Local officials recently joined Ellen Baer, head of the Hudson Square Connection business improvement district, to break ground on the renovation of the former Soho Square — to be renamed Spring Street Park — on Sixth Ave. between Spring and Broome Sts. The project in the former Printing District aims to create “a new, green centerpiece for a more walkable and livable Hudson Square.” A few days after the groundbreaking, the statue of General Jose Artigas, “the father of Uruguayan nationhood,” below, was removed for restoration, after which it will be returned to a spot slightly north, plus rotated 180 degrees to face looking west down Dominick St. Of course, the park could no longer be named Soho Square since the BID and Trinity Real Estate have pushed to rebrand the Lower West Side enclave west of Sixth Ave. as Hudson Square. Trinity also led the effort to rezone the manufacturing-zoned area to allow residential use and hopefully turn it into more of a 24-hour neighborhood.
