Barricades Come Down In UES Park After Yearlong Blockade

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Barricades have been taken down in and around Carl Schurz Park after blocking the treasured green space for well over a year, according to a local lawmaker who pressed the NYPD to remove the obstructions.

Starting around May 2020, as protests against police violence swept the city, the NYPD began to block off large swaths of the beloved park, which sits above East 84th Street and also contains the mayor's residence at Gracie Mansion.

Long after the protests subsided, however, many of the unsightly barricades remained in place, cordoning off entrances and pathways and obstructing access for some elderly visitors, as Patch reported last year.

This week, City Councilmember Julie Menin announced that the NYPD had begun taking down some of the barricades last Friday following a meeting with the 19th Precinct. Menin organized the sit-down in response to a slew of complaints she had received about the barricades, according to her office, which shared a handful of examples.

"Would you please work w/Mayor Adams to take down most if not all of the metal gates his predecessor had the NYPD put up surrounding Gracie Mansion in Carl Schurz Park and on East End Avenue?" reads one such complaint.

"Having grown up in Yorkville and now raising my family here ... I can tell you that these gates are unprecedented over the last 40 [years]! Not even post-9/11 were anything like them put up."

Last year, Patch pressed then-Mayor Bill de Blasio to explain why the barricades remained in place so long after the summertime protests. In response, de Blasio largely dismissed his neighbors' complaints, insisting that "there have been regular, constant protests" that posed a security risk.

The barricades taken down had stood on East End Avenue at 86th, 87th and 89th streets; and in Carl Schurz Park near the 86th and 87th street entrances, according to a spokesperson for Menin. Some barricades closer to Gracie Mansion will remain in place "while keeping public obstruction to a minimum," the spokesperson said.

"For years these barricades have obstructed our public space," Menin said in a statement. "Removing some of these barricades from the East End and changing storage spaces will allow the community to reclaim some of this public space and improve quality of life for all."

Ben Kallos, Menin's predecessor in District 5, was also exasperated by the barricades, pointing out last year that de Blasio had also installed a four-foot "privacy fence" around the mansion in 2014.

"A mayor shouldn't be afraid of the people he or she represents," Kallos said.

Previous coverage:

• De Blasio Shrugs Off Neighbors' Complaints Over Gracie Barricades
• Gracie Mansion Barricades Block UES Park, 9 Months After Protests