"What I'm trying to accomplish," [Johansen] said, "is to basically make a point of the hypocrisy of - and don't take offense - those East Coast folks who write a lot of checks to shut down Alaska, while in their own backyard, Manhattan has been turned from a pristine wild island supporting an amazing Muir web of life to having only Central Park left as a green belt. And even Central Park has been radically changed."
The resolution notes that before Henry Hudson arrived in 1609, Manhattan was "a remarkably diverse and natural landscape of hills, valleys, forests, fields," marshes, beaches, ponds and streams that supported populations of gray wolf, elk, black bear and mountain lion.
Times writer Andy Newman concedes that Central Park "has indeed been repeatedly disfigured over the years by zoos and faux Gothic castles and whatnot. It's kind of the same thing. Sort of. Isn't it?"
The Times apparently didn't ask Johansen if he envisions the eventual arrival of hot dog vendors in ANWR.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.