New York City’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, is calling on New Yorkers to protest a Parks Department proposal that would virtually eliminate large-scale gatherings on Central Park’s Great Lawn.

On May 20, the department will hold public hearings on the proposal, which would limit the number of events with more than 50,000 attendees to six per year. Annual performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera would consume four of the six permits; the remaining events would be governed by seasonal constraints, limited to a brief span in August and September.

While Ms. Gotbaum said she believed restrictions were being implemented to protect the park’s grass – which massive gatherings in the past have stomped down to the dirt – the former parks commissioner said: “We have to protect the rights of people to demonstrate.” She said that the issue of mass gatherings on the Great Lawn had become contentious in light of last year’s saga surrounding United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war group that fought unsuccessfully to stage a massive protest during the Republican National Convention in August.

A spokesman for the Parks Department, Warner Johnston, however, said yesterday that the strictures are designed to protect the Great Lawn for “passive-use patrons.” Central Park has other venues that “are more appropriate for this type of activity,” he said, adding that United for Peace and Justice will be staging a May Day rally this Sunday at the park’s ball fields.

Mr. Johnston also said that since 1997, when the Great Lawn was rehabilitated at a cost of $24 million, there have been only five events beyond the traditional performances by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic that have drawn crowds in excess of 50,000.

Ms. Gotbaum, however, maintained that the decision was an infringement on New Yorkers’ rights to free assembly. She also questioned why the Parks Department hadn’t been more open about the proposal.

Ms. Gotbaum said she first learned of the suggested restrictions two weeks ago, when her staff came across them while looking through The City Record.

Since “no one reads” that official journal, Ms. Gotbaum said, the Parks Department’s quietly slipping the proposal and information about the May 20 hearing into the pages The City Record “implies a stealthiness that really upsets me.”

Had attention not been called to the hearing, the public advocate added, the regulations could have been enacted without public awareness and input. “So I’m calling on New Yorkers to protest,” she said.

“People should go to the hearing, they should contact our office, contact City Hall, contact everyone,” Ms. Gotbaum said. “They should say they believe it’s wrong to restrict the use of the park in the way they’re trying to do it.”

Ms. Gotbaum added that limiting use of the Great Lawn should be left to the parks commissioner, who already has discretion in determining which events can be held in Central Park, rather than enshrining the restrictions in law.

“Let the commissioner decide – that’s what a commissioner is hired for,” she said.