A Tale of Two Parks in Cities Struck by Tragedy

Doug Blonsky is an old hand at starting over. Back in 1980, when he became president of the Central Park Conservancy, the park was in shambles, and people avoided setting foot on its soil for fear of being mugged. “Central Park was in its worst condition,” he said, “and so was the city. When the park was a wreck, people didn’t want to bring their families.” Two decades’ worth of fund raising and redevelopment later, the park teems with children and counts as the city’s second most popular tourist attraction, outranked only by Times Square.