My fascination with city parks began in the 1960s when my friends and I would take the subway from our Queens neighborhood into Manhattan and walk up Fifth Avenue through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today, New York City’s newest park, The High Line, is a success beyond the wildest expectations of everyone involved with creating this improbable park on an old, abandoned, elevated railroad bed. These days, I have opportunities to walk through and photograph the parks in New York while visiting my sisters and my daughter.
Like Paris, New York offers many cultural diversions and visitors often miss the wonderful parks that provide green oases in that huge city. When I drive down from Boston, I like to stop at the New York Botanical Garden or Wave Hill – that green paradise atop the cliffs along the Hudson. From my daughter’s apartment, I can walk over to the Hudson River and join the parade of people on the Hudson River Esplanade and walk all the way down to Battery Park at the end of Manhattan. I have even jumped onto the Staten Island Ferry at 7 am on a chilly March Saturday morning for the glorious view of the city from the water.
I created my show on New York City’s Green Spaces to share my enthusiasm for the city parks. Like many big cities, New York has been adding new parks and maintaining its old gems with very creative public-private partnerships. I enjoy sharing my favorite spots with audiences so they can visit these amazing spaces on their next trip to the Big Apple.