NEW YORK — A renewed push to install permanent gates at Washington Square Park that could be locked at night is sparking controversy between those who see it as an effective way to enforce the existing midnight curfew and others who see it as a violation of the Greenwich Village park’s spirit.

The gates would replace the jumble of interlocking, metal police “French barricades” that have been used since 2021, which cops need to drag into place every night.

The idea will be considered tonight at a public meeting of the local community board’s Parks and Waterfront Committee. Representatives of the Parks Department, the Washington Square Park Conservancy — now the park’s de facto operator — the Sixth Precinct and the Landmarks Preservation Commission reportedly will all be in attendance.

“Years ago this was a very controversial topic,” said Susanna Aaron vice chair of the Community Board’2 Parks and Waterfront Committee. “I don’t know if it’s still controversial. We’ve gone through COVID. We’ve gone through the post-COVID extravaganza — we’ve had mayhem in the park. The park exploded. We had overdose deaths in the park, at least one. A lot has happened.

“The French barricades used now, in addition to being ugly, it’s hard to keep them in place. People move them. They just don’t work effectively.”

But the idea of gates is anathema to some as the world-renowned park is famed for its freewheeling spirt and openness. Efforts to gate the park in the past have failed to win the full support of the surrounding Greenwich Village community and Community Board 2. When a fence was installed around the park 15 years ago as part of the park’s renovation, gates had been designed for it — but ultimately weren’t installed.

“Washington Square Park’s openness isn’t a maintenance detail, it’s central to the park’s identity,” said Erika Sumner, president of the Washington Square Association. “Once gates go up, they rarely come down. Any structural changes deserve full transparency and real community input.”

“The data show targeted enforcement is working,” Sumner said. “Crime is down, and residents tell us consistently that the northwest corner feels safer than it has ever been.”

This latest pitch is dubbed a “discussion” rather than a plan, for now at least. If the parks and waterfront committee votes “in support of the concept” of adding gates, and the full board follows suit, it will set the “discussion” into motion toward becoming a plan.

There is precedent. In the 19th century, Washington Square Park did sport permanent gates. According to a Parks spokesperson, the Greenwich Village greensward — which will celebrate its 200th anniversary next year — had fixed gates from the 1820s to early 1870s, when the Fifth Ave. roadway was extended through the park.

More recently, closing the park at night became a dilemma as the COVID pandemic waned and it became a gathering spot for young people to blow off steam, often into the wee hours, with raucous raves to amplified music, occasionally punctuated by booming fireworks — to the annoyance of neighbors trying to sleep. Single chains which had been slung across the entrances at night, and were easily stepped over, were replaced with the movable barriers.

Meanwhile, anti-police activists clashed with cops trying to enforce the curfew and close the park. And the park’s northwest corner devolved into an open-air drug den, where fentanyl and crack were openly sold and used.

At an April 8 meeting of the local Community Board’s Parks and Waterfront Committee, its chairperson, Rich Caccappolo, said both the 6th Precinct and neighbors had been asking the community board to revisit the idea: police want the gates so that the park is firmly closed at night, while some neighbors prefer the gate’s aesthetic look to the collection of movable barricades.

With gates, there would be no misunderstanding about being in the park after hours — and violators could get slapped with up to a $75 fine. Currently, a person can say a movable barrier had been pushed open when they got there, and so the park did not appear closed. Another question is how the area in front of the Washington Square Arch could be closed at night. The fenceless stretch outside the arch is wider than Fifth Ave. itself.

A spokeperson for the NYC Parks Department says it will be at the meeting to listen and answer questions.

“Parks will not be presenting (a plan) and is attending solely to hear from the community,” the Parks spokesperson said. “Currently, there is no proposal for installing gates from Parks or the Conservancy.

“If the Committee and full community board ultimately support the idea of installing gates, we would then determine next steps.”

A park regular, Michael Foster, aka “The Philosophy Guy,” who preaches against replacing human thinking with apps, said people might not notice if permanent gates are added — unless the mistake is made of posting “CLOSED” on them.

“Sooner or later, people will get used to it,” he said. “But if they put ‘OPEN’ and ‘CLOSED’ on it, people aren’t gonna like it.”

Wednesday night’s meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at NYU’s Gould Welcome Center, at 50 W. 4th St., People can also attend via Zoom.

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.