Midtown’s Power Oasis

I don’t not remember Bryant Park during its Bad Old Days of the 1970s and 1980s, when, according to what I’ve read, it was a “wretched hive of scum and villainy,” second only to the historic Five Points in its concentration of assorted miscreants: drug dealers, hookers, muggers, killers and bums. During the Depression, an iron gate and a high hedge was added to the park exterior, insulating the interior from the surrounding Midtown neighborhood. Bryant Park began its turnaround in 1980 when the...