Rebecca Ferguson

I think a lot of my friends were ready to say goodbye to me for good the night before Rebecca Ferguson spoke in our class. They were probably counting on my being arrested for Murder 2 and getting life, so widely known is it among those I'm close with that there's pretty much nothing that gets me more riled up these days than the administration at Parks. It's all spin, and I hate it. Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin. Making a public space in a historic district more tourist-friendly? Really? Is that a rationale?

My personal favorite is this: restoring the historic character of the park through redesign? That doesn't even make a single lick of sense. Sure, creating something similar to what the park used to be would definitely be the best way to simulate history; but, leaving it the way it was is preservation, and by my figuring, that really scores a lot more points in the "historic character" arena.

Last April was the first time I heard of any imminent danger to the park. The city had been cleared to start taking down trees in nine days, and there was no notice about it. I was fuming. I was actually stomping around outside. I called the girl I was dating at the time, who was in school in Ohio and just vented for a while. When I told her this year that the administrator from Parks would be sitting in room with me for an hour, she was reasonably concerned (as were some other friends of mine) about how I would manage to conduct myself.

That all said, I think I did pretty well. I don't think I asked a single question that didn't convey a sense of distrust, but at least I didn't sound angry. Rebecca, I thought, did a great job answering everything in a calm and collected away. I think most of what she said was true. She made one comment that I thought was particularly honest, and that was that at some point, Parks' PR just fell to pieces, and the breach of trust with the community that resulted was so great that it was beyond repair; and, that consequently, Parks did what they could to meet Villagers half way, but ceased to care how it treated the community because things really couldn't get any worse.

Despite her honesty, I still felt like Rebecca's view was incredibly slanted and tainted by the higher-ups at Parks. New York City is a community made up of highly distinct micro-communities, which means it really isn't a community at all. I don't think people who live in the Village should get to dictate what goes on in Morningside Park, and I don't think people in Midtown West should get to dictate what goes on in the Village. It's just lousy policy. Washington Square is not New York City, it's Washington Square. I'm sensitive about this stuff, because it happens in my neighborhood at home on a smaller scale, and for no good reason. Rebecca Ferguson struck me as a very nice woman, willing to admit the flaws in the plan, and ready to make clear the advantages, which I won't deny.

Maybe it's me being stubborn, or maybe I'm of a justified camp, but I don't think I can ever be convinced that the Park will be better when it's red brick and limestone.