{"id":267333,"date":"2021-06-05T02:03:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T23:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/yes-washington-square-park-can-again-be-the-jewel-it-once-was\/"},"modified":"2021-06-05T02:03:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T23:03:51","slug":"yes-washington-square-park-can-again-be-the-jewel-it-once-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/yes-washington-square-park-can-again-be-the-jewel-it-once-was\/","title":{"rendered":"#Yes, Washington Square Park can again be the jewel it once was"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Yes, Washington Square Park can again be the jewel it once was<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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I was born and raised in Manhattan. I\u2019m raising my two children here, and I attended NYU before graduating from Parsons. I know the downtown area well. I also know Manhattan is a Democratic bastion. But as a longtime \u201cdowntowner,\u201d I can say with certainty: There\u2019s nothing that could turn anyone into a Republican more quickly than taking a jaunt through Washington Square Park.<\/p>\n

Go ahead, do it \u2014 I dare you.<\/p>\n

Washington Square Park scores a deadly trifecta: It\u2019s dangerous, dirty and a full-blown drug den. Once upon a time, it was a bucolic refuge and jewel \u2014 with a water fountain, three different playgrounds and verdant areas to picnic and congregate.\u00a0It boasted an eclectic mix of downtown personalities, NYU and Parsons students, a piano player, performance artists and poets.\u00a0It was a perfect, electric representation of the spirited, dynamic, innovative downtown community.<\/p>\n

Today, though, you see caregivers milling about avoiding the grassy knolls for fear of stepping on needles, discarded condoms and emptied plastic bags with coke residue.\u00a0Parents shield their children\u2019s eyes from strung-out junkies and the mentally unhinged stumbling around naked.<\/p>\n

\"Washington
Part of a syringe seen under a bench in Washington Square Park on May 30, 2021. <\/figcaption>
Dan Herrick for NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The smell of weed and urine is pervasive and overpowering, as are fights among factions of menacing men up to no good. This is a dramatic degradation of a precious community resource, a hostile takeover, and there\u2019s nothing compelling, cool or compassionate about it, for those in need of help or those simply wanting to enjoy the park.<\/p>\n

Worst of all, people who give a damn are vilified because they live in the expensive condos lining the park; those in charge seem hell-bent on punishing people who\u2019ve earned a decent way of life. Focused on \u201csocial<\/a> justice,\u201d they look to make wealthy ZIP codes \u201cless white and less rich.\u201d Their weapons: defunding police, legalizing weed and making traditionally safe and family-friendly neighborhoods wholly uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s particularly galling is that New York University, one of the city\u2019s largest landowners, with 14.3 million square feet of space and 111 buildings, has abdicated its moral obligation to keep its students safe. <\/em>How can a university charging $53,308 a year get away with what\u2019s lurking in its backyard: random assaults, free-flowing crack and heroin, out-of-control shootings, public fornication, discarded syringes?<\/p>\n

What has happ<\/a>ened to Washington Square Park isn\u2019t unique; it\u2019s a trend seen throughout the entire city. And it\u2019s a travesty the left owns, born from terrible policy. Both NYU and the city owe it to the community to clean up this horror show, not least because there are multiple playgrounds within the park.<\/p>\n

The bad news<\/a> is that city officials \u2014 and many of those looking to replace them this year \u2014 don\u2019t seem interested in fixing the problems. The City Council, for example, is supposed to be the check on the mayor; members OK the allocation of resources and monitor government agencies, like the NYPD. Alas, many of the current and wannabe council members are too busy \u201creimagining police\u201d to care about ensuring safety in our parks and elsewhere. Some make even Mayor Bill de Blasio & Co. seem conservative.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet make no mistake: Plenty can be done to improve Washington Square Park and other public places \u2014 particularly if someone lights a fire under the NYPD\u2019s Narcotics Division and allows officers to follow through, unhampered, with proactive buy-and-bust campaigns and other efforts to sweep out dealers and addicts.<\/p>\n

\"Washington
One City Council candidate aims to restore Washington Square Park as a place for all New Yorkers to enjoy \u2014 not those turning it into a drug den.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I believe this is not being done aggressively enough now because loud voices \u2014 on social media, in liberal publications \u2014 have created a perception that most citizens don\u2019t want dealers and addicts arrested. Nothing can be further from the truth: Just ask the people living next to the park!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s vital for officials to support police and stand up to the radicals calling for reform. We also need to get rid of the city\u2019s recently passed chokehold law, which only makes cops less eager to get involved, particularly in low-level crimes \u2014 and thus emboldens criminals. Cops who do get involved have to jump through hoops to cuff someone resisting arrest.<\/p>\n

Proactive policing worked in the \u201990s and throughout the Bloomberg administration; it can work now, too \u2014 but only if our elected officials let officers do their jobs and stop undermining the only thing that can protect us: good, aggressive policing.<\/p>\n

Jackie Toboroff is a Republican candidate for City Council in District 1.<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Yes, Washington Square Park can again be the jewel it once was” I was born and raised in Manhattan. I\u2019m raising my two children here, and I attended NYU before graduating from Parsons. I know the downtown area well. I also know Manhattan is a Democratic bastion. But as a longtime \u201cdowntowner,\u201d I can say…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/washington-sq-park-017.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[108280,30242,4998,6864,72002,5044,12115,4955],"class_list":["post-267333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-4-21","tag-city-council","tag-crime","tag-drugs","tag-greenwich-village","tag-nypd","tag-police","tag-washington-square-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}