NYC Media Blasts 'Snotty' Gramercy Park and Arlene Harrison, Its Well-Compensated Warden

GRAMERCY, NY — New York media has breathed new life into the debate about Gramercy Park, the private lot of land in Gramercy to which only 400 people have the key. The park is reserved for just the people who live in the 39 surrounding private houses, and its warden, Arlene Harrison, works full-time to keep others out.

The Village Voice this week called Gramercy Park "a patch of land so up its own —ss that a key is required to stroll its grounds." Curbed author Angela Serratore called the park "a monument to a historical moment and a historical attitude in which silence, solitude, and green existed in New York City, just waiting to be fenced in." Serratore, who was given a tour of the park by Harrison, described her ambivalence about a park that is so private and privileged yet so pleasant and calm on the inside.

Gramercy Park's history goes all the way back to 1831, when real estate investor Samuel B. Ruggles bought private land to set up a green space and private lots around that space that could enjoy it. According to Harrison, people who own the buildings around Gramercy Park pay fees to manage the park. They elect trustees that work with the block association to manage the park.

Harrison told the Voice she believes the park is to be looked at by others but not used, like an ocean is meant to be looked at and not used. Here's what she told the Voice:

By the way, the fence surrounding the park is not to keep people out. It would have been a wall. We would have put shrubbery that would keep people out. He put a fence only in 1844, to protect the plantings. And we have kept up that idea, to make the park visibly accessible. That’s a term that the Japanese have, called ‘borrowed landscape.’ That means if you have a house out in Colorado, and you have a view of mountains, even though you don’t own the mountains, that’s borrowing from God or from nature or whatever. And that park, we have made sure that people from all over enjoy it. I always give the analogy, if I go to Florida, I want to see the ocean. I would never go in the ocean, but I don’t want to look at the parking lot. It visually enhances your life.

But the Voice doesn't quite buy the analogy. "I would argue that generally people are free to go walk in the mountains or swim in the ocean," author Lauren Evans responded.

Harrison argued the park is "ornamental," "not made for recreation." Instead, it's meant for "quiet relaxation, meditation..." and "it does something for the soul and for your spirit." She said it makes people feel spiritual to see such calm greenery instead of other high-rises in front of them.

What do you think, is Gramercy Park the snootiest, least fun park in New York, or is it a time capsule worthy of preserving by making it untouchable to most?

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