New York City’s Washington Square Park has been in the news for its rampant drug use, partying, and cops alternating between doing nothing and clamping down like riot police.
I live around the corner and have gone there daily without fail for over a year to pick up litter, forming relationships with some of the dealers and users. Mostly to perform what I consider a civic duty and what any member of a community would do. As best I can tell, I’m the only person who picks up litter, in contrast to the 75 percent at least who bring packaging that will become litter or contribute to overflowing trash cans whose contents spill out and become litter.
I took pictures of my neighborhood and the park this morning and commented on them, along with newspaper articles for context, in the video below. I consider it one of my most important works. Everything builds to some points at the end, which connects to where you live too.
Please share on your social media (here’s the direct link: https://youtu.be/agVosBLdIVI). Please contact me when you’re ready to take responsibility and act, not just watch and imagine individual action doesn’t matter or that only governments and corporations can make a difference.
The links in the video
Here are the articles and posts I link to:
- My blog: Used syringes littering my neighborhood
- NY Post: Washington Square Park ‘drug den’ horrifies Greenwich Village neighbors
- NY Daily News: The wrong way to police Washington Square Park: How things got so bad
- Gothamist: West Village Residents, NYPD Call For Permanent Curfew In Washington Square Park
- The Village Sun: Woman trampled in Washington Square as revelers flee from man waving Taser
- NY Post: Taser-wielding madman sparks mayhem in Washington Square Park, cops say
- Guardian: Bin there, done that: Scotland fans clean up litter in central London
- Guardian: ‘It’s brutal’: Las Vegas cooks amid blazing heatwave – and it’s going to get worse
- Story of Stuff‘s Story of Plastic images
The images
Powerful piece. The pictures and narration encapsulates the failure of society. What’s wrong with New York? My answer, failed policies of arrogant politicians, and the people who keep rewarding them. This is not a black or white thing but rather a people accountability thing. Let’s just look at the facts; prior to the current mayor administration, the city was prosperous. Make not mistake the pandemic did not cause this failure in policies. The failure lies with the frailties of the human character. We are stewards of society and the environment. We, to a degree, control it’s destiny, in a sense of our carbon footprint. Until we honestly address that root cause all that can be said is “and we are not saved…â€
Thank you for sharing. I hear many find it too long and repetitive, which happens when I force myself to record without writing a script or directing myself, but I would have taken a month to record had I not just hit record. I hope to record a more concise version.
I agree about frailties of human character. The problems run deep. What kills me is that a solution of people taking responsibility at all levels that everyone thinks would take time, money, and resources, would actually give or save more of each. We would love a world of people acting in stewardship.
We don’t have to accept this abdication of responsibility. We don’t have to sleepwalk into a dystopia. The people contributing to this situation don’t have to be led around by the nose thinking what they want when they want how they want it no matter the consequences to anyone else is freedom. That pattern is more like entitlement and whatever the opposite of stewardship is. Disconnect from meaning, purpose, and values. I love fun and carefree as much as anyone, but I care how my behavior affects others.