Life in the parks:
Powers, Thomas
become "economic deserts" if the job and industry subsidies rooted in Friedmanite ideas about how to encourage invest- were ended as proposed by the Conservatives. As one moved ...
...He was patient waiting, maybe with help...
...The park is very well mainprotein deficiency...
...I used to wonder if they had friend told me once that whenever the coat standing in an open place, gazingup keys too...
...park like any other, filled with kids and wooden pole in Stuyvesant Park...
...I don't know what the park discourteous and unthinking...
...The rents will probably quadruple...
...age--toddlers between one and a half taken too long to explain...
...For awhile I even buried morning, I met a dog-walking regular 25 May 1979:297 named Jack, looking troubled...
...A friend told moment it is filled with blooming daftoo...
...a guard of novocaine...
...I tried hiding them in the bushes but drinking beer or wine from bottles in eat," he said...
...You're way down below me...
...Over his shoulder he carded a sack mained...
...Friends of the patients, most filled with almonds, filberts and walnuts...
...God and three--don't really play with each The park was renovated a few years wants me to rise up...
...I'm on a higher level now, I'm kid's shovel...
...In the meantime it's a complished young men want to hang barbiturates, amphetamine, angel dust, park, or at least a green place...
...Sometimes the circled the park, filling cans as he went...
...Are they drunk...
...There is no most of them black...
...I'm leaving this world behind...
...There's strange, fluid, weaving gait...
...money and his car was stalled...
...Perhaps they commute...
...The park was names...
...Depending on Mrs...
...E...
...But I don'tthink it was beer which explained their strange, fluid, weaving gait...
...wine out of bottles in brown paper bags...
...At of his pole was a coffee can, swingingon back around the First World War, before night, in all but the rawestmonths, it was a nail...
...the Sanitation Department sends a spethere at noon, again that night, and still cial truck down to the Bowery to pick up there in the same place and attitude the WashingtonSquare Park has got three bodies...
...So far the corner of the park, do dazzling maneuv- weaving our way through the mob, planners haven't been able to decide ers on hundred-dollar skateboards, read brought a dozen offers of cocaine, what and they probably haven't got any Kant...
...But some ofthe blacks have eyes like hawks, are smartly dressed, ride ten-speed French racing bikes, carryexpensive tape decks, play excellent chess at the chess tables in the southwest comer of the park, do dazzling maneuvers on hundred-dollar skateboards, read Kant...
...They smash 25 May 1979:299...
...I and a gate with a latch so kids won't parked cars, or in phone booths, or asked if he needed any help...
...the odor was unmistaka- children has a chainlink fence around it themselves in the narrow space between ble and a dark stain ran down one leg...
...They thought they There's nothing unusual about drunks got there) I met a man who had left his job had all the tumor then, but they didn't...
...They vomit in the bushes, stagger along the paths, stretch out on the benches snoring loudly...
...to resist stringent Tory policies...
...New sod was laid down in all the the Bronx, I had awife, I had money, but other...
...It was croaking...
...I doubt they show up the city...
...An old German doctor in Africa once explained to me why the whites of the eyes of local blacks were often yellow: protein deficiency...
...One spring morning, for exam- ing beer or wine from bottles in brown panhandlers too, sometimes not...
...No, no, wander off and disappear while parents doorways, but some of them use the big I'm not of this world," he said...
...Cops wan- a real park...
...In the daytime it was a L met a brisk little man with a long doing this for thirty years...
...He put somethinginto the can and the huge Beth Israel Hospital complex a gay cruising ground...
...A woman brought me soup...
...I've been Stuyvesant Park...
...of D. I don't know where the women's eyes of local blacks were often yellow: The nannies and the college girls from jail is now...
...Police Occasionally an old gentleman will be their lungs, poking through trash bascruised the park regularly, not bothering sitting there too, reading his newspaper kets...
...He had no who all became "they" in conversation...
...But I don't tween mystical and drug-induced experi- thing they want is another place for the think it was beer which explained their ences...
...Blacks and PuertoRi- think of it, they look a little like African All I can remember is the event and the cans sometimes sat on the stoop, drink- witch doctors...
...I sometimes wonder where they or push toy trucks along the graveled friend described this in a shaking voice live...
...another was to reserve it A week or so ago I bought them Good "Loose joints," the black kids said, for mothers or nannies with small chilHumors and they sat down on a bench to flashing something in the palm of a hand...
...Even on the coldest as mechanic in a small town and moved, They're afraid to operate now...
...They were were any place in America more per- been quite a lot of argument about it...
...Her notions of reform are American politics...
...drawn out, as if in slow motion...
...I was held they throwsand, or walk off with another away by now and the ground has been down...
...turned numb andthick by a massive dose the children play...
...Are rumors that Jerry Brown and Linda was a terrible waiting...
...Stuyvesant Park was a brought their clients to the park...
...from the library...
...Their skin was as white as the belly of a toad...
...I've often wondered if that is following morning...
...They're as fussily decorated as heaving...
...the neighborhood...
...Perhaps they commute...
...What's the matter with those people...
...The latter could prove both a major challenge to her registered a net gain over the Tories...
...The problem with both plans was eat in the serious manner of children...
...One hot afternoon I saw a windbreaker walk all the way around cloth, plastic flowers, spoons hanging some police with ablack teenagerbacked the park, banging a stickagainst the iron from a piece of string, crumpled paper, up against the railing...
...I approached to ask ing out the sun...
...I thought of Aldous the need for a fulltime guard to keep the Across the way were two white men and Huxley's book, The Doors of Percep- bums out...
...It gives them a kind of bleary, unfo- me what it was like and after dinner we fodils and tulips and a lot of other flowers cused look...
...J. Dionne, Jr., who visited Britain during the election Mrs...
...They all seem to be men sweatglistened on his skin...
...In the center of the playground is a think it's because they want to bury their drink...
...Ohio Buckeye, for icy inrecent years...
...Children often dug up the cisely what is meant by the word deserhimself upright another two days...
...He was now...
...Mrs...
...dren...
...On summer nights the tained by a voluntary committee...
...by a twelve-foot-high cyclone fence and and their motions and gestures were all the gate is kept padlocked...
...One strange dementia leads people to get out of their cars, but just driving in the sun...
...At the edge of the family "they" were waiting, maybe with help...
...He was living of people standing around, stamping where his twelve-year-old son was being at a limit, having to trust a set of people their feet, collars up, drinking beer or treated for a brain tumor...
...He explained that it was a job and he ice cream vendors in good weather, and He wore a round leather cap...
...Kids that ing woman any of this...
...You all and nannies are readingor talkingto each sandbox in Washington Square Park...
...Before long of them black, would stand along the Up in the tree, nailed to a branch, was his job would come to an end...
...My day...
...But I didn't tell the complainpreciate her thought, I thanked her, I holes with plastic shovels...
...On the other ment, and the fact that the damaging winter strikes were most hand, the unions--which represent a much larger share of the severely felt in the south of England...
...Immacu- woman shouted, wept, ripped off her It sounds as if their tongues had been late inwhite they sit on the benches while clothes and urinated on the hospital floor...
...When the weather is good they're pandemic...
...plaining about the dog-walkers who al- Nothing can grow there...
...The girls jump rope, The doctor refused to admit her...
...Thatcher to-do...
...Even playing with my kids I begin to get restless after an hour...
...Hey man don the park, but I've never seen it crowded...
...Statemental in the unemployment statistics because well-pruned...
...This system works pretty well...
...income taxes in ways that would especially benefit the well- As to the Friedmanite economic policies, Mrs...
...I moved ceive how any dog-owner could be so it's happening in Washington Square away in 1972...
...The culprits, actually, were not dog- When the weather is good the park is walkers at all, but bums, derelicts, bag- filled with young men hanging about, Gramercy Park is one of the prettiest in ladies, people of that sort...
...None ofthem had any teeth--I'd guess they were in their late thirties, but it was hard to tell--and they were grinning, lips wet, eyes half closed, falling into each other's arms and then pulling back again, making croaking sounds...
...They have nights of winter there are usually a couple with his family, to be near the hospital to treat it with radiation...
...He quickly ground," he said, "but then the bums covering the windows...
...It used to be called the House explained to me why the whites of the fights, urinate,akainst the sides of trees...
...I onceheard a woman com- trodden down into a kind of hardpan...
...It wasn't talking and it wasn't laughing...
...of which I can never remember the eyes like hawks, are smartly dressed, I'd never seen it before...
...At the ington Square often have yellow eyes crush is not to be believed...
...But I'm city, oddly dressed, in earnest conversaacross the street...
...A tall iron fence surrounds the harmless andincurable are simply turned ding, more often drinking beer or wine park and the gates are locked...
...He wasshaky on his feet, but managed to keep lowed their dogs to defecate in the drive a knife into the dirt...
...expensive tape decks, play excellent to man was for sale...
...Sometimes there are tears when grassy areas...
...Of several minds: Thomas Powers them but the bums would scratch them up again...
...The one for the youngest really true...
...There was always a lot to see in EARLY ONE MORNING, years ago, I go on to Madison Square...
...I tried to explain but she Ronstadt were heading for a nudist him once seven years ago, from the looked as if I wasn't making any sense...
...The woman could not con- tification...
...At the end was paid by a park association founded dog-walkers whatever the weather...
...You see such people all over the there had been a murder, and pointed vided between black and white...
...The blacks in Wash- NYU turn away...
...Once I saw a black teenager in to festoon themselves with bright bits of through slowly...
...What's the matter with those people...
...Using his pole he filled " I used to leave the nuts on the faces pressed against the wire mesh the can in the tree with nuts...
...Most of it has been scuffed I was too much of this world...
...asked my 1% 0 N THE DAY the news reported couldn't do...
...Park...
...Sometimes they are nodexample...
...I can't understand why these ac- methadone, heroin, marijuana, LSD, money anyway...
...demic...
...His shirt was torn open and room-occupancy hotel across the street Christmas trees...
...The grass is thick, the trees accurate word for them yet...
...association were dying off...
...Some of them are identified hospitals have beenfollowing a new pol- the government only countspeople lookby wooden plaques...
...I can't understand why these accomplished young men want to hang around Washington Square Park, all day...
...There used to be a single- feathers...
...He said white...
...dered through but made no arrests...
...Washington Square is in the heart of walks...
...The gimme nuna that...
...They vomit in the bushes, stagger cables, and if that didn't work we would At the edge of the family "they" were along the paths, stretch out on the have to get it towed...
...But luck, the left may soon be able to produce a work of its own, the Tories still did well pushing for tax cuts, suggesting the entitled, perhaps, The Past That Doesn't Work, Either...
...Thatcher takes office looking toward fundamental campaign, is working on a study ofthe raceissue in British and reform of the British economy...
...difficulty American leftists might have in proposing tax reform E. J. DIONNE...
...It was croaking...
...the last of the old ladies in the Beth Israel...
...They recently described an attempt to have one run their words together...
...I certainly don't begrudge the people neighborhood...
...shouting four-letter words at the top of man l y i n g on the sidewalk...
...Sometimes a bum manages to climb up into a tree for the nuts, but it's more than most of them can handle...
...Across the way were two white men and a white woman drinking beer out ofbottles in brown paper bags...
...Nannies bring children there...
...it would have thank you, but I'm above all that now...
...We nearly lost they drunk...
...If the shoving gets hard, the Another lesson of which Americans left and right will take threat to free institutions might be enormous--particularly if heed is the Conservatives' success in makingtax cuts the issue...
...As one moved ment and a serious commitment toreducingthe power of trade north, Labor's strength increased...
...is like now...
...Other factors were at and a major threat to the orderly functioningof British democwork inthis, no doubt, includingthe Callaghan government's racy...
...They were constantly moving, almost as if they were dancing, but their knees were bent and their motions and gestures were all drawn out, as ifin slow motion...
...rising up...
...become "economic deserts" if the job and industry subsidies rooted in Friedmanite ideas about how to encourage investwere ended as proposed by the Conservatives...
...benches snoring loudly...
...Hey man whuz doin...
...The hotel is being renovated temperature dropsbelow zero in the city at the sky with a rapt expression...
...This is presandbox...
...We were At the center of his life was this When the weather is good they're pan- going to get it started again with jump heartbreaking, perhaps hopeless thing...
...Usually the nuts relieve soiled his pants...
...Mexican brown...
...the last tles in brown paper bags...
...A couple of policemen just guessing, I don't really know what tion with themselves, huddled incorners, were standing next to the body of a black the proportions are...
...I want to feed me but I don't need to eat or other...
...None of them had any Of several minds: John Garvey teeth-I'd guess they were in their late thirties, but it was hard to tell-and they were grinning, lips wet, eyes half closed, failing into each other's arms and then STICKING TO THE STORY pulling back again, making croaking sounds...
...One was to make it accessible restless after an hour...
...Once, early in the they'd starve...
...They show up day after singingsongs, while the boys play catch, dragged her back out onto the street...
...in place of across-the-board tax reductions...
...Even on thecoldest nights of winterthere are usually a couple of people standing around, stamping their feet, collars up, drinking beer or wine out ofbottles in brown paperbags...
...The chronol- from one corner of the park, an oddity in and they all seem to be black...
...It stands on THOMAS POWERS woman was wearing a brief halter, bare in the middle...
...Prostitutes from then poked it up among the branches of a began to rise up around the park, block- 14th Street andThird Avenue sometimes tree, rattling it about...
...A couple of years ago, conservatives some ground as the campaign progressed by arguing that produced an attack on British social democracy entitled The Conservative tax policies might produce the "high life for the Future That Doesn't Work...
...Come to ogy of these impressions has escaped me...
...Only a few re- ing a drug detoxification program run by tree...
...The blacks in Washington Square often have yellow eyes too...
...The two men had taken their shirts off and the i bif hl b woman was wearng areater,are ihiddl Thikihi n te me.er sn was as wte as the belly ofa toad...
...Local residents are unhappy a white woman drinking beer out of bot- tion, about the interesting similarities be- enough as it is with Eighth Street...
...I go away in the summer...
...On the droppings...
...There's nothing unusual about drunks or addicts in the park...
...So constantly moving, almost as if they fectly integrated than Washington the Jefferson Market park is surrounded were dancing, but their knees were bent Square Park on a midsummer's night...
...patients who are both ing for work...
...asked my seven-year-old daughter, Susan...
...The children, of course, are all and said she would write a letter of com- the Village, which is not exactly a black Commonweal: 298 neighborhood...
...They proposed this by way of ideas that will make it a convenient target for the left in encouraging savingover consumption...
...His chest was railings...
...It wasn't talking and it wasn't...
...Overwhat he was doing...
...he knew that now his work seven-year-old daughter, Susan...
...They smash nearly beyond belief...
...Keys areheld by residents of the buildings facingloose...
...On the one hand, the public opinion polls show substancommitment to decentralization of power to a Scotish parlia- tial support for a reduction of trade union power...
...I've never counted...
...of her clients admitted to Bellevue...
...The grass is so lush, deep and ride ten-speed French racing bikes, carry standing room only and evey drug known vibrant it seems almost incandescent...
...their bottles on the pavement, crunch up the site of the old Women's Hotte of An old German doctor in Africa once their beer cans, beg for quarters, get into Detention...
...Thatcher decides to go as far as a simple reading of the Indeed, the Conservatives were not only committed to cutting polls would suggest she could...
...The beer and the wine were suggestions have been made for its use as Even playing with my kids I begin to get just for wetting the whistle...
...In Scotland, Labor actually unions...
...If we didn't feed them the bums rummaged around until they brown paper bags...
...The nannies are about evenly di- plaint...
...Thatcher's better off" at the expense of "the rest" (a Party favorite...
...began to move in and would eat them all friends would hang about all evening, "There's nothing for the squirrels to up...
...A ple, I saw a black man in a heavy over- paper bags...
...colony in Africa (apparently they never bleeding," he said...
...A week orso ago I bought them Good Humors and they sat down on a bench to eat in the serious manner of children...
...One walk around the The city owns the park and plans to build chess at the chess tables in the southwest fountain, which took quite a while, something on it eventually...
...A friend who is a social worker out of bottles in brown paper bags...
...Various around Washington Square Parkall day...
...park's iron railing and shout up to the another tin can...
...He finished LIFE IN THE PARKS filling the last can, unscrewed his long JEWELS IN THE CROWN O F THE CITY pole in the middle, and strode briskly off in the direction of Madison Square...
...AND THAT'S THE WAY IT ISN'T laughing...
...He knew what he I certainly don't begrudge the people 25 May 1979: 299 At the center of his life was this heartbreaking, perhaps hopeless thing...
...I ap- large sandbox where small children dig droppings...
...It's happeningin the Sahel and fourth morning he was gone...
...I remember wondering if there bums and the drunks to hang out...
...I had two houses in other, but they like to sit next to each ago...
...I tried to explain but she looked as if I wasn't making any sense...
...By that time he had playgrounds...
...Quaaludes...
...they were also committed to increasing spending taxes may well turn Britain into the laboratory for the right's latest that most affect the less well-off...
...The two There's a new park behind the Jeffermen had taken their shirts off and the son Market Public Library...
...But some of the blacks have went for a look...
...But unquestionably, British workforce than do their American comrades--have a Labor's commitment to "the regions"--i.e., Britain's poorer variety of democratically guaranteedrightswhich they will use areas--had a substantial electoral impact...
...Feeding the squir- posh residential district then, surrounded looking one end was a tall buildinghousrels," he said, hurrying on to the next by elegant townhouses...
...Labor appeared to gain America and elsewhere...
...It gives them a kind of bleary, unfocused look...
...When I'm finished here I found them...
...Sometimes the nuts are weather...
...You couldn't Soon I will rise up and begone...
...or addicts in the park...
Vol. 106 • May 1979 • No. 10
