Gay New York ~ Zoos, Gardens & Parks

Bronx Zoo Wildlife Conservation Park 
Fordham Rd. and Bronx River Pkwy., the Bronx
Bronx Zoo is the largest metropolitan animal park in the United States, with more than 4,000 animals living on 265 acres, and one of the city's best attractions.

Central Park Zoo/Tisch Children's Zoo 
830 Fifth Ave
Here is a pleasant refuge within a refuge where lithe sea lions frolic in the central pool area with beguiling style, gigantic but graceful polar bears glide back and forth across a watery pool that has glass walls through which you can observe very large paws doing very smooth strokes, monkeys seem to regard those on the other side of the fence with knowing disdain, and in the hot and humid Tropic Zone, large colorful birds swoop around in freedom, sometimes landing next to nonplused visitors.

Union Square Park 
From 14th to 17th sts., btwn Park Ave. South and Broadway
Here's a delightful place to spend an afternoon. Reclaimed from drug dealers and abject ruin in the late '80s, Union Square Park is now one of the city's best assets and home of the New York's most famous Greenmarket.

Washington Square Park 
At the southern end of Fifth Ave. (where it intersects Waverly Place btwn MacDougal and Wooster Sts.)
You'll be hard-pressed to find much "park" in this mainly concrete square -- a burial ground in the late 18th century -- but it's undeniably the focal point of Greenwich Village. Chess players, skateboarders, street musicians, New York University students, gay and straight couples, the occasional film crew.