This is what Central Park looked like a few years ago

https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3fac202f6d78.mp4

There was no room to exercise. Just dangerous. The noise from cars alone was stressful.

Now, New Yorkers would NEVER allow this to be reversed.

But back then, many people actually opposed banning cars from Central Park 🤦

It took decades of activism to kick these cars out of the park.

301 points · 37 comments · view on lemmy.world

37 Comments

voracitude@lemmy.world · 75 pts · 233d (3 replies)
[ removed ]
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 55 pts · 233d (2 replies)

Some of us are already experiencing it first-hand by getting cancer at younger ages than expected... like myself.

troglodytis@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 233d

Fuck Cancer

Fight on!

diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 233d

Im sorry, hope you will beat cancer.

kurikai@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 233d (8 replies)

whats it like now?

mienshao@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 233d (4 replies)

Seriously… I don’t get making a post like this without even providing pictures of what it’s like now.

jerkface@lemmy.ca · 24 pts · 232d (3 replies)

what do you mean you haven't seen central park in the last several years surely that is a universal experience

schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 232d (2 replies)

People who live on other continents can read this thread too you know

jerkface@lemmy.ca · 27 pts · 232d

/s

Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 226d

on other whatnow? why are people incontinent?

hamid@crazypeople.online · 16 pts · 233d

The road is still there but with no cars allowed.

Beacon@fedia.io · 11 pts · 232d

Last time i was there (which was a couple years ago), the paved roads were still there, but there were no cars on them except for an occasional cop car or ambulance going at moderate speed. And iirc the painted car lanes have shrunk down to a single lane, while painted lanes for pedestrians widened and bike lanes were added

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · -3 pts · 233d

Beacon@fedia.io · 40 pts · 233d (3 replies)
DagwoodIII@piefed.social · 16 pts · 233d (2 replies)

De Blasio also greatly increased the number of ferries running from borough to borough.

Statfish@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 232d (1 reply)

Just visited NYC for the first time in decades, and was blown away with the ferries. Such a great way to see the city!

DagwoodIII@piefed.social · 10 pts · 232d

De Blasio wanted to make them the same price as the subways, Adams raised the price to $4.00. Currently $4.50, subway is $3.00

Thunderbird4@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 232d (1 reply)

A few years ago? That looks like 2005

PlaidBaron@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 232d

Yeah we just old. This was probably a good 20 years ago.

foodandart@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 233d

That's actually amazing. Love old videos of life in motion.

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 17 pts · 233d (10 replies)

What does it look like now?

hamid@crazypeople.online · 20 pts · 233d

They disallowed cars in the park loop and the whole road is still there but it is for biking and running now

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 232d
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · -2 pts · 233d (7 replies)

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 233d (6 replies)

So, where was the road in the vid? Bottom left?

cazssiew@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 231d

It's somewhere in the top right of the pic, around the western edge of the lake (hidden by trees, the body of water visible in the pic is the reservoir): https://maps.app.goo.gl/pEYWTiKPz7XgUJ9Q6?g_st=ac

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · -3 pts · 233d (4 replies)

I dunno, I didn't watch the video lol.

The park is huge by the way. It might not come across as well in an aerial photo, but it's pretty massive, especially for something in the middle of a city as large as NYC.

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 233d (3 replies)

If you zoom in on the bottom left, you see little dots. Like ants. Those are people lol insane

StraySojourner@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 231d (2 replies)

There's even a castle

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 233d (1 reply)

Here in Kansas City there's a movement afoot to remove some sections of street pavement in our downtown area and replace it with a park. I'm fairly confident it'll happen too.

Luckily there's a ton of park space throughout the city here.

whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 232d

I read your comment like removing the sidewalk to put parking spots in place

Doomsider@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 232d

Running alongside traffic is the equivalent lung damage as smoking a pack of cigarettes.

AA5B@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 231d

I wish op posted a current picture - I missed Central Park the last few times I visited nyc.

I don’t know if we really have similar opportunities here in the Boston areas, but we have a lot of places pedestrianizing downtowns. While we had some for many years, pandemic was a big trigger, but very few became permanent and too many were given back to cars.

I’m especially annoyed at my town. We have a classic “Main Street” with shops and restaurants, right near a train station, commons, museum, etc. they’ve been pushing it for decades as a walkable place …. Businesses got tons of extra traffic when it was pedestrianized. They kept it for summer weekends but just stopped doing that too.

Most residents wanted permanent, town council wanted it permanent …. But we have a strong mayor who didn’t

AccoSpoot@lemmynsfw.com · 10 pts · 232d

How else are Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson meant to stop Jeremy Irons emptying out the international gold reserve?

dan69@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 233d

I appreciate this video and audio. It’s good to have this for archival footage so we can learn from these mistakes.

Gork@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 233d

Now to get rid of the horse carriage industry that is working those poor horses to death.