Union Square Park, Sunday 1/2/2011:

Debris field left by Holiday Market.

Note: these photos were taken 10 days AFTER the Holiday Market, with
200 commercial vendors, closed on December 24th. Their contract requires them to
remove all garbage.

The garbage pile blocks access to NYC’s 2nd busiest subway entrance and
obstructs a heavily used staircase. It is located in the South Plaza, the “front yard”
for one of NYC’s most prestigious parks; the same South Plaza where the revised Park
rules completely ban street artists. The City claimed in Federal Court that street artists
damage the aesthetic look of Union Square Park.

If a street artist left so much as a scrap of paper in the park they would be summonsed.

Photos by Robert Lederman

Garbage pile courtesy of Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Jennifer Falk,
President of the Union Square Partnership BID.
Here’s how the same plaza looks with the Holiday Market set up, compared to with street
artists. These 2 photos were taken in November 2010.