Vale of Cashmere/Rose Garden

It is really sad that even today, so many years into the 'renaissance' of Prospect Park, that such beautiful segments of the park as the Vale of Cashmere and the Rose Garden are deemed unsafe, and avoided by the majority of park-goers even during the broadest of daylight hours.

I fully understand why the area is avoided by most parkgoers: just look at the needles and used condoms littering the underbrush along the various tracks. It is close to GAP, very accessible, and yet totally secluded, with many twists and turns and elevation changes, and absolutely hemmed in by trees and bushes. If I were to engage in some similarly nefarious activity, I would be hard pressed to find a better, more convenient location.

But like so many other aspects of city life, the old quote pertains: all evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing. I don't mean to resort to moralizing or absolutes, but there should never be a single square foot of our parks - let alone entire sections! - where law abiding citizens should fear to tread. So long as we avoid these areas unnecessarily, they will continue to be havens for illicit activity, and the cycle will perpetuate.

So please - do yourself a favor - get 3 or 4 people together this weekend, and take a stroll into Prospect Park. Go in by the GAP entrance closest to Flatbush, and take the dirt path on your left just before the arch into the long meadow. Go up, and explore the area between the East Drive and the Flatbush Avenue edge of the park. The Rose Garden (unfortunately bereft of roses, but replete with overgrown hedges) is a lovely example of the formality of garden design; go down the hill to the Vale of Cashmere to see an equally stunning example of quasi-naturalism, a kind of contrived organicism (I was last there the weekend of the BBG's cherry blossom festival, and the white-purple blooms on the trees arching over and into the pond were breathtaking). You will note how close to the East Drive you remain at all times. During the day it is perfectly safe - in a group surely - so go, enjoy!