NEW YORK CITY Events will mark park's 150th

City officials have planned concerts, art shows and a light show to celebrate.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Central Park was created 150 years ago and the city will spend the remainder of this year celebrating the anniversary with a light show, exhibits, concerts and even an auction of designer park benches.
"For millions of New Yorkers, Central Park is not just a park, it is our front yard, it is our picnic spot, our playground, our nature preserve, our band shell, our field of dreams," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said recently as plans for the sesquicentennial celebration were announced.
Bloomberg and first lady Laura Bush will serve as honorary co-chairs.
What's planned
The celebration, now through December, will run the gamut -- from art shows and stage shows to concerts and exhibits, said Regina Peruggi, president of the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that oversees the park.
"Central Park in Blue," featuring blueprint materials submitted for the park's design competition, opened at the Museum of the City of New York on Friday.
A light show in the park that say will be visible in all five boroughs is scheduled for Sept. 15, the same night as a fund-raising event in which 150 apartments, hotels and clubs with views of the park will host $1,000-a-ticket dinners.
A concert by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, a Central Park Film Festival and a daylong, parkwide celebration July 15 that will culminate with a free performance by singer Andrea Bocelli are among other featured events.
Starting in June, park benches decorated by artists and celebrities will be on view throughout the park, and will be auctioned in November.
Actress Candice Bergen, a Central Park Conservancy board member, recalled days when the park wasn't such a safe place.
"Many years ago, I would take my daughter in the playground with a feeling of dread, because I thought she might fall on the broken glass, or trip over the beer bottles," she said. "Now I give thanks for every second I spend in this park."
History lesson
It was in 1853, after two years of debate, that the New York State Legislature authorized the city to buy more than 700 acres, consisting mostly of swamps, bluffs and rocky outcroppings, extending from Fifth to Eighth avenues and from 59th to 106th streets.
In 1858, a design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux was chosen and the first tree was planted in October of that year, with the park opening to the public in December.
Bloomberg emphasized the importance of maintaining parks in all five boroughs, even in times of fiscal crisis, and said he was hopeful private support could be found for the city's other parks.
XFor more information, visit www.centralparknyc.org on the Web.