Vandals sought for trashing Washington Square
Park statues with paint-filled balloons
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
Cops are looking for two troublemakers
who hurled paint-fi lled balloons
at statues of George Washington at
the Washington Square Park arch early on
Monday morning.
The NYPD released on Monday night
video footage of the suspects wanted for the
vandalism, which occurred at 3:20 a.m. on
June 29 inside the Greenwich Village park.
The video shows one of the suspects
throwing the balloons, fi lled with red
paint, at one of the marble depictions of
our nation’s fi rst president.
Washington led the Continental Army
over the British during the American Revolution.
He would later play a pivotal role in
the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, and
go on to serve as the fi rst president of the
United States.
Yet Washington’s legacy also included
owning slaves at his Mount Vernon estate
— something that has made likenesses
of Washington a target of protester rage
across the U.S. in recent weeks. The New
York Post reported that another statue of
Washington, in Union Square, was recently
PHOTO COURTESY OF NYPD
Two vandals marred the statues of
George Washington at the Washington
Square Park arch on June 29, 2020.
branded in graffi ti with the words “slave
owner.”
It’s not clear, at this point, if that had
anything to do with the vandalism of the
Washington Square statues on June 29.
Police did not provide physical
descriptions of the balloon-throwers.
One suspect had blonde hair
and wore a white surgical mask,
a black t-shirt, black shorts and
black-and-white shoes while carrying
a backpack.
The other vandal wore a full
face mask, a black t-shirt, black
jeans and black sneakers while carrying a
gray backpack.
Anyone with information regarding
the vandals’ whereabouts can call Crime
Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish,
dial 888-57-PISTA). You can also submit
tips online at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or
on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages
are kept confi dential.
New NYC initiative to combine Open
Streets with Open Restaurants
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
The city is combining two
popular programs for
the summer — Open
Streets and Open Restaurants.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
the initiative June
26, on New York City’s fi rst
weekend in phase two, which
already allowed restaurants to
set up outdoor dining.
The new program will expand
seating options for restaurants
on select restaurant corridors
throughout the fi ve boroughs.
By the July 4 holiday weekend,
10 to 20 corridors citywide
will be open to pedestrians and
approved for expanded street
dining. An additional 10 to 20
corridors will be approved starting
Friday, July 17.
The fi rst round of restaurant
corridors that will open starting
on July 4 holiday weekend
will focus on streets that are
already participating in the
Open Streets program and
corridors with organizations
that have worked with the
Department of Transportation
on street closures in the past.
The second round will include
additional applicants such as
The city aims to expand outdoor café opportunities for
restaurants.
ad hoc groups of restaurants
that coordinate through a
single entity acting as a partner
organization.
Hours of operation for this
new expanded seating option
will be from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
on Friday nights, and noon to 11
p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Expanded seating will last until
Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 7).
Before phase two began on
PHOTO BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO/AMNY
June 22, the city gave restaurants
guidelines for street dinning,
which allowed qualifying
restaurants to use sidewalks,
roadways, and other outdoor
space to use for socially distant
service.
Part of the city’s new initiative
will give restaurants in approved
corridors to go farther
away from the curb than other
Open Restaurants participants
with the rest of the street to
open for pedestrian traffi c.
BIDs and community-based
organizations can apply to Open
Streets and Open Restaurants
on the DOT’s website starting
Monday, June 29.
The city will quickly review
applications and consult with
elected officials as well as
Community Boards to ensure
optimal safety and appropriate
design.
“With more than 5,000
Open Restaurants now signed
up, some BIDs and neighborhood
organizations have made a
compelling case about the need
to grow outdoor dining to even
more of the street,” DOT Commissioner
Polly Trottenberg
said. “But make no mistake,
devoting entire streets to openair
dining is a big change — and
we will make sure that these
streets remain safe and passable
for emergency vehicles.”
NYC Board
of Elections
to canvas
absentee
ballots July 6-8
BY MARK HALLUM
The New York City Board of
Elections announced Tuesday
they will begin counting tens of
thousands of absentee ballots cast for the
June 23 Democratic primary next week,
the results of which are still pending over
a week later.
Manhattan’s count will start on July 8.
The locations and time that these operations
will start, however, has not been
announced by the BOE, who did not
return a request for clarifi cation from
amNewYork Metro.
The decision made at the weekly commissioner’s
meeting was preceded by an
overview of operations at 1,166 polling
locations on election day itself and over
70 early voting poll sites, mainly focusing
on COVID-19 safety measures. Some
of which include transparent shields
provided by vendors and the effi cacy of
different ones provided.
4 July 2, 2020 Schneps Media
/nypdcrimestoppers.com
