Editorial Page

MIKE'S HEAVY GREEN THUMB

May 16, 2005 -- What's up with Mayor Mike and . . . plants?

Not only is Bloomberg trying to claim Central Park as a front yard for him and his Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic friends — ostensibly to protect the grass.

Now he wants to rope off another cherished proletariat refuge: Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village — seemingly in deference to . . . daffodils.

Really: A plan in the works calls for a four-foot granite and iron fence, as part of a $16 million makeover for the site.

Its chief goal is to keep people and animals away from the flowers. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled to vote on the plan tomorrow.

In Central Park, Hizzoner and FOMs (Friends of Mike) claim they want to safeguard the Great Lawn's Kentucky bluegrass from the stomping feet of New York's, well . . . grassroots.

(That is . . . you.)

So they're moving to cap large events at six a year, with four for the Met and Philharmonic. No more than 50,000 people would be able to share the space at a time. Not even for mass protests by wacky lefties. Or . . . plant-lovers.

But fencing off Washington Square Park — and actually padlocking it at night — will change its whole character.

"They're taking away a lot of its charm and freedom," says Carol Massa, who heads a civic group there. "It's overkill."

Erica Roedder, an NYU philosophy grad student, praises the park's virtue as a place for "making out."

Let's be perfectly clear: We're the last ones to oppose development and changes that improve New York venues.

If Mayor Mike wants to add a little grass to a cement plaza or fix up cracked pavements, who could complain?

But an iron fence and lock?

Doesn't this billionaire from Boston have any clue about Washington Square Park's history and its Greenwich Village surroundings?

It's not exactly temperamental tulip territory, after all.

Or a place for . . . shrinking violets, literal or figurative.

Just the opposite: The park — 24/7 carnival in the shadow of NYU, might be more accurate — is the capital of Bohemia, USA. It's an eclectic bastion of street entertainers, students, musicians, speechmakers, dogwalkers, skateboarders, chess players — you name it.

Yes, there's the inevitable drug dealer.

But crime overall isn't really the problem, according to the Parks Department. And a fence may well discourage the park's openness and let-loose feel. (It might even encourage crime, by making it seem more secluded for criminals.)

Mayor Mike's got to stop thinking of Gotham as his personal rose garden, to be spruced up in ways befitting his gazillionaire circles.

Washington Square and Central Park belong to the people of New York.

They don't need fences — even if the morning glories do.