East River Park

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Rarely does Robert Moses’s name evoke the praise of environmentalists, but it was he who envisioned this 57-acre park along the East River. Granted, Moses’s considerably less peaceful FDR Drive forms the park’s western border, but nevertheless, it has been the Lower East Side’s largest public space since it opened in 1939. Accessible via overpasses across the highway, the park serves as an escape not just for runners and bikers, but as a place for more organized athletic pursuits on the tennis and basketball courts or the baseball and soccer fields. Running from approximately 13th Street down to Grand Street, the park also has a dog run and a children’s sprinkler, and the picnic area is one of very few spots downtown where one can legally barbecue. The 2,500-seat amphitheater at the southern tip of the park was restored in 2001 and hosts indie rock acts during the summer. For those just looking to relax, benches along the waterfront running path offer picturesque views of the ever-changing Brooklyn skyline, not to mention the Williamsburg Bridge, which bisects the park. — Mike Vilensky