Celebrating Central Park co-designer Frederick Law Olmsted's 200th birthday and his contribution to NY

[basquebromance]

200 years ago, Central Park co-designer Frederick Law Olmsted was born! Olmsted—alongside Calvert Vaux—designed Central Park in the 1850s to be a democratic greenspace in a growing metropolis

 

[rightwinger]

A great urban designer
His parks are centerpieces in cities around the country

He also did the spectacular landscaping around the Chicago Worlds Fair

 

[Polishprince]

I wonder how many people have been robbed, assaulted or even killed in Mr. Olmsted's hell hole?

When I was in college, I knew a fellow who lived in New York when I was in school in the 70's. Central Park was one of the biggest death traps in the whole big apple.

 

[rightwinger]

I wonder how many people have been robbed, assaulted or even killed in Mr. Olmsted's hell hole?

When I was in college, I knew a fellow who lived in New York when I was in school in the 70's. Central Park was one of the biggest death traps in the whole big apple.

You are an idiot

Central Park has been a safe venue in NYC for decades

 

[Polishprince]

You are an idiot

Central Park has been a safe venue in NYC for decades

Tell that to Trisha Melli, or to John Lennon.

You are taking your life into your own hands in that death trap.

 

[rightwinger]

Tell that to Trisha Melli, or to John Lennon.

You are taking your life into your own hands in that death trap.

John Lennon was shot in front of his Apartment
Melli was over 30 years ago

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I taught in an all boys middle school named after him. Worst school in the state. ll the students were either poor of immigrants from other countries and our failure rate was astronomical!

 

[Polishprince]

John Lennon was shot in front of his Apartment
Melli was over 30 years ago

Lennon's apartment was adjacent to Central Park.

The thing about CP that a lot of people fail to consider is that they put it in a dangerous location. It borders the Killing Fields of Harlem, one of the most vicious neighborhoods in our hemisphere. Even more dangerous than Chicago.

If Olmsted would have put the park in Suffolk County, or perhaps in the adjacent community of Greenwich Conn., it would be a lot safer.

 

[progressive hunter]

200 years ago, Central Park co-designer Frederick Law Olmsted was born! Olmsted—alongside Calvert Vaux—designed Central Park in the 1850s to be a democratic greenspace in a growing metropolis

I wonder how many slaves he owned??

had to be in the hundreds,,

 

[rightwinger]

Lennon's apartment was adjacent to Central Park.

The thing about CP that a lot of people fail to consider is that they put it in a dangerous location. It borders the Killing Fields of Harlem, one of the most vicious neighborhoods in our hemisphere. Even more dangerous than Chicago.

If Olmsted would have put the park in Suffolk County, or perhaps in the adjacent community of Greenwich Conn., it would be a lot safer.

You are making shit up based on age old prejudices

Central Park is one of the safest places in NYC, so is Time Square.

Even Harlem is not the threat it once was

 

[Pellinore]

He co-designed the National Zoo in Washington DC too, and worked on the US Capitol grounds.

 

[Polishprince]

You are making shit up based on age old prejudices

Central Park is one of the safest places in NYC, so is Time Square.

Even Harlem is not the threat it once was

One of the "safest places in NYC" is like one of the "coolest places in Hell"

Sort of faint praise there.

 

[rightwinger]

Back to Central Park and Olmsteds accomplishment

Walking through the Park you forget you are in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. Makes you think how wise it was to build a city around all these lovely trees, rocks, streams and ponds

But that is not what Olmsted did. He was given a blank slate. Central Park was all shacks, sheep and pig farms. It was anything but a lovely forest in the middle of the city.
Olmsted did it all, leveled the site, planted thousands of trees, created streams and ponds and bridges and pathways throughout

 

[progressive hunter]

Back to Central Park and Olmsteds accomplishment

Walking through the Park you forget you are in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. Makes you think how wise it was to build a city around all these lovely trees, rocks, streams and ponds

But that is not what Olmsted did. He was given a blank slate. Central Park was all shacks, sheep and pig farms. It was anything but a lovely forest in the middle of the city.
Olmsted did it all, leveled the site, planted thousands of trees, created streams and ponds and bridges and pathways throughout

he owned slaves didnt he,, thats an accomplishment,,

 

[rightwinger]

he owned slaves didnt he,, thats an accomplishment,,

He was born in Connecticut
Actually Olmsted traveled the South and concluded the slave economy was a disaster and that except for the very rich, the South was better off without it

 

[progressive hunter]

He was born in Connecticut
Actually Olmsted traveled the South and concluded the slave economy was a disaster and that except for the very rich, the South was better off without it

in the name of BLM all his statues and achievements should be torn down,,

 

[rightwinger]

in the name of BLM all his statues and achievements should be torn down,,

?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Lennon's apartment was adjacent to Central Park.

The thing about CP that a lot of people fail to consider is that they put it in a dangerous location. It borders the Killing Fields of Harlem, one of the most vicious neighborhoods in our hemisphere. Even more dangerous than Chicago.

If Olmsted would have put the park in Suffolk County, or perhaps in the adjacent community of Greenwich Conn., it would be a lot safer.

Why are you such a moron? The park was created in 1858, before the Civil War. It is in Manhattan. Killing Fields? Are you that racist?

 

[whitehall]

It was a brilliant plan authorized by progressive political thinkers at the time. Immigrant Irish laborers were pretty cheap and handy and the project was a go.

 

[DudleySmith]

he owned slaves didnt he,, thats an accomplishment,,

More of your great education at work here, I see. Omstead wrote a book of his tour of the South through to Texas, and has a nice section on how the South treated poor whites, especially those working on the levees around New Orleans. They died in large numbers and were buried where they fell; some 10,000 bodies of Irish and German workers are buried in those levees, not a single black one. Slaves were privileged, and worth too much to be used for such labor, same as the more dangerous jobs on the cotton boats, also left to poor whites to be crippled or killed. Omstead was a noted abolitionist, in fact. He was also one of the founders of The Nation.

Frederick Law Olmsted's Radical Stance Against Slavery

In his prolific writings, Frederick Law Olmsted opposed slavery in the South and advocated for the abolition movement.

olmsted200.org