New York's Ever Changing Running Landscape

I've been running in Brooklyn and Manhattan for almost 16 years now.  I was surprised, when I arrived, to find that it was a great place to run.  When I started, I had two runs: over the Brooklyn Bridge to South Street Seaport and back, and over the Brooklyn Bridge, across to the West Side, around Battery Park and back.  Later, I added in the Prospect Park Loop, and a long run over the Williamsburg Bridge.  That was pretty much the routine for a long time.  After a few years work on the Manhattan Bridge was completed,  that got added in as a two bridge loop.  The Battery Park route was a casualty of 9-11 for a while, but these were the routes for a decade.  Then all sorts of things started to happen: (1) Hudson River Park made running up the West Side a pleasure; (2) Brooklyn Bridge Park continues to evolve and change; and (3) even Ikea made a contribution by landscaping a park behind the store with great views and industrial grit.

Today, something even more fundamental happened -- Prospect Park changed.  For the last few years the bottom of the Park has been a construction site.  Where the skating rink used to be, there were barriers promising a future wonderland to be known as Lakeside.  I've gotten a few glimpses, here and there, but this morning, a rerouting of the pedestrian path forced me to face the new world.  The lake in Prospect Park has always been a nice natural feature, but access was reserved to walkers on the nature paths.  Now there is a network of intersecting walkways, terraces, and fountains (not operating yet) that are really quite impressive and make use of the natural features as well.  Even the waterfowl seemed happy.