Washington Square Park, Nine point seventy-five acres in total, located in Greenwich village and named after George Washington was originally divided by a marsh valley ‘The Minetta’ and densely populated by the Lenape tribe. In 1624, the Dutch working in part with an Indian trading outpost at the Southern tip of Manhattan seized the land and gave it to slaves in order to keep the natives away and to exploit the slaves for farm labour under the guise of freedom, and was given the nickname the “land of the blacks.” The “Blacks” eventually lost their rights under English rule and the property was seized and merged with Dutch-English landowners. In 1797, a plot of land that occupied now Washington Square Park was purchased as a place to lay the poor after an epidemic of Yellow Fever (1797-1803), the space already housing the bodies of many people belonging to the surrounding churches. After they had filled the grounds it was turned into a park to increase the affluence of the surrounding neighborhoods. Following the completion of the fountain erected 1853 and replaced 1872, were the draft riots, spanning from Monday July 13th to the 18th. The people of New York, including many Irish and German immigrants were enraged by the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation and set forth spread their rage on the community as a whole beginning with attacks on military and government building and soon escalating to set an orphanage for black children on fire, leading to the displacement of the children, and attacking anyone who spoke up in defense or got in their way, including other immigrants who impeded their actions and even random black people on the street, ranging from children to old men. In December of 2007 the New York City DDR proposed a 16 million dollar redesign for the park, completed between 2009 and 2012, spicing up the park which continues to be a cultural and social hub to this day.
INTERVIEWS
Q1: How often do you come to the park?/How much of that time are you using tech?
Person 1: Once a year, I commute from brooklyn Heights, I’ve been on my phone and laptop a majority of the time
Person 2: Once a day and I use my phone half of the time, for music etc.
Person 3: Once a week, maybe less (commutes from staten Island), uses phone/ipod ⅓ of the time
Person 4: Walks through park every day for class, using phone/music a majority of the time
Person 5: Their second time here, using phone majority of the time
Q2: What is your favourite spot in the park/why?
Person 1:Wherever the sun is/ The south side. They like the arc and fountain view sans crowding
Person 2: Here, it’s quite (near the corner where washington sq crosses washington sq)
Person 3: Doesn’t know, never sat ‘here’, but likes it, away from the middle
Person 4: Around the fountain, likes how its central
Person 5: Fountain, beautiful
Q3: When was the first time you came here/tech involved?
Person 1: I was a teenager visiting from long island watchung people skate (like 30 years ago)
Person 2: Felt like this was the definition of new york, busy, diverse, happy (they snap chatted the experience)
Person 3: Just moved back from 18 yrs away. 11/12 yrs old, loved it, loves the communal feel
Person 4: When they moved(for school). Came at night with parents. The arc was lit up
Person 5: Came with friends at night
Q4: What type of tech do you use here?
Person 1: Twitter ect/or working
Person 2: On instagram or facebook
Person 3: texting(working)/emails
Person 4: Texting/Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat
Person 5: Texting Friends
Q5: Sit or Walk?
Persons 1: Walking
Person 2: Sits, walks on outer ring w/o phone
Person 3: Moving
Person 4: Sit