Crowds turfed out of Central Park

[emad]

David Fickling
Monday January 2, 2006
The Guardian


New York's Central Park has faced its share of threats over the years, from violent criminals lurking in the bushes to an alligator hiding in one of its ponds. But the city's park authorities have now committed themselves to rooting out a more persistent weed - crowds of people.

From yesterday they began restricting the size of gatherings on the Great Lawn, a 13-acre oval field in the centre of the park encompassing baseball fields, football pitches and playgrounds.

Over the years the Lawn has played host to million-strong crowds for performers including Paul Simon and Luciano Pavarotti, and in 1995 Pope John Paul II held an outdoor mass there.

But the regulations passed by New York's parks department mean that in future the Lawn can host only six events a year with more than 5,000 people. None of those events will be allowed to admit more than 50,000, and four of the slots are reserved for outdoor concerts by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1676394,00.html

[Flying Dream Blues]

1. That just sucks. As a one-time NYer, that grieves my soul.

[neweurope]

2. Large crowds mitght become dangerous when you're trying

to have a dictatorship...

------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[leveymg]

3. Move the protest to the lawn in front of Mayor Bloomberg's residence.

Let's see if Gracie Mansion accomodates a crowd in excess of 50,000.

[Twist_U_Up]

4. leave no stone unturned

The New World Order is upon us

[Toots]

5. Isn't there a constitutional right to free assembly?

Oh that's right, the Constitution is so yesterday...:shrug:

[leveymg]

6. The right of grass to grow freely trumps the First Amendment

in Bloomberg's New York.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. The grass will grow back

but Democracy might not.