Zuccotti Park

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Surrounded on three sides by towering office buildings, Zuccotti Park is a public space in the Financial District featuring rose-colored pavement, granite benches, and only the occasional tree. Originally named Liberty Park upon its construction in 1968, it was completely destroyed on 9/11 and renamed Zuccotti Park after the CEO of Brookfield Properties, a company that used private money to rebuild the park and now owns it. Zuccotti Park holds a paradoxical status as a privately owned public park, and it was this that made it the perfect home base for Occupy Wall Street in 2011; it’s open to anyone, but doesn’t close at nightfall like most New York public parks. All that remains today of the Occupy Movement at Zuccotti, however, is a plaque at the entrance forbidding �camping and/or the erection of tents or other structures.� The park, which these days draws not large crowds but rather the occasional financier on a lunch break, has one undeniable gem: a harried-looking bronze businessman fumbling around for something in his suitcase, created by John Seward Johnson II and sitting on a ring of benches that surround the park’s biggest tree. — Erica Martin