Gracie Mansion Barricades Block UES Park, 9 Months After Protests

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Police barricades that went up nearly nine months ago around the mayor's home at Gracie Mansion are still blocking sections of Carl Schurz Park, much to the consternation of neighbors who point out that last summer's protests have long since passed.

Starting last May, as protests against police violence swept the city, the NYPD began to block off large swaths of Carl Schurz Park — the treasured Upper East Side green space that also contains the Mayor Bill de Blasio's residence.

Most of the metal barricades were taken down months ago. But others continue to cordon off the park entrance at East 88th Street and East End Avenue; the pathway on the park's west side between 88th and 90th streets; and an entrance on the East River Esplanade side near 88th Street.

"It’s a public park, it’s not his private fiefdom," neighbor Tosia McCormick said of de Blasio. "There needs to be access."

McCormick, who lives on East 88th Street, said the restrictions have been especially galling during the pandemic, since Carl Schurz is one of the few open spaces that those in the neighborhood can safely enjoy.

The complaints are longstanding: neighbor Mary Ramniceanu, 91, told Patch in September that the blocked 88th Street entrance was the only one near her that did not require climbing a flight of stairs.

"Now other entrances are a bit too much for me," she wrote in an email.

Over the summer, Carl Schurz Park played host to several large protests, including a demonstration against the city's homeless shelter transfers and a nightly Black Lives Matter vigil organized by a neighborhood group. In the dead of winter, however, the gatherings have dwindled.

The mayor's office referred a request for comment to the NYPD, who did not respond to emails.

City Councilmember Ben Kallos, who pushed the city to take down the stricter barricades last summer, said Friday that he sympathized with his constituents.

"It pisses me off too," he said.

Past mayors, he said, never imposed as many restrictions in the park as de Blasio, who also installed a four-foot "privacy fence" around the mansion in 2014.

"Gracie Mansion’s never had barricades like this before," Kallos said. "A mayor shouldn’t be afraid of the people he or she represents."