There's a large triangle at Spring Street and Sixth Avenue that I always think of as Christmas Tree Park because years ago a Christmas tree vendor would set up shop there. Once called, variously, Soho Square and Hudson Square Plaza, in 2018 it reopened after a $5.5 million renovation under the name Spring Street Park.
As most New Yorkers know, Sixth Avenue in Manhattan has two names. In 1945 the city, under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, designated the busy thoroughfare "Avenue of the Americas," "to honor pan-American ideals and principles" and perhaps in recognition of the selection of New York City as the home of the United Nations.
The name never totally caught on; some buildings and businesses use it, others don't. But either way, Spring Street Park houses one of six statues of Latin American heroes erected along the Avenue.
Here, then, is a backlit General José Artigas (1764-1850), the Uruguayan independence hero.
The original cast of the statue, by José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891-1975), has stood in Montevideo for the past 75 years.
Facing north, toward the wide end of the triangle:
And facing south:
The unusual backless benches (with under-bench lighting) and squarish metal swivel chairs are interesting features.
Another are the "moonlighting" lamps, atop tall posts, intended to create a moonlight effect in the light and shadows on the ground.
Plain old London plane trees, among the thousands throughout the city, dominate the canopy, but not exclusively.
The renovation also included, according to DNAInfo, "anti-flooding infrastructure allowing the absorption of 1,140 percent more storm water."
My reason for walking through Spring Street Park is almost always because it's just around the corner from HERE Arts Center, where I've seen many shows (including some great puppet theater) over the years. But if puppets aren't your bag, maybe you're in the market for a Ducati racing motorcycle.
Where better to race noisy bikes, after all, than down Avenue of the Americas with its verdant parks and wide-open lanes?
I'm kidding, of course. But a walk along lower Sixth Avenue repays the urban adventurer seeking a bit of respite from the city's craziness.
Ferry Point Park in the Throgs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx is named for the ferries that used to traverse the waters between Queens and the Bronx. It's a nice bit of synchronicity, then, that the latest addition to the 21st-century NYC Ferry network is an extension of the Soundview line to a dock right here.
Today's ferry takes you north along the Harlem River, past populated Roosevelt Island, scenic Randalls Island with its athletic fields and urban farm, uninhabited North Brother Island and South Brother Island (pictured below), and Rikers Island with its sprawl of jails.
North Brother Island
South Brother Island
Then it motors eastward through the crooked East River, under the flight path of the planes landing at Laguardia Airport (also in sight), until the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge looms overhead and the final landing is reached.
And just like that: Welcome to the Bronx.
But where to go first? Randomly deciding, we turned right, toward the bridge.
This turned out to be the picturesque – and desolate – end of the park.
Worn stairways lead up to a fence behind which cricket players labored under the blaring sun (we got a better look at them later).
Continuing toward the bridge, the gravel path parallels a stretch of sandy, stony, debris-strewn beach.
The towers of Manhattan lie sprinkled in a line in the distance.
Away from the water a patch of forest rises.
As we approached the bridge, it looked like the end of the line.
But up ahead we encountered a lone man fishing, who told us we could skirt the fence and continue past the bridge.
Sure enough, a wider stretch of beach opened, with several more fisherfolk at work.
This, finally, was the last accessible stretch of coastline in this direction. So we reversed course back toward the dock, and then hiked up through some trees. There we found the cricket field.
The paved path heads north alongside Westchester Creek. Westchester Creek is a tidal inlet of the East River that runs northward, narrows, and then disappears near Herbert H. Lehman High School. In earlier times the creek extended further north; Westchester Square, the first permanent European settlement in the Bronx, is said to have been founded at the then-head of the creek. Westchester Square is still the name of a neighborhood there.
Ferry Point Park, though, abuts the waterway's mouth, where it's far wider than what one normally thinks of as a "creek." On a hot day, the water looks appealing. But best leave the swimming to the ducks.
On the open fields along this more heavily used part of the park, cricket gives way to soccer, the dominant language is Spanish, and the dominant moods are "party" and "family."
The non-sports action was in the field, by the parking lot, and by the water.
What looked like some sort of closed-up bandstand stood empty. But it's not a bandstand. It is, The City reported, NYC's "most expensive park bathroom ever," constructed over 12 years at a cost of $4.7 million – a cost that City Council Member Joe Borelli described in a most interesting formulation as "borderline astronomical."
Other dominant moods: "beach." And blowing bubbles.
Ferry Point Park is easily big enough to find solitude, though, should that be your desire.
Either way, the park can be enjoyed at minimal or zero cost, whether you drive, cycle, scoot, skate, or sail in as we did.
The same can't be said of the adjoining public golf course, completed about 10 years ago on a former landfill site and recently renamedBally's Golf Links as part of New York City's divestiture of connections to a certain real estate demagogue. The first part of the park, which opened as such in 1941, got an upgrade when the golf course opened.
However unfortunate the course's former association with Donald Trump, it was "inspired by the rolling hills of Scotland and designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus," according to the Parks Department website.
But wait a minute, you say. Isn't Bally's a gambling company?
Bingo! Bally's hopes, as reported by the Bronx Times, "to build an integrated resort that combines the existing golf course with a first-class hotel and spa, banquet and events center, and a new gaming facility" that would occupy a part of the current golfing grounds outside the course itself. Stay tuned.
The website also states that including the golf course, Ferry Point Park is about half the size of Central Park. Not too shabby.
The site of an old marine and shortline rail terminal on the East River, at the edge of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, became a state park in 2007. Thirteen years later the state renamed East River State Park in honor of transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson.
But there's been a lot of change here besides the name. An extremely outdated description at nyctourism.com says this: "East River State Park, otherwise known as the Williamsburg Waterfront, is not fancy: stage, concrete, water...Families can relax amongst historic rail yard remnants, and in the summer, take in family-friendly music and film series."
That doesn't remotely describe today's Marsha P. Johnson State Park, which abuts the unremarkable sports fields of Bushwick Inlet Park. It has some of the fancy trappings that go with our age of reckless real estate development and gentrification, but also exudes a neighborhood-y feel.
The big benefit of a park in this location is, of course, the waterfront.
In the upper left of the photo above there's a seaplane, on the way to Boston perhaps.
Waterfront aside, there's space here for both family fun and sleepy romance.
Remnants of the site's industrial past flowed together with spring flowers and chalked whimsy on a mid-May visit.
A little wooden train perhaps is meant to suggest the short trains that ran here from the waterfront to the lot or street where cargo could be taken up by vehicles for delivery or processing.
Jumbles of stones make good play spaces.
There's fun – and relaxation opportunities – aplenty in this quiet park.
The park's renaming occurred under the Andrew Cuomo administration in 2020. Signage here will tell you that Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) was a "Black gay and trans liberation activist, drag queen performer, actress, and sex worker [who]...struggled with mental illness" and lived with HIV/AIDS.
She "was known in the West Village for her charisma, joyfulness, and generosity, while living against great odds...Many called her a saint: Saint Marsha."
After the Stonewall uprising, where she was present, she "moved to the forefront of the Gay Liberation Movement." The "P" in her name, we are told, stood for a motto of hers, "Pay it no mind," which is written over her park's main entrance on Kent Ave.
Her body was found in the Hudson River in July of 1992. Uncertainty lingers over whether her death was a suicide or murder.
In recent years New York City has acted to belatedly honor African Americans by naming parks for them. New York State has taken steps in that direction too, and in this case with an African American who was also part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Along the same lines, In March 2024 present governor Kathy Hochul issued a proclamation declaring a Transgender Day of Visibility.
Netflix released a documentary about Johnson in 2017.
Hank O'Neal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Marsha P. Johnson State Park carries only remnants of the site's industrial/commercial past, but history lives on all around Brooklyn. Consider these old stable doors on a nearby street.
And history is made by all kinds of people. Case in point: Marsha P. Johnson State Park.
)
