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June 5, 2005
Central Park
even though i'm living on the 17th floor of my building, it amazes me how noisy this city is. people abuse their car horns here in New York City almost as much as they do in India! okay, i'll qualify that: in India, i think horn honking may be the national performance art form; in New York, it's just a reflexive arm spasm.
anyway, this makes the lovely and justifiably famous Central Park all that much more an oasis of calm and relative quiet. it's enormous enough that all those Manhattanites can spread themselves out, so unless you count getting briefly steamrolled by a herd of field-tripping junior highers, it feels much less crowded than the streets.
i've been in Central Park many times; probably every one of my trips to New York includes a stop there. it's a familiar sight in movies, and the recent Christo & Jeanne-Claude installation "The Gates" put it in the global spotlight earlier this year. however, it wasn't until this visit that i actually learned about the history of the park, which has given me a much deeper appreciation.
Central Park is more than just nice place to walk -- it is a true redemption story. it used to be an enormous rocky swamp, and if not for a staggering half-million cubic feet of topsoil carted in from New Jersey, there would be no trees, no plants there at all. just getting it built was a miracle of perseverance, due to engineering difficulties and political corruption. then, in the last hundred years, the park has gone through at least three cycles of awful decline, followed by restoration, usually thanks to the vision of one or a few determined souls.
nowadays, Central Park has a conservancy that contracts with New York City to keep it the lovely haven that it is. talking to random locals there enjoying the greenery, i get a sense that they view it as their personal park, and take great pride and pleasure in it.
i guess this makes me a temporary local.
Posted by hadashi at June 5, 2005 2:34 AM
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