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Revision as of 11:21, 3 January 2005
Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5-acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is rectangular in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A.
Tompkins Square Park is named for Daniel D. Tompkins (1774–1825), Vice President of the United States under President James Monroe and the Governor of New York from 1807 until 1817. The park was landscaped by 1850 and has been a public park since the late 1870s.
The park has long been a center for political activism and it was the site of demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. By the 1980s, Tompkins Square Park had become for many New Yorkers synonomous with the city's increasing social problems. The park at that time was a high-crime area that contained encampments of homeless people and was a center for illegal drug dealing and heroin use.
In August 1988, riots erupted in the park when police attempted to clear the park of homeless people; 44 people were injured.
Increasing gentrification in the East Village during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as enforcement of a park curfew and the eviction of homeless people from the park, have changed the character of Tompkins Square Park. The park was closed and refurbished in the early 1990s and today, with its vibrant playgrounds and busy basketball courts, Tompkins Square Park is no longer considered dangerous.
External links
- Tompkins Square Park information at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website
- Letter from Tompkins Square Park