Masses at The Gates

Central Park is in full bloom as I write this; the orange Gates that lit up the park in the gloom of February are a faint after-image. The grand achievement of Christo and Jeanne Claude is overshadowed by the changing seasons and the press of daily life in this impossibly busy city. But think back to the Gates for a moment: was there ever in our New York experience a public art event so successful on so many levels? Was there ever one that so captured the imagination of people who don’t ordinarily flock to see conceptual art? And yet only a few months after the Gates were taken down, in a move that surprised the public for its stealth, the Bloomberg administration opened another chapter of the park numbers game by signaling that it would limit gatherings on the Great Lawn to fifty thousand people or less.

If it remains in effect, this policy will bar not only large concerts, but also political rallies such as the one the mayor and the Police Department refused to permit during the 2004 Republican National Convention. As a sociologist who studies the life of urban public spaces, I am worried about the privatization of public spaces; and like many New Yorkers, I fear the loss of Central Park as a gathering place for rallies and demonstrations. Because I had an insiders’ view of the Gates installation, I want to use it to reflect on some critical issues of art, community, and public space.