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Parks & Public Spaces
Madison Square Park Conservancy’s application to conduct the Madison Square Eats: Spring Food Festival in Worth Square from May 3 through May 31, 2013, between the hours of 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM.
At the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of Community Board Five on Thursday, January 17, 2013, the following resolution passed with a unanimous vote of 34 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining:
WHEREAS, Madison Square Park Conservancy has submitted an application to conduct Madison Square Eats: Spring, their annual Spring Food Festival in Worth Square, which is the park land bounded by Broadway, Fifth Avenue, West 24th Street and West 25th Street; and
WHEREAS, The Food Festival would be conducted daily between the hours of 11:00 AM and 9:00 PM from May 3 through May 31, 2013; and
WHEREAS, Like the festivals in previous years, the proposed event's marketplace would only offer food, and not crafts and other merchandise, and would be produced by Urban Space Management, producers of other retail events such as the Union Square Holiday Market; and
WHEREAS, Worth Square would remain open to the public, with all tables and seating to be available to anyone in the park, regardless of whether or not they are patronizing the festival's vendors; and
WHEREAS, Vendors would be housed in tents on the perimeter of Worth Square, facing inside of the square, and the signage would be limited to the name of the restaurant or vendor, and information regarding the event; and
WHEREAS, Madison Square Park Conservancy is investigating the feasibility of implementing a more permanent power source in Worth Square as a capital investment in order to eliminate the need for generators; and
WHEREAS, Market festivals raise funds for the Madison Square Park Conservancy; and
WHEREAS, Although Community Board Five has specific concerns regarding the festival, including the lack of pedestrian clearance on the perimeter edges of Worth Square and the impossibility of walking from 25th to 24th Streets on the western side of 5th Avenue without walking in the streets, as well as the aesthetics of the vendor booths, we are confident that we can maintain a constructive dialogue with the Madison Square Park Conservancy, Urban Space Management, and the surrounding neighborhood to address these concerns; and
WHEREAS, Community Board Five will wait to hear Madison Square Park Conservancy's application for Madison Square Eats: Fall until after the completion of the Spring festival, to evaluate its success; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That Community Board Five recommends approval of Madison Square Park Conservancy's application to conduct the Madison Square Eats: Spring Food Festival in Worth Square from May 3 through May 31, 2013, between the hours of 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM.