Urban Nature

Keren sunning in Retiro: by AlyshaIt is hard to picture Manhattan without Central Park. It isn’t something about which I generally give much thought, but Kunstler’s discussion of the initial planning of Central Park made me realize that I take Central Park’s existence for granted. Seen from above, Manhattan is a relatively dark grid with small parks here and there and a wonderful green rectangle right there in the middle. I do not even make it up there frequently, certainly not as often as I would like, but just knowing that I have the option to stroll around amongst the trees and water is somehow comforting. And this is coming from someone who has only ever lived in major metropolitan cities (Los Angeles, New York, Paris). I once got lost in Central Park trying to find friends throwing a Memorial Day BBQ. I believe they were on the Great Lawn, but no one could describe their specific coordinates and I wandered around until it started to get dark, at which point I anxiously worked my way to the edge of what had become an intimidating wilderness. Looking back on what at the time felt like a near-traumatic experience, I actually love the fact that there is a large enough “natural” space in the middle of Manhattan in which I can legitimately get lost. Of course, I do love a good stroll through “grid-locked,” urban Manhattan as well – especially near my house in Chelsea or in the West Village.
I was surprised to read that when Central Park was designed, there was relatively little basis for European comparison – that “the idea of a large park designed as a rambling romantic landscape was quite a novelty” at that time. I suppose Jardin du Luxemburg and Jardin des Plantes (essentially the back yard of my Paris apartment last spring) do not take up the percentage of Paris’ surface area as Central Park does within Manhattan… As Kunstler points out, “nothing like the enormous mechanistic grid of Manhattan existed in European cities either.” Really, the best comparison I noticed while abroad would probably be Madrid’s Parque del Retiro, although I suppose it is relatively small too. In fact, I have already blogged about this lovely park for the Art of Travel tutorial I took with Professor Hutkins last spring (http://www.placeandliterature.com/node/5473). It was a beautiful sunny day (the weather in Madrid was infinitely better than it had been in Paris at the beginning of March 2008), and I walked up the broad, largely commercial Gran Via, which felt like an equivalent to a combination of Broadway and 5th Avenue, to Retiro to meet friends for wine in the park. Retiro was even described to me as the Central Park of Madrid, and perhaps this description defends Central Park the definitive natural space among an urban landscape… or maybe it was because Americans were making the comparison

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