13 Parks

If you're going to cram millions of people onto a small island, you need to provide them a bit of greenery and space so they don't go mad. Ergo, city parks.

Central Park is the mother of all parks, but not the only good one. Consider:

• Bryant Park [in central Manhattan] This incredible park is the result of private funding, and illustrates how private enterprise brings public goods. It has ice skating in the winter and free movies and concerts in the summer. Plus, there's an H&M across the street.

• Prospect Park [near Park Slope] PP is Brooklyn's response to Central Park. The landscape is vast and feral, yet sometimes cultured like when it hosts outdoor opera.

• Cobble Hill Park [our neighborhood] Located a hop, skip, and jump from the burrow, CHP is a tiny walking park with a playground tucked within a nest of brownstones. On warm days, the park floods with strollers, wiggly children, and chattering parents, nannies, and students. Mr. Miller and I went there to eat breakfast and read last semester, which is when I determined this would be Evangeline's park. Starting in April, we took her there to feel the grass between her toes and people-watch. If she were a bit older, she would have enjoyed watching Sesame Street film there a couple weeks ago...