Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre (42,000 m²) public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is rectangular in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A. St. Marks Place abuts the park to the west. An Australian park A park is any of a number of geographic features. ... Alphabet City, formerly considered a slum, is now a trendy part of the East Village in lower Manhattan, New York City. ... Avenue A from Tompkins Square Park The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. ... A borough IPA: (  listen) is a political division originally used in England. ... Manhattan is an island bordering the lower Hudson River. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... St. ...

Tompkins Square Park is named for Daniel D. Tompkins (1774–1825), Vice President of the United States under President James Monroe and the Governor of New York from 1807 until 1817. The park was landscaped by 1850 and has been a public park since the late 1870s. Portrait of U.S. Vice President Daniel D Tompkins Daniel D[ecius?] Tompkins (June 21, 1774 – June 11, 1825) was entrepreneur, jurist, Congressman, Governor of New York, and the sixth Vice President of the United States. ... The Vice President of the United States is the second-highest executive official of the United States government, the person who is, in the words of Adlai Stevenson, a heartbeat from the presidency. ... James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth (1817–1825) President of the United States. ... This is a list of the Governors of New York. ... 1850 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Events and Trends Technology The invention of the telephone (1876) by Alexander Graham Bell. ...

The park has long been a center for political activism and was the site of demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. It is also the place where Indian Sadhu A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada came to sing and preach in 1965, which began the worldwide Hare Krishna movement. A plaque was established in the park several years ago. Yet by the 1980s Tompkins Square Park had become for many New Yorkers synonomous with the city's increased social problems. The park at that time was a high-crime area that contained encampments of homeless people, and it was a center for illegal drug dealing and heroin use. The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or Viet Cong) against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and their allies — notably the United States military in support of... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... In Hinduism, a sadhu is a common term for a renounced ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (pleasure), artha (wealth and power) and even dharma (duty). ... Srila Prabhupada under a painting of Krishna A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (September 1, 1896–November 14, 1977) was born Abhay Charan De, in Calcutta, West Bengal. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... The words Hare Krishna are part of a mantra comprised of Sanskrit names of God in the vocative case. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 60s and 70s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... A homeless American. ... Heroin or diacetylmorphine (INN) (colloquially referred to as brown sugar, junk, babania, horse, golden brown, smack (for the sound made when a user slaps an arm to find a vein), black tar, montega, H, big H, lady H, dope, skag, juice, jude, diesel, boy, etc. ...

In August 1988, riots erupted in the park when police attempted to clear the park of homeless people; 44 people were injured. Bystanders as well as homeless people and political activists got caught up in the police brutality that took place on the night of August 6 to 7th, after a large number of police surrounded the park and charged at the hemmed-in crowd while other police ordered all pedestrians not to walk on streets neighboring the park. Much of the violence was videotaped and clips were shown on local TV news reports (notably including one by a man who sat on his stoop across the street from the park and continued to film while a police officer beat him up), but ultimately, although at least one case went to trial, no police officers were punished. 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the rock band Riot see Riot (the band) Riots in Newark, New Jersey Riots occur when crowds of people have gathered and are committing crimes or acts of violence. ... Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, and verbal attacks and threats by police officers. ... Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording television pictures and accompanying sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ...

Increasing gentrification in the East Village during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as enforcement of a park curfew and the eviction of homeless people, have changed the character of Tompkins Square Park. The park was closed and refurbished in the early 1990s and today, with its playgrounds and busy basketball courts, Tompkins Square Park is no longer considered dangerous. This once impoverished part of Jersey Citys historic downtown is quickly becoming gentrified. ... Basketball is very popular in U.S. colleges. ...

The outdoor drag festival Wigstock, held in the park, is now part of the Howl Festival. That summertime festival also features one day of the two days of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, a musical tribute to a famous former resident of Avenue B. There is also an annual "Riot Reunion" concert every summer that features the neighborhood punk-rock band Leftover Crack. Drag in its broadest sense means a costume or outfit that carries symbolic significance, but usually refers to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of the other gender. ... Wigstock is an annual outdoor drag festival that began in the 1980s in New Yorks East Village. ... Howl and Other Poems was published in the fall of 1956 as number four in the Pocket Poets Series from City Lights Books Howl is a poem by Allen Ginsberg that was first performed in 1955 in the Six Gallery in San Francisco. ... Charlie Parker Charles Parker, Jr (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. ... Alphabet City, formerly considered a dangerous slum, is now a trendy part of the East Village in lower Manhattan. ... Leftover Crack is a band that rose from the remains of the seminal ska/punk band Choking Victim, which released a small number of very-low budget albums in the mid-90s. ...

The Tompkins Square Dog Run was recently named by Dog Fancy magazine as one of the top five dog parks in the United States. Dog Fancy is a monthly magazine dedicated to dogs, owners of dogs, and breeders of dogs. ...

External links

• Tompkins Square Park information at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website
• Letter from Tompkins Square Park
• The History of the Tompkins Square Police Riot, an archive of WBAI radio station
• Howl Festival
• Tompkins Square Dog Run : First Run