The Death of Great Urban Spaces

The con­struc­tion on Wash­ing­ton Square Park started sev­eral weeks ago. I got an aer­ial glimpse of it yes­ter­day from the 8th floor of the NYC stu­dent cen­ter. Here’s my cam­era phone picture:

From what I hear of the design plan, the new foun­tain will not be phys­i­cally acces­si­ble, as the one cur­rently being torn up was. It will be an inac­ces­si­ble orna­men­tal piece. This is heart­break­ing for me and so many oth­ers who have won­der­ful mem­o­ries of being in that foun­tain. Here are some pic­tures form the end of the 2005 Dyke March where, as the tra­di­tion goes, every­one got in the fountain: