Whose Park Is It? Residents and Revelers Clash Over Washington Square.

As the pandemic eases, the park has attracted crowds of young people who regard it as a place to let loose. Residents say the scene is out of control.

Erika Sumner stood on the steps of her house this month with her pet parrot perched on her head and surveyed the scene across the street, the entrance to Washington Square Park, as if assessing the damage left by a tornado. The park’s iconic Roman arch had been scrawled over, the fountain gurgled with some kind of detergent stuffed in one of its nozzles, and glass shards, needles and pizza boxes littered the ground. Just a day and a half earlier, late on a Saturday night, the police had swarmed around the marble arch to start clearing the park of partying visitors who had overstayed a new 10 p.m. curfew. But the revelers, many dancing and drinking as music boomed from amplifiers, did not want to leave.