Culture Chronicle

Lincoln Center Updates Plaza and Maybe Its Liability
The New York Times - May 20, 2010
By Robin Pogrebin

In the brightness of morning, when the sun glints off the gushing fountain, or at twilight, as people cross the travertine on their way to performances, the plaza at Lincoln Center can be one of New York's tranquil oases.

Unless, of course, you're an insurance executive who sees instead the potential orthopedic calamity created by the convergence of splashing water, polished stone and big crowds. People fall down at Lincoln Center once in a while, just as they do at shopping malls and sports arenas and many other great public spaces in New York.

But if someone were to slip, say, on the steps at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the walkways of the New York Botanical Garden, or the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum, New York City would not have primary liability even though it owns the land.

Thirty-two of the 33 cultural organizations that operate in city-owned buildings or on city-owned land have long agreed to indemnify the city against liability for slips and falls and other stumbles.

Only Lincoln Center has not been governed by that policy.

But now the city is demanding that Lincoln Center join the others in assuming liability for its public spaces, a change that the institution is strenuously resisting. The shift would cost money at a time of budget challenges -- by one estimate, at least $1.4 million a year, though precisely how much is unclear. For the full article, click here