Every night from midnight to 6 a.m., New York City's Washington Square Park — one of the most visited public spaces in the country — is closed off using French police barricades cross-chained together. They are widely agreed to be ugly, difficult to manage, and ineffective. Residents have shared photos of people sleeping overnight on mattresses inside the park despite the closures.

It is time to replace them with proper locked gates that actually work.

At a community meeting this week, local residents, a landscape architect, and the Washington Square Association all expressed support for gates that better reflect the park's history and character. The Washington Square Association's president put it plainly: the community is "not anti-gate" and believes the city should find more effective ways to support the NYPD in managing the park at night.

The idea of installing gates is not new — the Parks Department considered it in 2005. The barricade system that replaced that plan has had two decades to prove itself. It hasn't.

Washington Square Park deserves infrastructure that is dignified, functional, and worthy of one of New York City's most iconic public spaces.

Sign this petition to urge the NYC Parks Department and the Mayor's office to move forward with a plan to install proper locked gates at Washington Square Park.