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Friends of CITY HALL Park, founded in 1996, is a coalition of neighborhood residents, employees, and businesses as well as a Citywide Green Ribbon Committee who work:
- to make City Hall Park the best possible neighborhood park and civic center,
- to further neighborhood and City-wide interest in the Park, and
- to support NYC Department of Parks and Recreation’s maintenance and gardening work
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Several hundred thousand employees work within 3 blocks of the Park. More than 50,000 residents (from youth to elders) live in Lower Manhattan below Chambers Street, which is the fastest growing residential neighborhoon in NYC. There are 3 60+ story skyscrapers in construction a block from the park plus the Freedom Tower complex! We need more and better parks downtown.
City Hall Park has been a public gathering place since the earliest days of New York City when it was our city commons, where neighbors gathered to get the news, socialize and network. The history of the park is the history of the city and of the country; e.g. on July 9, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read to General George Washington and the gathered patriot troops, the true beginning of the U.S. War of Independence.
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FCHP works with the Parks Department, Community Board #1, the Manhattan Borough President’s office, our Council members, our NYS representatives, Partnerships for Parks, New Yorkers for Parks, Citizens for NYC, and other city government agencies.
In May 1997, FCHP issued a State of the Park Report which concluded that, because Park maintenance had fallen so far behind Park use, City Hall Park was in a deteriorated state with rusted fences, crumbling sidewalks, trampled lawns, and missing bushes.
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Click to see the Park re-opening celebration video.
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As a result of FCHP efforts to draw attention to the deteriorated condition of the Park, construction to renovate City Hall Park began in autumn 1998. The new City Hall Park, which opened in autumn 1999, is a beautiful, gardenesque showplace... with a world-class ornamental garden, an al fresco art gallery, and a unique historical museum… a great neighborhood park as well as a destination for all New Yorkers and the City’s visitors.
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In July 2007, following a 6-year FCHP lobbying campaign to re-open the northern section of the park, which had been closed since 9/11, the gates were re-opened and public access to the paths and lawns was restored, as well as the development of a recreational NorthEast lawn and café tables and chairs on the NorthEast plaza.
City Hall Park is a jewel of the City, as fine as any park in the world. FCHP continues to work to making the best possible City Hall Park, to monitor the park quality and access; including the DOT bikeway.
Stay tuned for “Lower Manhattan Design Charrette: Greening the Civic Center.”
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