Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

"Private Companies are Stealing Public Parks" (Finsbury Park included)

A good article here covering the ongoing issues with Finsbury Park. 

Novara may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the piece is useful.

For those who take the view that the money being raised has transformed the park, here's an image of the park's sole source of publicly available drinking water... primarily for the dogs but their owners graciously let humans use it in case of emergency.

Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park festivals

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Yet another illustration of how things in public life seem to be going backwards.

Despite your photo, everyone knows that FP has over the last 4-5 years massively improved.  It’s safer, cleaner and has better facilities than its ever had.  This has been achieved despite the cost of living crisis and financial pressures on our councils.  How?  Has the money grown on the park’s trees?  Many locals, like me and my family, welcome the festivals for the money they provide our community with, and in their own right as cultural events for London’s young people.  

I'm curious, how does "everyone" think it's improved? I see closed toilets due to poor maintenance, missing park benches, dying trees, untended flower beds, rough rutted areas where there used to be grass and most recently, one of the more bio diverse areas being treated with air blades to alleviate soil  compaction. 

I'm not anti concert but I am anti bad management and the parks management has taken a nose dive over the past few years.

You probably don't have children - the Park now has fantastic play areas with really great equipment. Just visit the other playgrounds Haringey to see how much better FP is. And thanks to the Friends of FP all the money can only be spent  in FP whereas before it was shared around. Nowadays said "friends" just spend their time moaning about anything fun or which might attract young people that might happen in the Park (plus they complain far more about Wireless than any of the other events of the same size like Pulp for eg). They are also massively unrepresentative of the local demographic. 

By "massively unrepresentative of the local demographic" you mean there are not enough black people or young black people involved in the FoFP.! There seems to be an effort to portray the friends as racist. The article referenced inclides this quote:

“I know that in closed council circles, FoFP is classed as classist and racist” for opposing events like Wireless, “a lot of [whose] audience is Black.”

This is simply not true and an attempt to use dog whistle politics to silence a group of fine people doing their best to hold the council to account over legitimate concerns. As far as I know anyone from any background can join the Friends.

They can indeed however I can see why the young people I know don't think the organisation as currently constituted is for them. I doubt any of the members are deliberately racist or classist or ageist.  It's also absolutely the case that the complaints about Wireless were significantly more than those about Pulp or the Krankbrothers events. I suppose it could just be coincidence that the respective audiences are very different in age and racial mix. I agree that there are concerns on noise and environmental issues but the level of hyperbole from FoFP and Haringey Tree Protectors is counter-productive.

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