the park.

“The public meeting that Councilmember Marte is now arranging will be a great opportunity to develop a reasonable solution to the issue of artists and performers being summonsed in Washington Square Park,” he said. “I would suggest that everyone involved in this issue and in the protest try to have realistic goals for what can come out of the meeting. None of the government agencies, the conservancy or the community board are going to agree to Washington Square Park having no rules and no enforcement. Nor will the Parks Department agree to allowing every type of vendor to work in Washington Square Park.