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Reverend Billy climbed to the roof of the Pavilion building in Union Square last night around 6:30 p.m. to hang a banner reading: Not For Sale. While he was up there, he gave the passersby a lesson on why the historic free speech structure cannot be turned into a private, upscale restaurant; reminding people that the first Labor Day in 1882 took place there, and that one "shouldn’t have to buy a $15 appetizer to have access to this building.”
Currently the courts have cast the Pavilion into an uncertain fate, placing an injunction on the conversion of it. Rev. Billy and other activists are taking the borrowed time to lobby Councilmember Rosie Mendez, as well as the Union Square Partnership, who are drafting the plans, to take the restaurant off the table. Sign the petition here.
You can join the Save Union Square 2008 campaign tonight on the NE corner of the park at 5:30 p.m. More details here.
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he knows the menu prices already? that's impressive!
I saw him at Starbucks the other day, loading up on scones.
Way to gather the crowd! The requisite 3.
Save Union Square 2008
Another over the top name meant to scare people.
I like how the artists, who use the park for their personal commercial gain, while not contributing a dime to the park, oppose having a restaurant that will bring revenue to the park.
there was opposition when the city wanted to renovate needle park, er i mean bryant park (back in the day)... this is nothing new.
Let the structure collapse for lack of money to preserve it. Where is the Park's department stand on this one? Shouldn't some anarchist explode a bomb there? I thought it was a tradition for Union Square activists to explode bombs and rally the masses.
Reverend Billy and Rev Al Sharpton for president!
Didn't the Pavillion already function as a seasonal restaurant/bar, during the summer months?
^yes.
Get rid of Danny Meyer,Oh wait that will have
to wait after Bloomy retires.
Let's get rid of all the history in this city and all
the free seats in the park.
Farmers market too should charge admission..cool!
i'm totally with the other gothamist commenters, make it a food court for the rich!
This blog should be renamed "Transplants of New York". What a bunch of fucking conformist idiots frequenting this place. Long live anyone who protects what's left of this city.
The Pavillion is a dump. What is there to protect? It was Adrian Benepe's father that was one of the founders of the Greenmarket, which played a great role in the revival of the park. The Benepe's are hardly transplants.
These "public spaces" will be subsidized one way or another, whether it is from:
a) higher taxes - income, property, sales, or use (even though these are the most unpopular);
b) private donors (this sort of philanthropy has gone out of style due to the proliferation of diseases and developing world causes as the popular destination for charitable contributions);
c) foundations (a channel for private donors); or
d) a commercialization scheme
Rallies are fine and protecting the public spaces is a noble cause. However, the money's got to come from somewhere...
I don't care much whether or not it's a private restaurant. The real issue is space: From what I heard, this restaurant is encroaching on the green market area and taking away from kid's playground, which means in turn pushing green market vendors south into art seller's turf. Anyone who's been in Union Square knows how overcrowded it is already. This restaurant will take up public space--space used for green market and public rallies--in a park that's surrounded by fancy restaurants anyway.
If you want to talk about public/private partnerships, I think the Union Square BID should help sponsor the rehab of the pavillion, like Central Park Conservancy helps care for Central Park.
I think this is a giveaway by Bloomberg and that there are other ways to finance rehab of the pavillion, which admittedly has not been used for what, decades?
batgal, you make some valid points. I'm no fan of the suburban-style mall that Union Square has become either (2 SBUX, Food Court, large department stores, etc.)
I think what you're suggesting is that there is an alternative vision for the city's development and it requires a little more thinking than the version of the public-private partnership that has become common here.
dr zippy nowhere in my post did I say that the Benepe's were transplants. I'm talking about half of the idiotic transplant replies to posts in this blog. No native New Yorker that I've ever met would be against noble protests like saving the integrity of what's left in the city.
You people really make me puke with your sustainable, organic, ecological, green attitude about everything around you. If you want that shit move to Wyoming and live in a yurt. That life style was old news back in 1971.
People are by their very nature money grubbing shits. Also violent money grubbing shits based on the amount of drug dealing going on.