Bryant Park

Nestled behind the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, right between Times Square and Grand Central Station, Bryant Park is a beautiful oasis in the overactive thyroid gland of Midtown Manhattan.

The fact that it's just ... there, and has been there for as long as anyone can remember, means that it's easy for most New Yorkers to take it for granted. Yet it really is a jewel and, particularly this time of year, is one of the little things that makes you grateful to live in New York.

In many ways, Bryant Park is the place that most reflects of the city. It does this in three major ways.

First, it's a place where natives and visitors alike can escape, right in the middle of the city, from their work or their trips, and take a few minutes to restore themselves. The big beautiful green space is fun to loll on and there are lots of tables and chairs for people to sit and relax on. Best of all, you can get a great look at the majestic buildings that surround the park and really get a sense of what an extraordinary city this is.

Second, Bryant Park is a place where, especially in summer and winter, New Yorkers can get together and have fun. In the summertime, on Monday evenings, HBO shows free classic movies in the open air. I've gone to the movies there a few times of the year, seeing A Streetcar Named Desire and MASH with several thousand of my fellow New Yorkers. In wintertime, Bryant Park turns into a holiday theme park. The park is taken over with small stores selling everything from candles and toys to fragrances and jewelry. In the middle of the park, the green space turns into a free ice skating rink. My wife and I went there recently (neither of us had been skating since childhood) and we had lot of fun swooshing around the (frozen) Pond. Amazingly neither of us fell down and it only made us want to skate again soon. (Warning: the line to get into the skating ring, particularly on a weekend afternoon, is incredibly long but it moves fairly fast). So in Bryant Park, New Yorkers come together to have fun in the sun and celebrate the Season.

Third, the history of Bryant Park almost reflects the history of NYC as a whole. It seems that whenever New York falls on hard times so does the park. But whenever the city resurrects itself, the park leads the way. In the 1920s, Bryant Park had fallen into ugly disrepair -- the city government under Tammany Hall let it go completely to seed. In the 1930s, however, under the WPA, the park was restored and once again became an urban refuge. By the 1970s and 1980s, however, it had once again come undone, this time becoming a playpen for drug addicts and prostitutes. In 1988 the park was closed and was renovated for four years. By the 1990s the park had once again become the beautiful space that it is today. In many ways, if you want to see how the city is doing, go to Bryant Park.