Whether it excites or enrages you, the prospect of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani becoming the city’s 111th mayor would open the door to transformation of our political landscape. And that transformation should start with a Mayor Mamdani tearing down the most significant symbolic barrier separating city government from the public: the fencing, gates, and police perimeter Rudy Giuliani installed to wall off City Hall and turn it into a fortress.
Those in New York in the 1990s may remember the area in front of City Hall as a vibrant public square. Energized by the 1989 reorganization of city government that expanded and empowered the City Council, the plaza and steps were a hotbed of civic engagement.
There were easy interactions with city officials entering and leaving the building; rallies, leafleting, other types of protest; and people just hanging out. Anyone could freely enter the area from Broadway to the west, Park Row to the east, and City Hall Park from the south. As a young lawyer at the New York Civil Liberties Union, I was there often.
Of course, there was security, with building entrances manned by NYPD officers and equipped with metal detectors. But that left the steps and plaza free to the public and did so without problem.
That freedom ended as Giuliani was facing withering criticism in the late 1990s for his heavy-handed mayoralty, and I was centrally involved in fighting the crackdown. It started in July 1998 when the city denied a request by Housing Works, a prominent AIDS-advocacy organization harshly critical of the Giuliani administration, to hold a press conference on the City Hall steps with more than 25 people, a limit the NYPD claimed was in effect for all events on the steps.
That claim could not be squared with the NYPD’s history of allowing much larger events, including a May 1998 event honoring a Yankees pitcher. And the department’s contention the 25-person limit was necessary to avoid blocking the building entrance was absurd given the broad expanse of the steps.
We sued, pointed to the history of larger events, and provided the federal judge with photos of the steps with 25 people. He had no trouble rejecting the city’s claims, and Housing Works had its press conference to announce a report denouncing Giuliani’s failure to provide essential AIDS services.
The following month Giuliani used the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa as an excuse to close the steps and plaza to all protests, to bar the public from the area, and to install concrete barriers around the perimeter. The fraud in his invocation of terrorism on another continent was revealed when Giuliani hosted an October rally on the steps and in the plaza for 5,000 people to celebrate the Yankees having won the World Series.
Housing Works then sought permission for a rally with no more than 50 people on the steps to commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. Notwithstanding the Yankees rally, the NYPD denied the application, claiming the Housing Works event would pose unacceptable risks. We again sued, and we again won. Perfectly reflecting Giuliani’s bunker mentality, the NYPD had a huge presence, including sharpshooters on City Hall’s roof.
After this second round of litigation, the city agreed to allow rallies of up to 300 people on the steps or in the plaza, and that regime has been in place for 25 years. But it never reopened the area to the public. Instead, the concrete barriers became iron fences, with police guard houses and entry gates at Broadway and Park Row and then interior police metal-detector checkpoints before one makes it onto the plaza or steps.
Those participating in rallies have to navigate this gauntlet, and those rallies take place with no audience. Members of the public have no access to the area unless they have business inside City Hall and are left peering through iron fences, locked gates, and armed cops.
This assault on democracy must end, and now is the time. Protecting government officials inside City Hall can be readily accomplished as it had been with appropriate security at building entrances. But there’s no legitimate reason to lock the public out of the plaza in front of the building.
The Mamdani campaign has energized people about the promise of government, and restoring the area in front of City Hall as a civic space would be a powerful way to honor that promise.
Dunn is the former legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
