“Where are our neighbors?”
Chalk graffiti scattered across Washington Square posed this haunting question. Just days after a drug raid led to 19 arrests on the park’s west side, the city deployed nearly 70 new police officers to the area. With the local unhoused community now almost entirely displaced, a once vibrant park is now characterized by an uncanny stillness.
Some see the change as a welcome safety precaution addressing longtime concerns about local crime. But for many students, the round-the-clock policing has only made the park feel hostile…