Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Friday, December 30, 2005

Happy New Year!

This weekend marks the 53^rd and final weekend of 2005, and Parks & Recreation invites you to send the year out with a bang.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks over Prospect Park
The 24^th Annual Prospect Park New Year’s Eve fireworks display will get underway at midnight on Sunday, January 1. The display will be shot off from the northern part of Prospect Park’s Long Meadow in Brooklyn, framing the glorious Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza. The best vantage points to see the fireworks are inside the park near the Park Drives. Enter at Grand Army Plaza, Garfield Place, or Third Street on Prospect Park West. You can also catch great views from nearby streets, and some rooftops in Prospect Heights and Park Slope will provide up-close looks at the spectacle.

Immediately after the fireworks, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will be officially sworn in for his second term. The ceremony and fireworks are free and open to the public.

Emerald Nuts Midnight Run
If you’re in Manhattan on New Year’s, you can catch a view of some of the first fireworks of 2006 at Central Park’s Cherry Hill. New York Road Runners will host the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run, an annual New Year’s Eve event in Central Park, which will kick-off at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 31 with music and dancing at the Bandshell. A costume parade and contest will take place at 11:00 p.m., followed by the midnight fireworks display to start the 4-mile run.

Fireworks will be shot from Cherry Hill; the race will begin and end on the 72^nd Street transverse. A post-race awards ceremony will conclude the evening. The event is free for spectators; however, runners must pre-register with Road Runners at http://www.nyrr.org/.

Correction: Yesterday’s Plant incorrectly stated that Bloomingdale Playground is located in Brooklyn; it is, in fact, in Manhattan. And, though the exact origin of the name Bloomingdale Park in Staten Island is unclear, the Manhattan title is an adaptation of the Dutch word bloemendael or bloomendal, meaning "vale of flowers." The name reflected the geography of the area before it was leveled and developed; the spelling was later Anglicized to Bloomingdale.

Though Bush-Clinton playground takes its name from adjacent streets, then-Commissioner Henry J. Stern chose the title as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Bush-Clinton election of 1992.

The creator of Charlie Brown was Charles (nor Carl) Schultz.

"Create each day anew."

Morihei Ueshiba
(1883-1969)