He identified 49 zones in Central Park based on topography and use and appointed a dedicated gardener or manager to each. PhotoIn the early 1980s, visits to Central Park totaled about 12 million annually, and about 1,000 crimes were logged each year. His spouse, Mai, whom he met in the park when she worked as a landscape architect for the Parks Department, used to joke that Central Park was his second wife. He wears his trademark Central Park baseball cap wherever he goes. Robert Moses, the powerful longtime parks chief, revived Central Park from the 1930s to the ’60s, but it rapidly deteriorated again in the ’70s.

Source: New York Times June 06, 2017 15:01 UTC