More Park For The People

Next Tuesday, a big chunk of City Hall Park will be reopened to the public for the first time since former [Mayor Giuliani closed it after 9/11] due to a combination of security reasons and renovations. Mayor Bloomberg had reopened the southern part of the 8.8-acre park after his inauguration in 2002, but it is the northern section that accounts for nearly a third of the space. Friends of [City Hall Park](www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/park_info_pages/park_info.php?propID=M013), led by lower Manhattan activist Skip Blumberg, had been lobbying city officials to [reopen it for years](http://www.nysun.com/article/50005), and the time is finally nigh. In less than a week, New Yorkers will be able to enjoy the park’s chess tables, benches, lush green lawns and towering trees, a statue of New York Tribune founder [Horace Greeley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Greeley) and—so you can quickly cut through all of that crap—a [pedestrian walkway](http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/newsfeb07/cityhall.htm) stretching from Broadway to Centre Street.