New York University does not own Washington Square Park. It only acts as though it does, as its Greenwich Village neighbors have long noted. This month it agreed to pay more for the privilege.
The university announced that it will give $6 million over four years to the Washington Square Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that works with the Parks Department to care for the park. NYU says that doubles its financial support. The money comes, the university said, from “targeted savings and philanthropic fundraising.”
“Washington Square Park is a public space where our employees and students gather and connect, and where our faculty members and their families play and build community,” said NYU’s president, Linda G. Mills.
Where the money goes
AMNY reported that the commitment will help pay for Parks Department staff, including maintenance and operations, horticulture and the enforcement team. It could also expand the number of lawns restored each season. According to Washington Square News, the Conservancy now gives the city $1.1 million a year to hire park staff and wants to increase that to hire environmental specialists and crew members.
Some of the money will go to the arts. Last year NYU helped expand the Conservancy’s Park Open Studio program, in which working artists teach free drawing, printmaking, collage and watercolor workshops in Scrabble Plaza, in the park’s northwest corner. The Conservancy told WSN it plans more free workshops and pop-up studio space.
Will Morrison, who holds two jobs as the Conservancy’s executive director and the Parks Department’s administrator for the park, said the gift is flexible. “One of the true virtues of this gift is that NYU is trusting the Conservancy and the Parks Department as our partner to assess what the needs are in a given year, and point the funds where they’re needed most,” he told AMNY.
He also offered a broader view of what park safety means. “Programming, safety and quality of life can go hand in hand,” he told WSN. “People always tend to think of enforcement and enforcement alone when it comes to safety, and that’s not really the case.”
The history
NYU has been paying for the park for more than 20 years. In 2004, according to WSN, it gave $1 million for a planned renovation, at a time when it gave $200,000 a year. The Conservancy, founded in 2012, became the official nonprofit partner of NYC Parks in 2025 under a five-year contract. NYU provides most of its funding. WSN listed other notable grants, including $485,000 from the Dalio Family Fund.
Arlene Peralta-Avila, NYU’s assistant vice president for community engagement, who also sits on the Conservancy’s board according to AMNY, told WSN that about 50,000 students, staff, faculty and other visitors pass through the park each day. She told AMNY the gift reflected “a decision that we made a few years ago that would allow greater flexibility in the allocation of our funding.”
The quality-of-life question
The announcement is about lawns and art classes. Its context is about public safety. In March 2025, NYU became a founding member of the Village Interagency Task Force, which brings together city agencies, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, social service nonprofits, elected officials and neighborhood groups. According to NYU, the task force was created after advocacy by the 6th Precinct Community Council and in response to quality-of-life concerns, including from NYU faculty, staff and students.
“The progress we have seen in recent years reflects the hard work of our Elected Officials, NYU, the Village Interagency Task Force, the NYPD, the Parks Department, the District Attorney’s Office, and our city agency partners, all working to address serious public safety and quality-of-life challenges,” said Brian Maloney, co-chair of the task force, in NYU’s release.
The chorus
Gifts like this come with a chorus, and NYU’s release included one. Deputy Mayor for Operations Julia Kerson, Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura, Comptroller Mark Levine, Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, State Senator Erik Bottcher, Assembly Members Micah Lasher and Grace Lee, and Council Members Harvey Epstein and Carl Wilson all offered praise.
Mr. Hoylman-Sigal’s statement was the most pointed. “As the primary institutional user of Washington Square Park, it’s laudable that the current university administration recognizes its special responsibility,” he said. The words “current” and “responsibility” do some work in that sentence.
Mr. Levine called it “material recognition” of shared values between “one storied Greenwich Village institution” and another.
The most careful statement came from Valerie De La Rosa, chair of Manhattan Community Board 2. She called the gift “an opportunity to strengthen the maintenance and public programming.” She also said the board “remains committed to preserving the park’s historic character, advocating for public safety and inclusivity, and supporting meaningful community participation in its stewardship.”
In the Village, that is what a warm welcome sounds like.
Featured image: The Washington Square Arch. Photo by Marco Almbauer via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
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