<![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> One body? That's nothing, there are still 5,000 or so bodies under Washington Square. It was the pauper's and cholera burial ground for NYC for years. When they decided to turn it into a square, the dug of about 15,000 of the 20,000 buried there. AND NOW YOU KNOW.

BaconCat

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> By pure chance, my first foray into WSP was during a Smoke-In, but I got a contact paranoia, and did not take advantage of the roving weed/acid/smack whisperers. Still, I thought it a charming city festival.

WideStanceRomancer

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> I spent many a sleepless high school night in WSP, no where to go but welcome in the park, all the freaks having a good time 'til the sun came up. Curfew in 1986 killed the vibe, turned the whole area firmly over to NYU.
I'd hate to see the park gone, but if they simply bulldoze it I can properly mourn.

EnviousJuno

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @NotAndersonCooper:
And move Fifth Ave to be in line with the arch?

Tammany_Fall

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Why not move the arch to be in line with the fountain?

NotAndersonCooper

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> how will this affect NYU students' ability to buy bad pot there?

SharonTaint

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @Atelier:

Actually, the park has one of the highest user ("user" hahahahaha) satisfaction rates in the country. People like it just fine, and there's no reason for them to do what they are doing with the fountain. Some handicapped accessibility and fewer haven for rats? Fine. But the money spent on moving the goddamn fountain (and renaming it "Tisch Fountain" could, like, feed the hungry for a hundred years.

This is Robert Moses masquerading as Franklin Law Olmsted. It's crap.

Tammany_Fall

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> While they're at it, I always thought Central Park should be moved about 2 blocks north.

Steverino

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @eastvillageidiot: It just hit me: "Gray for the endangered public paved areas."

YES! SAVE THE CONCRETE! GRASS IS THE ENEMY!

eastvillageidiot

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> By the way, if you dig deeper, they explain why the site is so ugly:

Why is the site in these colors?

Blue for the sky above the park
Green for the trees and grass
Orange for the leaves of fall
Gray for the endangered public paved areas
Red for the state of emergency

Someone's been smokin a little too much of that whacky tabacky they scored in the park.

eastvillageidiot

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Not to worry.

In another 130 years, the great-grandchildren of all the "settling" hipsters here will vote to move the fountain BACK to its original spot in order to get some of that retro-retro-retro-retro-retro vibe that'll be the rage at that time. And also to deflect the fallout over the High Line's rusted decline into the risen sea level due to greenhouse effect on the West Side of Manhattan.

If cyrogenics and nanotechnology are worth their salt, we could be around to bash that occasion, too!

The Fake Santa Claus

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @Atelier: agreed. it's a gloried parking lot of wanton rich kids from nyu and the dealers they keep in business.

richardmarxhatesmyhair

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @Atelier: I'm not an NYU student or a tourist. But, getting a little weed and looking at co-eds, I have no problem with. And it's fun to watch the freaks when they gather to hoolahoop, too.

IndianSlipper

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @eastvillageidiot: Exactly. If they move the chess playing area, I won't know where to score.

IndianSlipper

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @gingham: yes. filled with people, but for the wrong reasons. in its current state, a wart on the village. this renovation is overdue.

richardmarxhatesmyhair

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> so.... Lock is coming back?

ninety_nine

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @gingham: It's teeming with people because NYU lacks an actual campus, and the park is the closest thing to it. So when you factor in the college kids, the drug dealers who are there to serve them, the other people who show up because the drug dealers are there, the pervs who hang out there to ogle/pick up the college kids, and the tourists who want to see all of this, viola, you have a park teeming with people. Thanks NYU!

Atelier

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> @Conbon: Love you!

nycheartbreaker

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Definitely a CUNY web design. How many will the NYU dorm in the fountain hold?

NinaHagen

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> That poor woman, and right by the chess tables. It's just like I always say, "If your opponent opens with the Latvian Gambit, then uses Petrov's defense, he's probably a homicidal maniac."

Conbon

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Aren't there a bunch of bodies still buried under there? I mean, literally.

Lizawithazee

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> To be fair, she was found right before she died.

Also, ugly as WSP may seem, it's one of the most effective public spaces in the city. The reason it's always teeming with people is because they want to be there.

gingham

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Wow I thought you were exaggerating but that really IS the ugliest web site ever.

scarletmenace

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> As long as I can still score my weed there, they can do whatever they want to the place.

eastvillageidiot

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> They're not replacing the passive aggressive entrepreneurs whispering "Smoke? Chocolate Thai?" to passersby, are they? Is nothing sacred?

Nard

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Oh, my mom must have designed that website back when she first started using a computer.

Moff

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> About motherfucking time. WSP is a rat-infested eyesore and those mounds - OMG. They were built in the 70's!!!! Some bums have been living there longer than those mounds! Make it pretty and clean. Downtown deserves it.

richardmarxhatesmyhair

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Thanks god they saved the weird mounds. I am sure the rat colonies living under them are appreciative.

Bangs

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Times Square has been bugging me for years. Can we move that over a few miles. Perhaps into New Jersey? That would be great.

ihearttombrady

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Ugly websites are the new pretty websites.

Gayyker

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Can't anyone do anything anywhere without some group of malcontents starting an ugly website and engaging in self-righteous protest?

Atelier

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> Huh. That's been bugging me for 30 years.

gefilte_fish_blues

]]> <![CDATA[City Finally Fixing Washington Square]]> This whole Parks Department's out of order!

LolCait

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