Bushwick Inlet Park

Frederick Law Olmsted would probably have disapproved of Bushwick Inlet Park. In Bill Bryson’s book entitled At Home (A Short History of Private Life) published by Doubleday in 2010, Mr. Bryson reveals that the man who designed and built New York’s famous Central Park was firmly against any park activity that was “noisy, vigorous or fun”. Olmsted apparently preferred his open spaces to be used for “quiet walks and tranquil reflection”. Perhaps the landscaper who banned baseball in Boston’s Franklin Park for those above the age of sixteen years may have thought that placing a ball park adjacent to a riverside walk was unseemly.