Mayor Eric Adams on Monday launched a new joint ācommunity coalitionā with the NYPD to battle rampant drug use and vagrancy at troubled Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village.
Flanked by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and local civic leaders, Adams said 13 city agencies will team up with civil leaders to keep tabs on goings on at the 10-acre Lower Manhattan park ā with the announcement coming on the heels of Police Commissioner Jessica Tischās call for a new quality of life initiative.
āLast year, the city began to address the persistent public drug use, homelessness, and quality of life concerns in response to community complaints in Washington Square Park,ā Adams said. āI remember we came out to the walk-through in the park, and it was not the imagination of community residents.
āIt was for real,ā Hizzoner said. āThe drug use was there, people were using the park for their public toilet facilities and other problems that were really evident. And we saw the need to expand to the surrounding area, including to the West 4th Street subway station.ā
The effort is part of Adamsā āCommunity Link,ā which teams officials with New Yorkers to tackle neighborhood woes and concerns.
Washington Square Park seems an obvious target for the effort ā the 15-year-old urban green space has been plagued with crime, homelessness and unrest in recent years.
āWhen we think about Washington Square Park ā¦ you think about the vibrancy of that area, artists, students, local businesses all coming together,ā Bragg told reporters. āAnd then you see the real challenges there today, and itās heartbreaking. But this is the recipe.ā
In July, several brawls broke out at the park following the cityās annual Pride Parade.
In April, an NYU administrator was randomly slugged while walking in the park in what cops classified as a hate crime, and in 2023 a homeless man was charged with stabbing another vagrant to death there.
Drug sales have also run rampant at the park, with pushers even masquerading as artists to peddle their goods, while others sold psychedelic mushrooms out of makeshift stalls.
Adams said the new community effort will team city agencies with local residents and civic groups to patrol the park with NYPD backup to identify and shut down criminal activity and unrest.
The multi-agency coalition will meet twice a month to stay on top of things, he said.
The move coincides with Tischās quality of life announcement last week.
The effort, which has been likened to the NYPDās onetime ābroken windows policingā approach, would target open drug use, aggressive panhandling, public urination and other crimes both in the subway system and in the streets of the Big Apple, she said.