# Central Park questions for NYC Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 3, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/central-park-questions-for-nyc-dopers/654706 "2013-04-03T04:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/central-park-questions-for-nyc-dopers/654706/21 "2013-04-04T15:05:25Z")
When I lived in Manhattan I used to run in CP almost every morning. Lived few blocks away on 62nd street and just go straight to 5th Avenue and through Zoo all the way up to and around reservoir and back. First of all, the warmer it gets the more crowded it is - if you like running alone with only trees around - not going to happen - it’s sometimes hundreds of people running in the same direction as you are. Also, you have to watch when you are in a bike/run shared lane - it gets dangerous at times as bikers zoom very fast. But, it’s a freakin’ Central Park so it was always greatest thing ever. I’ll be coming back to NYC this year so definitely one thing to look forward to. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/central-park-questions-for-nyc-dopers/654706/22 "2013-04-04T18:04:26Z")
As an adult without kids I’d use the park for bicycling the loop road and free Central Park Summerstage concerts. It’s great riding on a nice road with no worries about traffic. Now that I have kids, we go ice skating at Lasker rink and walk back down through the woods and ballfields, we go sledding, go to the zoo, playgrounds, just mess around randomly, and bike rides consist of riding a few hundred yards and me staying with the bikes while the girls go climb on rocks or whatever. We go a few times a month on average. It’s definitely one of the best things about the city as far as I’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/central-park-questions-for-nyc-dopers/654706/23 "2013-04-04T19:14:31Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Yeah. The first thing to understand about NYC is that it’s not like those movies you saw in the 70s and 80s. No, it’s not. It’s much, much safer. But I spent lots of time in Central Park in the 70s. I went to high school a block from the park, so naturally, after school, we’d all head over there. Typically a bunch of guys from my school (an all-male high school) would meet a bunch of girls from a nearby girls’ high school at a particular spot (under the statue of Alexander Hamilton, near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for anyone who’s familar with the park). Sometimes, if there were school events in the evening, we’d go there after those events, and hang out in the park after dark. We were pretty oblivious to the dangers of the park, and the city, in those days. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/central-park-questions-for-nyc-dopers/654706/24 "2013-04-04T21:13:52Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Are there rats there at night? The only time I’ve seen rats is right after the hurricane when the rats all got flushed out of the subway system. > [@](#): > > Is it easy to get lost there? Useful tip: If you see a lamp post, look for a label on it. “E6501” means you’re on the east side of the park, at 65th street (the 01 is just a sequence number as far as I can tell – if there are two lamp posts in the area they’ll be E6501 and E6502). Once someone told me that, I got lost so much less often. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/central-park-questions-for-nyc-dopers/654706.md?page=1)