When our suburban friends tell us about how much space they have in their homes and how m much grass they have in their backyard, us city folk often counter with how wonderful Central Park is and how much lush grass there is. We tell them that we hardly feel like we’re in a city with all the parks we have!

Whether or not that is true is up to the individual. At New York Events, we have office outings to parks all the time and completely content not being in the suburbs. Central Park is awesome but we love sitting in Bryant Park in the summer. While Monday movies are great, there is nothing like mid-afternoon people watching. We think that it captures all the hustle and bustle of midtown in a setting that is relatively removed from the madness.

As much as we enjoy Bryant Park, we like to know its history. As we’ve told you many times about many places on here, we like to explore history and understand what we’re doing and what happened there in the past. Thinking of Bryant Park, we know that it wasn’t always as safe, groomed and passed through by the public as it once was. In fact, it was once known as ‘Needle Park’ in the 70’s. Not good.

There weren’t always chess matches, ping pong and every random activity taking place. There was a dark side. And, consistent with our love of horror movies, we appreciate the dark side (though we don’t want to live it!). How can you find out more? Knowing us and what we do, there’s an event for that!

Bryant Park offers a FREE public tour of the park and will tell you all about its history and how it came to be the place you go to get away. Its only 45 minutes so you’ll be out of there before your lunch break ends.

If you enjoy sitting on those green seats, you may enjoy it more if you know how it all came to be. For more information, visit BryantPark.org.

And cheers to a more informed New Yorker!

@newyorkeventsco