New York City’s Biggest Hazard: Street Musicians

When you think of an emergency police call to the N.Y.P.D., you’re probably thinking of violent crimes. Then again, it might be: “Attention All Units! String Quartet playing a Mozart concerto in Central Park!”

New York City has taken eight of the city’s favorite locations for street performers, and turned them into “quiet zones.” Talk about a solution in search of a problem. A 59-year-old classical harpist was evicted from Central Park, and park police accused her of destroying the grass where she was sitting. She said:

“They say we're responsible for the bare patch but then you see people everywhere playing soccer with boots and cleats. They were actually pretty nasty and I'm not used to police intimidation. It's basically putting us out of work.”

Another newly-designated “quiet zone” is Manhattan’s Bethesda Fountain. It has excellent acoustics and a lot of tourists go there specifically to hear the public performances. One visitor said:

“Oh, I thought they put 'quiet zone' so that we could listen to the music!”

Another evictee, a local hammer dulcimer player, pointed out that Central Park still has huge rock concerts — wall-to-wall amps cranked up to eleven, the whole works — attracting tens of thousands of listeners, some of whom are probably trampling on the grass. He said:

“It's a galling hypocrisy.”

A park spokesperson claimed that their crackdown is a response to the gazillions of complaints they’ve received about street performances. Riiight.

Geoffrey Croft, the founder of NYC Park Advocates, is joining the fight on behalf of the musicians. He said:

“As long as there's been a park system people have been playing music in parks. They're claiming people are complaining, but who's complaining?”