{"id":1591,"date":"2007-08-29T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2007-08-30T03:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.wend.ca\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2020-06-19T21:25:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T01:25:17","slug":"central-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=1591","title":{"rendered":"Central Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The photo right is of Central Park in New York taken from midway up the Rockefeller Center<\/a>. As I stood and stared at the massive 800 acre green space that is Central Park I couldn’t help but wonder how New York managed to hold onto and preserve such a large chunk of Manhattan as park space without losing it to developers (a lesson Calgary could learn).<\/p>\n

This is even more amazing when you look in all other directions from atop the Rockefeller Center and see urban jungle in all directions.<\/p>\n

What many don’t know is Central Park is entirely man-made. The park was built atop undeveloped and unwanted swamp land considered unsuitable for “civilized” development; though in reality the area was a shanty town for many of the city’s poor Irish, Germans and Afro American shanty dwellers who were displaced when construction began.<\/p>\n

Central Park’s concept came about during a time when it was fashionable for cities to have large landscaped parks and it was considered the next step in New York’s evolution to create a landscaped green space that rivalled those found in many European cities.<\/p>\n

Other things you may or may not know about Central Park:<\/p>\n