Central Park has always been my favorite place too go to while in New York. I have fond memories of playing there w/ my beloved Nana.  My daughter has been there once and I have hopes too take her again, now that she’s old enough to enjoy it properly.

Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery was also designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.  It is a "park" of old growth trees, wide avenues, fallen angels, long-dead millionaires, beautiful views, and oh, blessed be, quiet.  It is so quiet, in the midst of the 12 million people of the San Francisco Bay Area, much of which you can see from the upper ridges.  Part of my spiritual practice is walking there each day to remind myself that life is fleeting, death everywhere each day among us.  In my walks, I am not alone.  Dogs, kids on bikes, noon-time exercisers from the nearby Kaiser Permanente Hospital, stray cats, dope smoking teenagers hiding behind crypts from their parents and teachers, most of whom probably walk in the Cemetery with the rest of the neighborhood… It is one of the most lively places in Oakland, and each day I thank those wonderful long-dead folks who had the presence of mind to reserve this place and hire this talented man to design it, at that time to honor their dead, but in fact is a wonderful haven for the living as well.

Central Park does it for my husband & me.  I only rode the carousel for the first time in 2006, though I lived in NJ all my life (I’m 72 years old).  I had tears in my eyes for being there & watching the children enjoying themselves.  CP IS New York City.  When one moves away to as far as Florida where we now live, we dream of all that The City holds.

Candice, do you still have the wonderful apartment on Central Park South that was shown in Architectural Digest?

I love Central Park as well, and still remember attending many a concert on the Sheep Meadow. I also love the Public Gardens in my current hometown Boston, with its swan boats, swans, Make Way for Ducklings scupltures, and wonderful landscaping.

In the 1890s Central Park was closed, because of the many murders and rapes commited there.

Wow, Albert, I didn’t know that.. I lived in the City for 15 years when I was younger and before I married.. loved every nook and cranny… ran the reservoir, went to free concerts and plays.. just the best..  luckily nothing I could be arrested for doing..