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Comment by OkGoDoIt | Hacker News Reader

Similarly, I will never understand Central Park in New York City. I was there a couple years ago and the vast majority of the grass is not meant to be walked on. Most of the paths have a little mini fences surrounding them and there’s tons of signage saying not to walk on the grass. There’s exceptions here and there throughout park park, but generally it’s a park where you’re not allowed on the green spaces, which is just absurd to me. I’ll take the openness of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco over the travesty that is NYC Central Park any day. But of course Salesforce “Park” in San Francisco is similar, you’re not allowed off the paths other than certain small approved lawn areas, and the security has yelled at me about it multiple times. So much for a public park.

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> Similarly, I will never understand Central Park in New York City. I was there a couple years ago and the vast majority of the grass is not meant to be walked on.

That is simply not true.

Perhaps it was a temporary thing? I was there in July of 2021 and there were these little half-height fences surrounding many of the paths and signs saying to stay off the grass. Could have been a temporary restoration thing, or some sort of covid weirdness, no idea. Or maybe my memory is wrong.

GGP is 30% more area for a fraction of the population. Open grass in Manhattan would get absolutely destroyed in days.

It's not purely population though. My neighbourhood has a desire path, where the grass has been killed off my people walking through it. The traffic is a few people an hour, mostly kids.

However, one of the main parks has similar areas where you get 10s to 100s of people an hour, or people covering it up for extended periods of time for picnics, etc. If population was all that mattered, the park would be barren and the path would be lush, rather than the other way around

In the botanic gardens in Sydney they actually put up signs "yes you are allowed to get on the grass" because I assume many tourists assumed you are not allowed to (in probably tried to tell other people off).

it makes sense though. too many people walk on the grass and suddenly there is no more grass, just dirt, especially if the ground is soft

but how do other places handle this? I see plenty of parks where grass is accessible and not entirely gone (granted, a lot of those places don't have the most lush grass, but they have grass!). Is it just constant replanting?

In my experience, grass is only threatened if you have a lot of people in a very short time. Think concert or festival. Granted, NY/Manhattan has many more people than SF, but I don’t know if Central Park is that popular to reach those conditions? Golden Gate Park seems to cope fine indeed.

We have The Domain in Sydney which hosts events and concerts too, so large crowds also are fine to some degree. I assume water and sun and fertiliser go a long way. But I've seen in other areas (and probably The Domain but I rarely go) they will put up temporary construction fences for regeneration when it needs a break and starts to show dirt.

NYC resident here, this is simply not true. Yeah of course there are gardens and bushes that are fenced off but most of the grass and dirt you can walk and lie on if you wish.

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