For as long as I can remember, New York’s Central Park was considered to be a deathtrap at night. What caused this bad reputation to spring up? Is it a sort of urban legend caused by a few incidents, or is it an accurate assesment?
Have you been there? It’s pretty large. It isn’t a postage stamp urban park where you can see all of it from the street. Lots of places where crime could be hidden from view. I never felt at risk during the day but I think you’d be foolish to walk in any large urban park at night. Also keep in mind NYC used to have a much higher crime rate than it does now.
Well there was the “Central Park Jogger” incident as well as other incidences of wilding during the 80’s. There was also the sexual assaults during the Puerto Rican Day parade. Central Park at night was alot worse during the 80’s than today but then crime as a whole is also down. But it really acquired it’s rep before the 90’s. Central park is the urban mugger’s dream at night. Night cover, tree cover, few people and it’s close by!
It’s not a deathtrap but there really isn’t much reason to go in at night except for special events which are typically crowded anyway. It’s probably not as bad as the reputation (though I don’t think it has nearly as bad a rep among NY’ers. ) but why find out if it’s true?
I’m sure others will come along and cite other crimes/murders for your edification.
oh yeah, and the Preppy Murder story spooked alot of people. I think Robert Chamber’s is getting out soon too.
Well, bear in mind, crime exploded in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s, and remained high through the 1980s. It’s considerably lower today, not only in New York but in most big cities in the U.S.
Central Park was never a deathtrap, nor was it the locus of most of New York City’s crime, but it served as a convenient symbol for crime. That’s partly because old-time New Yorkers remembered it as a pleasant, crime-free spot (New Yorkers my Dad’s age or older remember taking the subway to Central Park, un accompanied, and even camping out there)… so, when muggings and assaults became increasingly common there, it was natural for New Yorkers to treat the newly dangerous Central Park as a symbol for the crime that seemed to be happening everywhere.
Still, it’s worth noting that, even when crime was at its worst in New York, the victims were overwhelmingly poor people, disproportionately black and Hispanic, and usually happened in specific poor neighborhoods. The media may have given people the impression that most crime involved black or Hispanic thugs jumping white victims in Central Park, but that wasn’t the case.
I grew up in New York City (born there in 1961, moved to Texas in 1986), so I can tell you first-hand: most middle-class white New Yorkers didn’t live in abject fear of crime. Oh sure, we were wary and took precautions, but I rode the subways to school or work every day for 11 years, and never felt endangered. I went to ballgames in (shudder!!!) the South Bronx at night by myself all the time, and never worried about being robbed. Fact is, poor black women and Puerto Rican kids who LIVED in the South Bronx year-round were the ones who had to live in fear. Not middle-class white guys who showed up for an occasional baseball game.
An occasional assault on a white jogger or white tourist in Central Park, however, got a lot more publicity and media attention than the many, “routine” rapes, muggings and robberies in Bed-Stuy or Harlem.
My memory of Central Park in the 70s is that it looked just awful. There was graffiti everywhere, broken benches/water fountains, etc. that never got fixed, and dying greenery. it certainly didn’t look like the center of of Manhattan, it looked like a giant version of the scary vacant lot you wouldn’t want to get caught in.
But this all did, somehow, tie in to the creation of one of my favorite (and hilariously unrealistic) movies:
“The Park Is MINE!!”(1986)
Which reminds me of “Escape From New York” (1981). Or “Death Wish.” Or “The Warriors.” Or, really, just about any movie made in/about NYC from the mid-70s through to the mid-80s.
I think that the Park’s bad reputation originated in the mid-60s, as crime really began to rise in the city. As a teenager during that era, I recall several heavily reported murders there during that time that really seemed to spook people. My impression is (and I could be wrong) that before this time the Park was regarded as relatively safe. The reputation was played up by movies like The Out-of-Towners (the original). Certainly later cases like Robert Chambers and the Jogger Assault served to reinforce the reputation going.
Nowadays it’s very safe indeed, and I (who lived through the Seventies, when it was still pretty bad) go there a lot. The homeless are starting up camping again but they’re not threatening for the most part. It’s always crowded and even at night, before ten or so, I feel fine walking through it, especially by the Boathouse which is serving expensive meals right in the middle of the Park until very late.
There are some parts I won’t go to after dark but statistically it’s one of the safest “neighborhoods” in the city. And even during the worst times everybody I knew went there during the day. There’s tons to do–the zoo, the carousel, the Sheep Meadow, Belvedere Castle…