The Standoff Over Central Park

Central Park is an oasis in the middle of Manhattan, but it’s also an early-morning battleground. New York magazine surveys the battlefield and finds open hostility. Cyclists shake their fists in rage at headphone-impaired joggers, dogs and owners fear for life and limb at bike crossings, and everyone nurses a hatred of cars.

“Everybody knows they’re a little bit wrong here. This stuff can be fixed pretty easily if people put their heads together,” said the president of the Park Conservancy. But with the dog walkers and joggers thinking of the cyclists as “Lance Armstrong wannabes” and the cyclists thinking of the park as a “cage match,” don’t hold your breath for a meeting of the minds. (More Central Park stories.)