Washington Square Park has gone from bad to worst.
The city is trying to combat the park’s notorious outdoor drug market by parking food trucks in the green space’s northwest corner and approving permits to operate in the drug-infested area.
Washington Square Park Superintendent William Morrison revealed the park’s latest Hail Mary operation aimed at rooting out drug trafficking during a meeting of the 6th Precinct Community Council.
“There are ways to actively change your space without relying on force,” he said, adding, “One way to change how certain areas of the park are used is to add concessions.”
Parks Department spokeswoman Kelsey Jean-Baptiste said the city began soliciting applications for food truck and other business permits in March, but she declined to say how many applications the department received or a rough timeline for awarding contracts.
Morrison, who also serves as president of the Washington Square Park Conservancy, said he has reached out directly to the Village Alliance BID and local businesses to spread the word about the adoption opportunity.
Parks also approved a request to use the northwest corner for art sessions, games and an artist residency series, arguing that an outpouring of good vibes would clean up the blighted area.
“If we can do some positive work in that area, in the long run that will replace the negative work,” Morrison said.
During the peak of the pandemic, the landmark park saw a surge in drug use and disorder, with heroin and crack addicts taking over its northwest corner. In February, police arrested a drug dealer selling hallucinogenic mushrooms and crack cocaine in the park, seven months after The Washington Post reported on open-air drug sales in the park.
Capt. Jason Seikel, commander of the 6th Precinct, praised Morrison’s food truck and program proposal as a creative solution to the park’s continuing drug problem, as prosecutors have little interest in jailing people for minor drug offenses.
“I can go in there and arrest that same person with a used crack pipe and that person will be out of jail the next day or within a few hours,” Seikel said at a recent community meeting.
“We’re still making arrests when we find minor drug offenses,” he continued. “The reality is that it doesn’t solve the problem, and it doesn’t create permanence.”
Many Greenwich Village residents aren’t particularly interested in fighting the drug epidemic with hot dogs.
Resident Alan Cohen scoffed, saying the food trucks show the city is waving the white flag to combat public drug use.
“This is really an admission that we are completely powerless,” Cohen, 75, said.
Village resident Brian Maloney, 60, described the idea as “creative” but feared it would become another game of whack-a-mole.
“We’re just going to move them to another part of the park that doesn’t have food trucks,” he said.
“We don’t need food trucks to chase them away, we need agencies to help repair the area and the people and help them live better lives.”
Psychotherapist Ruth Wyatt, 58, slammed the proposal as a “bad idea”.
“We need greater policing and social programs to get people off the streets and help them live decent lives,” she said.
Despite ongoing concerns about the park’s de facto shooting range, serious crimes in the 6th Precinct were reported to be down 20% through May 19 compared to the same period in 2023. NYPD Data.
However, motor vehicle thefts soared 42 percent and retail thefts increased 10 percent.
