Central Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, November 6, 2002

SO MUCH FUN, IT WAS SCARY!

There was something strange in the neighborhood last month as young and old came out by the thousands for the 8^th Annual Newmark Real Estate & Company, Inc.’s Great Halloween Party in Central Park. On Saturday, October 26—and in spite of early morning drizzles—a huge eerily-dressed crowd arrived at Central Park to discover that one of the world’s most famous parks had been transformed into Spook Central. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe made a special appearance—as Dracula—to lift the "spirits" and to welcome everyone to the festivities.

At Bethesda Terrace, children searched among 300 bales of hay for their favorite pumpkin—of which there were a mere 7,500 ones to choose from. After making their selection, kids could take their orange prize to a professional pumpkin Picasso who lent his skills to carve whimsical faces into the gourds. At the Nutella Costume Making venue in Cherry Hill, aspiring Ralph Laurens and Donna Karans had the chance to design their own costume using a huge selection of fabrics and their imagination. Young Edgar Allen Poes participated in storytelling activities at Parks’ Computer Resource Center (CRC) tent, and young Connie Chungs covered the festivities with digital video cameras, also from CRC.

Other attractions throughout the day included a Haunted House, The Dress Your Pet for Howl-O-Ween Contest, wacky songs by Jerry Joy Music, a wacky rockin’ musical performed by Big Nazo and his friends, interactive storytelling by the Treehouse Shakers, a puppet show, the Museum of Natural History’s Mobile Museum, nature exploration with the Urban Park Rangers, and arts & crafts booths.

This year’s Great Halloween Party in Central Park was made possible by the Newmark & Company Real Estate Inc., Nutella, The New York Post, Viacom Outdoor, WKTU, Squeez 'n Go Portable Pudding, a product of ConAgra Foods, Just Born, Au'some Candies, Tic Tac, The New York Restaurant School, Stewarts Root Beer, Cartoon Network, WGBH Boston, and the Sesame Workshop.

The Arsenal is home to many things. Those of us that work here call it home for a few hours everyday. It is the home of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s Greensward Plan for Central Park and the staff of the Central Park Zoo. Now a new member has joined our family…a screech owl. In recent weeks this furry friend has been keeping warm by nuzzling himself into the ivy that grows on the front of the Arsenal.

In 1998, the Urban Park Ranger Biodiversity Team reintroduced six Screech Owls into Central Park. Early in the fall of 2001, the biodiversity team along with Dr. William Giuliano, a Wildlife Ecologist at Fordham University, released eighteen more Screech Owls with the hopes that they would begin to breed and develop their own sustainable community. From this newest development, we can see that not only have the owls survived, they have adapted to the Central Park environment.

In the 1920s Screech Owls were one of ten species of breeding birds in Central Park. Unfortunately by the 1960s they had left the area for unknown reasons. The Parks 1998 reintroduction program, titled Project X, is virtually unheard of in urban settings. When completed, this unique research project will be published for the whole wildlife ecology community to use in their own efforts to improve biodiversity, especially in urban areas.

(Wednesday, November 15, 1989)

Parks is doing something new with the organic debris that it works so hard to remove from city parks, playgrounds and streets—putting it back where it came from.

The new $5 million Organic Recycling program will turn grass cuttings, leaves and branches into firewood, wood chips and compost which can be reused in various ways by Parks. The program, developed by the Management Planning and Forestry divisions, will be implemented in January, 1990. Parks is currently purchasing the machinery necessary for the collection and recycling of organic debris, including the splitters, a small fleet of container trucks and an array of support vehicles, according to Director of Management Planning Alexander Brash.

"I respect only those who resist me; but I cannot tolerate them."

(1890-1970)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center