As in all totalitarian states...

posted by The Vidiot @ 7:45 AM Permalink

The government encourages its citizens to do their own policing. And the lemmings comply.

Washington Square Park has always been a sort of bohemian hangout as well as a tourist location. In one corner, you had the wealthier neighborhood people socializing with their dogs. In another corner, you had patchouli soaked pot heads playing bad folk music. Near the center you had street performers and skateboard geeks. Then, in 2007, they closed it down for renovations. Granted, it may have needed a bit of a face lift, but now that its reopening, the neighborhood coalition of rich folks and the largest property owner around the park, NYU, are forming a 'citizen's watch' group to scoot the riff-raff out.

The founder of the Coalition, Gil Horowitz, told the paper, "There are wealthy New Yorkers that are public-minded. We have brought together some very high-level people in order to get this done. Radicals see this as a form of the loss of their public space but we see this as securing the public space so it is civilized and better for them and for us."

Civilized for whom? Better for whom?

Oh, right. I forgot. Only people in the monied class deserve to enjoy our parks and open spaces. The poor or pot smoking riff raff can go find somewhere else to make their noise.

Honestly, I didn't know if this blog post should be about a police state or yet another screed against Bloomberg's prettifying of the city. On both fronts, it pisses me off.

Labels: class warfare, New York