Tompkins Sq. Park Bag Searches End After Community Mobilizes
By Chris Flash

[August 1, 2008] Every other Wednesday night, from June 25 through September 19, films are shown in the center of Tompkins Square Park, on what has been affectionately referred as "Hippy Hill."

Billed as "Films In Tompkins," the series of film showings have been funded by nightclub/lounge owner Josh Boyd (president of Downtown Diversified) and real estate broker/developer Bob Perl (owner of Tower Realty). As previously reported in the SHADOW, Tower Realty has been connected with area gentrifiers, including real estate developer Donald Capoccia and poverty pimp/former city councilmember Antonio Pagán. Tower Realty has been a major player in the high-end real estate market, driving up the prices of sales and rentals of apartments and stores throughout the Lower East Side.

In addition to being set up by gentrifiers Perl and Boyd, the movie nights in Tompkins Square Park are sponsored by corporations, such as Coca-Cola-owned Glacéau, maker of Vitamin Energy drinks, whose trucks and free samples are prominently displayed at the screenings.

In an affront to neighborhood residents who look upon Tompkins Square Park as their refuge from cramped apartments on hot summer nights, Perl and Boyd hired private security personnel from Fifth Profession to search through bags and belongings carried by those entering Hippy Hill to view films. Perl and Boyd claim that they have been checking for "alcohol and fireworks."

At the film showing on July 16, when attendees objected to being searched, reminding the security that Tompkins Square is a public park, they were told by the rent-a-cops that "tonight, it's a private park."

Privatization of public parks has become a sore spot in Lower Manhattan, with part of Second Street Park leased by Veselka restaurant and large sections of Union Square Park torn up to made way for a high-end restaurant on public park land that was intended for public recreational use.

As word of the illegal searches in Tompkins Square Park spread among freedom-loving residents of the Lower East Side, a protest was organized for July 30, on the night of the showing of "Better Off Dead."

Days before the demo, angry community residents brought the issue of the illegal searches to the Parks Department. Officials were told that Boyd and Perl did not have a lease giving them possession of the grass in the middle of the park, and that no one has the right to treat the park as a private area or to search or deny entry to anyone, or to confiscate anything from them. The parks department apparently agreed. As a result, no security personnel were present on July 30, as people filtered freely into the grassy center of the park.

However, the protest went on, focusing on the sponsors of the event. One protestor described the free movies as "bread and circuses without the bread." Neighborhood activist John Penley, organizer of numerous Lower East Side anti-gentrification actions, told the SHADOW that "real estate swine" were "showing old movies while they are driving film makers and creative people out of the neighborhood."