Park pandemonium: While loud music, particularly drumming, is the issue du jour in Washington Square Park, in Tompkins Square Park, homeless people sprawling on flattened-out cardboard boxes on the lawns has now become a concern. The New York Post last week ran an article with photos documenting what residents and park workers described as a “scary” situation at the East Village park. And it sounds like the city is taking the complaints seriously. Saturday night, a woman who works on the park’s daytime crew told us Bill Castro, the Manhattan borough Parks Department commissioner, had been there scoping things out the previous day. “He came by incognito — I know what he looks like,” she said. She added, “There were police and PEP officers all over the place today.” On Tuesday afternoon, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton also reportedly swung by to check things out. “Bratton is in tsp right now,” Villager correspondent Jim Flynn messaged us on Facebook. “I don’t have the balls to take a pic. he’s by the junkies on the ninth street walk through.” He later added, “He had like six guys with sunglasses around him. There was at least one person in mid-awkward heroin nod on the benches.” Flynn, in fact, documented the Tompkins homeless scene in his 2003 book, “Stranger to the System,” which features 20 Studs Terkel-like biographies. Meanwhile, back at Washington Square Park, we hear the Park Enforcement Patrol officers have started wielding sound-level meters. Veteran Community Board 2 member Doris Diether told us she was recently in the park and witnessed an officer going around with a meter and occasionally telling buskers to keep the volume down. Earlier this month, in fact, Sarah Neilson, the park’s administrator, wrote to Rich Caccappolo and Susanna Aaron of the C.B. 2 Parks Committee in response to their request for “an update on the sound situation.” Neilson responded to them, in part: “Parks has trained a team of experienced Park Enforcement Patrol officers in the use of decibel-reading meters to allow them to measure noise within the park and to educate musicians on how to comply with Parks’ prohibition on ‘unreasonable noise.’ We will begin the measuring process soon, and will spend several days working with musicians in the park with the goal of overall noise reduction and compliance with Parks’ rules. In addition, PEP officers are patrolling the park after 10 p.m. to address late-night noise, and we have engaged the N.Y.P.D. to support this late-night effort.” Neilson added, “The Parks Department recognizes the complexity and sensitivity of this issue.” However, on the last point, after 10 p.m. is precisely when a long-standing group of acoustic guitar players love to jam, and their supporters are miffed at the new crackdown. Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel said this is actually a problem. “If the police officers are instructing singers and non-amplified guitar players that they cannot sing or play in Washington Square Park after 10 p.m., they are engaging in misinformation. Under the law, you can have sound between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. as long as the sound is below 7 decibels above the ambient sound. Another section of the law prohibits amplified sound between the hours of 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. Perhaps the officers are confusing these two sections. My suggestion,” Siegel said, “is that we ask for a meeting with the precinct commander to discuss this.” As for Tic and Tac, who have found themselves in the crosshairs of the loud-music crackdown, Diether said the tumbling twins and their drummer, who only perform in the park on weekends, actually aren’t nearly as loud as the Tic and Tac imitators who busk there during the week. In addition, Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics), is continuing to sue over Parks’ restrictions on art vending and busking after having lost in the U.S. courts. The case is now at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Washington, D.C., according to Lederman’s attorney, Julie Milner. “We are alleging treaty violations regarding the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mankind,” she said. Asked for a response to that, Parks spokesperson Sam Biederman said, “NYC Parks looks forward to working with Community Board 2 to address unreasonable noise complaints in Washington Square Park. Regarding Mr. Lederman, I imagine that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights might be otherwise occupied with matters of more pressing hemispheric significance.” Lederman argues that Parks’ rules make it virtually impossible for art vendors or buskers to operate in Washington Square Park — though so far the regulations are only being imposed on artists, which is selective enforcement, he charges.
Get well soon: Our best wishes to Frieda Bradlow who is recovering from back surgery. Bradlow, who was the late Councilmember Miriam Friedlander’s campaign manager and stalwart ally, recently returned to her Hudson Square home after two weeks of rehab at VillageCare on W. Houston St. She bought a “Grabbar” to pick up stuff she drops, and through Medicare has what she calls a “Cadillac” — a walker with four wheels, a basket, a seat and brakes — to help get around. And she added, “Fortunately, I came home with a monster supply of Oxycodone. If you hear that I am in rehab again, it will most probably be for reasons other than my back surgery.”
Ray’s return: Speaking of recovery, Ray of Ray’s Candy Store on Avenue A returned home Wednesday. He had spent two weeks at VillageCare following two weeks at Beth Israel Hospital, where he had two heart valves replaced and a pacemaker put in — it’s actually in his shoulder, he said. We spoke with him a few hours after he got home and he sounded good.
“It’s a good operation,” he said. “The pacemaker keeps everything in control. I died five times…yeah, completely,” Ray told us of the touch-and-go situation before the emergency operation. “It was really tricky,” he said of the surgery. “The doctor told me it was risky. …I signed the paper. I said, ‘I’m older, do what you want.’ I had also pneumonia on top of that, and my age, 82 ½…yeah, it was tricky.” Ray said he’s going to take it easy, but planned to stop into the store Wednesday to see how it’s going. He’s lost some quickness and his legs are feeling a bit weak. “I love to work. I’ll do light things — somebody wants a pack of cigarettes or an egg cream,” he said. “I can’t climb to clean my ice cream machines or change the oil, it’s too heavy. I need a break.” Ray friend Matthew Rosen agreed, telling us, “He tried to do some work right away, but couldn’t handle it after a while. He made some phone calls to vendors, made a list of things that needed repairs. He doesn’t need to work the counter anytime soon, though. He should take it easy.”
