Mayor John Lindsay pulled out all the stops for the first official Earth Day on April 22, 1970, with such a show that one could be mistaken in the belief that the holiday was created here. (It was officially sanctioned in San Francisco the year before.)
In honor of the inaugural environmental holiday, Lindsay authorized Fifth Avenue closed for two hours, the streets filled with thousands of celebrants and protesters.
The event culminated in Union Square, where the mayor — along with actors like Paul Newman and Ali McGraw — spoke to encouraging crowds about a cleaner city. Fourteenth Street between Third and Seventh Avenues was also shut down for an ‘ecological carnival’, which might not sound as fun as a real carnival. Except this was 1970, after all.
Was Lindsay (left) before his time in his passion for pollution? Maybe. More likely, his constituents were.
By 1970 the mayor was attempting to appeal to the true sensibility of the urban bohemian, allowing ‘be-ins’ in Central Park and promoting a virtue of ‘Fun City’, “a phrase that embodied the hope of New Yorkers for a more livable city,” according to biographer Vincent Cannato. In fact, Earth Day was modeled after the Vietnam-era ‘teach-in’, essentially an educational outreach mixed with a smidgen of good times.
Lindsay: “[T]he city is contributing a billion dollars over the next ten years to mass transit construction. And then more, more and more we are discouraging automobile use in the central business areas.” (Look here for the rest of the interview with Lindsay in Union Square talking to NBC about the first Earth Day.)
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the pollution,” added governor Nelson Rockefeller in a speech to the crowds.
Above: Throngs enjoy a cleaner world by cramming themselves on Fifth Avenue during the city’s very first Earth Day celebration
The massive rally, with a 100,000 in attendance, reportedly left little pollution in its wake (although that seems a tad revisionist to me). Crowds occasionally attacked gas-guzzling, pollutant-making cars as they went by, and one group of demonstrators curiously dragged around a net filled with rotting fish, shouting “This could be you!”
Lindsay would later close Fifth Avenue to traffic for several weekends that summer.
Flash forward to 2019 — the city often hosts Summer Streets car-free weekend, allowing pedestrians and bikers to enjoy city streets without automobiles.
In fact, this Saturday is Car Free Earth Week, “opening thirty blocks of Broadway from Times Square to Union Square for people to explore on foot during event hours, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.” And in uptown Manhattan, Car Free Earth Day opens up 9 blocks on St. Nicholas Avenue from 181st Street to 190th Street. [More details here]
Below: This gang of adorable, broom-wielding Union Square scalawags prepare to attack the city’s grime
12 replies on “Earth Day in New York City 1970”
One of those scallywags is ME! This was the 4th grade class of The Convent of the Sacred Heart. We were sent to Union Square on a clean-up mission. I’m the one in the dark coat in front.
I was an 8th grader at Spence across the street. I have a. vivid memory of a concert and speeches afterwards at the Naumburg Bandshell behind Mother Goose Park. Does anyone else recall who would have been singing at that part of the event?
Elephant’s Memory opened for Santana on Sheep’s Meadow, unless I’m mistaken?
Lindsay didn’t “allow” Be-ins in Central Park (or Prospect Park too).
As the name suggest, they were events with no Parks permits, just people being there. Since only a hundred or so attended, I was one of them, there was no mass crowd to worry about, like at anti-war rallies.
My 4th grade class took the school bus to lower Manhattan. We had been introduced to the ecology movement. I have photos of myself at age 9 and 10 wearing my green & white buttons. We did neighborhood ecology walks picking up trash on the streets and in the parks. We ven cleaned a small lot and planted flowers.
My 4th grade class took the school bus to lower Manhattan. We had been introduced to the ecology movement. I have photos of myself at age 9 and 10 wearing my green & white buttons. We did neighborhood ecology walks picking up trash on the streets and in the parks. We even cleaned a small lot and planted flowers.
Awesome. You must have been surprised to see this again.
poggers. i was there too. so many scallywags there. i was in 5th grade. so many dimwits.
poggers. so many scallywags. i was one of them too. matthew hoz
As a soldier in training at Ft Hamilton, I rode the train up to Manhattan to join in. It was great to see that so many people had caught up to California, my home state, regarding the need to take positive action to save the earth.
I remember being at Union Sq on the first Earth Day! It was very crowded and I walked through the giant tube of clean air! There were news stations there for the big event and Gabe Pressman of NBC asked me what I thought of Earth Day! I can’t locate his several news interview on You Tube. A classmate at art school said, “There was a person interviewed on the news who had a poncho like your , long hair and aviator sunglasses like yours… was that you?” So, someone I knew saw it!
I know I was there on 5th Ave Earth Day 1970. Musta come over from Philly with friends – we were at Penn Academy of Fine Art. I was 17. I’d love to find my picture. I know its there somewhere.