Musical Math: The New York Philharmonic Times Dave Matthews Equals Joan Baez

The thing with so-called “grass experts” is that they’ll tell you whatever you want to hear:

A First Amendment lawsuit over the rights of protesters to rally at Central Park could turn, in part, on the lawn care strategies of dueling turf management experts.

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At the heart of the case is the city’s claim that an anti-war protest is likely to cause damage to the lawn of the same magnitude as a rock and roll concert where the audience is standing and stamping its feet. The experts were called on to discuss whether the audiences of the regular Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera performances at the Great Lawn affect the grass any differently than would concertgoers at a Dave Matthews Band or Joan Baez show.

In a deposition, whose transcript is more than 200 pages long, the city’s expert witness, A. Martin Petrovic, a professor of turfgrass science at Cornell University, said events such as rock concerts and war protests should be considered “high-impact events” for the potential they have to damage a grassy field.

Other events, such as outdoor symphony performances, should be classified as “passive” because they would likely take less of a toll on the grass, Mr. Petrovic, who was part of the team that renovated the Great Lawn in the 1990s said.

The theory has come under attack by a lawyer for the National Council of Arab Americans, an organization that was denied an event permit for an anti-war rally in 2004. The lawyer, Carl Messineo, argues that Mr. Petrovic’s reasoning doesn’t shed much light on whether his group’s proposed rally would have harmed the lawn. In the deposition, Mr. Messineo tested the limits of Mr. Petrovic’s distinction.

“Do you agree, is it your hypothesis that, for example a Joan Baez concert would not likely be a passive event,” Mr. Messineo, asked Mr. Petrovic at the 2005 deposition.

Mr. Petrovic said he could not answer the question as he had seen only an indoor performance by the folksinger.

Mr. Messineo pressed on, asking whether an outdoor anti-war concert by Pete Seeger would do damage to the Great Lawn.

Mr. Petrovic’s response was inconclusive.

“Could he stir the crowd to be very flamboyant? I don’t know,” Mr. Petrovic said.