Manhattan - Day 17

I took a meeting today - in the park. It was a lovely afternoon, a gentle breeze blowing, not to hot not to cool so rather than sit at the desk and discuss the affairs of the Lincoln Street Center for Arts and Education, I caught a train uptown and found myself a chair in Bryant Park. Hey, there must be something to this park karma because I learned during the call that for the first time in some time Rockland's Community Arts Organization is in the black.

Bryant Park is nine acres located between fifth and sixth avenues and 40th and 42nd streets. It was a potter's field from 1823 to 1840. The city subsequently constructed the Croton Distributing Reservoir on the eastern portion while the western side became a public park named Reservoir Square. The park was renamed for William Cullen Bryant in 1884. In 1899 the city demolished the reservoir and replaced it with the New York Public Library which was completed in 1911. Off and on over the years the park was a haven for the homeless, alcoholics, panhandlers and prostitutes. During the finically trying 70's the park became known as Needle Park because of its resident drug dealers. In 1979 the trustees of the New York Public Library and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation formed a private nonprofit organization (now the Bryant Park Corporation) to privately mange the park. The program remains controversial to this day but it's hard to argue with the results.