Muggers' First Prize

Everybody loves a park, right? No longer. In deteriorating, tension-ridden cities, parks are becoming as popular as pigeons. Writing in the current Public Interest, Donald Simon, a former New York City parks official, tells how communities are shunning parks and turning down proposals for new ones. They have often become the most dangerous areas of the city, 24-hour-a-day roosts for the criminal population.

New York City rehabilitated Fort Greene Park of Brooklyn, but restorations made by day were vandalized by night. Residents finally advised the city to stop adding amenities, such as bronze ornaments. "It would be like throwing them in the East River," a citizen warned. Rochdale Park in Queens won several awards because of its multilevel design; muggers also gave the project first prize, since it allowed them to prey on residents without being observed.

Park users petitioned the city to flatten the masterpiece to make it safe. The city has been slow to respond for lack of money. So the park has been added to New York's fast-spreading urban desert.

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